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The World Health Organization is planning significant reductions to its workforce and budget, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing an internal memo. The proposal comes as the WHO grapples with the fallout from US funding cuts, which have left a substantial hole in its financial resources.
The memo, dated March 28 and signed by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, outlines a 21% budget cut for the 2026-2027 period, the report said.
According to the report, this reduction would shrink the organisation’s budget from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion, as the WHO faces a nearly $600 million funding shortfall this year. The move follows the US decision to withdraw from the WHO in 2017 under President Donald Trump, who criticised the agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. The US had been the WHO’s largest financial contributor, providing around 18% of its overall funding, the report further said.
“The United States’ announcement, combined with recent reductions in official development assistance by some countries to fund increased defence spending, has made our situation much more acute,” the memo stated, according to Reuters.
The WHO has been working to address its financial challenges by adjusting its spending and priorities. In February, the organisation had already scaled back its proposed budget for the 2026-2027 period from $5.3 billion to $4.9 billion, but the funding gap has grown more severe, prompting the need for deeper cuts.
“Despite our best efforts, we are now at the point where we have no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” the memo read. The cuts will impact all levels of the organisation, with job reductions expected at the senior leadership level at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, although staff in other regions and levels will also be affected. According to the report, the organisation plans to finalise its decisions on how to prioritise its work and resources by the end of April.
WHO documents indicate that over a quarter of its nearly 9,500 staff are based in Geneva, reports suggest.
In a previous memo from March 10, the WHO indicated that it had started to prioritise its work and announced a one-year limit on staff contracts in an effort to manage the crisis.
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