The World Health Organisation chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has admitted they could be forced to lay off staff and scale down operations due to US funding cuts.
Ghebreyesus made this known while addressing member states, according to a transcript of his opening remarks on Tuesday.
“The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,”; he said.
The United Nations health agency has been bracing for the planned full withdrawal of the United States, traditionally its largest donor, come January 2026.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has meanwhile also refused to pay agreed membership fees—known as assessed contributions—for 2024 and 2025.
It has already frozen virtually all US foreign aid, including substantial assistance to global health projects.
“The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million,”; Ghebreyesus added.
The lower end of that spectrum “represents about 25 per cent of staff costs”; at present, he said, although he stressed that “that doesn’t necessarily mean a 25 per cent cut to the number of positions.”;
He continued: “We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34.”
