WHO secures 60% of base budget for the next two years

In a show of support, member states committed more funding to the World Health Organization on Tuesday, bringing the agency a bit closer to bridging its funding gap. At a high-level pledging event during the 78th World Health Assembly, member states committed an additional $170 million to WHO’s investment round to support its base budget from 2025 to 2028. Earlier that day, countries also approved a 20% increase in assessed contributions — mandatory dues paid by member states — adding roughly $180 million to the agency’s budget for the next two years. With these commitments, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency has now secured more than $2.6 billion, or 60% of its base budget for operating costs for the 2026-2027 biennium. “We are in a better position now than we were at this point for either of the two previous biennia,” he said. “At this stage, two years ago, we had only secured 50% of funding for 2024-25 and two years before that, we had only secured 43%.” WHO receives funding through mandatory contributions — called assessed contributions from member states — and through voluntary contributions from countries and other donors. While mandatory contributions are fully flexible, the majority of voluntary contributions are highly earmarked for specific projects. Given that more than 70% of WHO’s budget is financed by voluntary contributions, this creates a problem for the agency. WHO launched the investment round last year in hopes of raising more flexible resources for its future work. Tedros said overreliance on the voluntary contributions from a handful of traditional donors has been a vulnerability for the agency. WHO was left with a $600 million shortfall for 2025 and a projected $1.8 billion gap for 2026-2027 following the U.S. government’s decision to withdraw from the organization. In response, it slashed its original 2026-2027 proposed base budget of $5.3 billion by 21%, down to $4.2 billion, and began downsizing staff. Countries also approved a total of $6.2 billion for WHO’s budget for 2026-2027 on Tuesday. This amount includes the base budget, but also includes additional project costs. The investment round has helped diversify the agency’s funding sources by drawing contributions not only from traditional donors but also from lower-income countries and corporate philanthropy, Tedros said. At the pledging event, Sweden announced an additional €12 million ($13.6 million) in fully flexible funding for 2025; China pledged $500 million over five years; and Tanzania doubled its initial pledge to $1 million. “From a developing country perspective, this is a significant sum,” Abdallah Saleh Possi, Tanzania’s permanent representative to the United Nations office at Geneva, said. Björn Kümmel, deputy head of unit for global health at the German Federal Ministry of Health, said the increase in member states mandatory contributions “is the best vaccination against the highest financial risk that WHO faces,” referring to WHO’s dependency on a few donors for much of its budget, and “the discrepancy between the expectations we all put on the organization and the organization's ability to fulfill them.” Tedros also called the increase in assessed contributions a show of commitment and confidence by member states. “Going forward, I think that's the kind of funding that will help WHO to be empowered because it's flexible, it's predictable, it's long term, and it's the contribution of each and every member state,” he said. While member states broadly supported the increase in assessed contributions, several delegates at a committee meeting to adopt the budget raised concerns about how WHO allocates funding across its regional offices. Delegates from the Americas, in particular, called for a more equitable distribution, pointing out that their region consistently receives the lowest share of WHO’s budget. Others urged the agency to improve transparency by keeping countries regularly informed of how the budget is implemented and how internal reforms are progressing. Member states also called on WHO to continue finding efficiencies, avoid unnecessary duplication by coordinating better with partners, and refrain from taking on new mandates unless they come with corresponding funding. Some are also concerned about the agency’s remaining funding gap and have asked for contingency plans to be put in place in case further fundraising fails to make up the shortfall. Jenny Lei Ravelo contributed reporting to this story.