Facing one of the most serious crises in its 77-year history, the World Health Organization opened its annual meeting of government ministers and other top envoys in Geneva on Monday.
Following Trump administration funding cuts and plans to withdraw the United States from the body, the United Nations health agency has seen a plunge in its ability to carry out its sweeping mandate to promote health and keep the world safe from pandemics like COVID-19 and other outbreaks such as polio and ebola.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been grappling with a response to the US cuts as well as reduced outlays from other traditional Western donors who are putting more money toward defence and less toward humanitarian aid.
“Our current situation is difficult. It should not be a surprise to any of us,” he said during the opening of the meeting.
On the agenda for the nine-day World Health Assembly are two major advances intended to buttress WHO’s financial strength and bolster the world’s ability to cope with pandemics in the future.
Member countries are expected to agree to raise annual dues, known as “assessed contributions,” by 20% to support WHO finances and reduce dependency on governments’ voluntary contributions — which change each year and make up over half of the budget.
They are also expected to agree to a hard-wrought “ pandemic treaty ” aimed at avoiding any replay of the patchy, unequal response to COVID-19, should another pandemic hit.
Among other things, the treaty would guarantee that countries that share critical samples of viruses will receive any resulting tests, medicines and vaccines and give WHO up to 20% of such products to make sure poorer countries can have access to them.
