The World Health Organization (WHO) is proposing to reduce the number of employees and the scale of its work as it reduces its budget by just over 20% due to the impact of US financing cuts, showed an internal memorandum seen by Reuters.
US President Donald Trump removed the US government from WHO as he took office in January, saying that the global health agency could not deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and other international sanitary crises. The US is by far the biggest funder of the UN Health Agency, contributing about 18% of its overall funding.
“The US announcement, combined with recent reductions in official development assistance by some countries to fund the increase in defense spending, has made our situation much more acute,” the WHO Memo, dated March 28 and signed by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US departure exacerbated a crisis of financing fueled by reducing member states of its development spending. Faced with a gap of nearly $ 600 million this year, WHO proposed cut off its budget to 2026 and 2027 by 21%, from US $ 5.3 billion to $ 4.2 billion, according to the memorandum.
In February, the WHO executive board had initially reduced the proposed budget to 2026 and 2027 from US $ 5.3 billion to $ 4.9 billion, according to the document.
“Despite our best efforts, we are now at a point where we have no choice but to reduce the scale and workforce,” said the memorandum.
WHO will cut senior leadership positions at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, but all levels and regions will be affected, the memorandum added. The organization will decide how to prioritize your work and resources by the end of April.
This content was originally published in WHO proposes to cut jobs and reduce budget by 21%, shows memorandum on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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