The major drop in funding compared to the previous two-year period stemmed from the cuts decided by former US President Donald Trump that Declare The scale of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the UN body for the first time.
US funds are set to go back into the WHO’s next two-year budget after new pledges, including $280 million, by President Joe Biden’s administration in December. However, the Biden administration has also raised doubts about Washington’s future support for the global organization.
United Nations agency did with less than $200 million United States of america In 2020 and 2021, according to provisional WHO data contained in a budget document reviewed by Reuters, which has not yet been made public, although it managed to raise more money from other donors, increasing its overall budget.
Washington paid $672 million to WHO for its latest two-year budget, down from $893 million in 2018-19, provisional data showed.
As a result, the United States is no longer a top donor to the WHO, with Germany gradually replacing it through transfers of more than a billion dollars over the past two years. Chart https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Wltvp/6
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A WHO spokesperson did not immediately provide official comment.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the third largest donor to the WHO, with $584 million in 2020-21 largely spent on the global program to eradicate polio. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Over the past two years, US funds mostly went down in 2020 – Trump’s last full year in the White House – amid a sharp drop in so-called voluntary contributions.
Funding doubled in 2021 when Biden took office, but the increase was not enough to fully restore US funding levels compared to the previous period.
Trump cut funding and went on to withdraw the United States from the WHO, accusing it of being too close to China and mismanaging the first phase of the pandemic – something the WHO has denied.
The Biden administration has brought Washington back to the WHO and vowed to restore funding, but has also cast doubt on the WHO’s ability to deal with new challenges, including those from China.
inflexible funding
A part of the US financial contribution was delayed by the WHO to the next year. But even with that in mind, the decline in US funds was still around 20%, WHO data shows.
About one-third of U.S. funds had mandatory membership fees, which remained stagnant over previous years at about $230 million per biennial.
It is considered the best funding by WHO as it allows high flexibility in spending and allows the agency to channel the money where it is needed most.
But most of the money went to areas chosen by the US government.
This is part of a broader trend, with the WHO receiving less than 20% of its total funding from these mandated contributions in recent years, without any strings attached.
The WHO document showed that one of the least funded areas as of December 21 was the country’s preparedness for health emergencies, such as the current pandemic, which is only 73% funded.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated on Tuesday that the current funding structure was restrictive.
“The problem is still that what we’ve done is mainly (ongoing) a set budget, so it’s not really flexible enough,” he told the WHO’s executive board during a public debate, adding that the current financing model was unstable.
The United States is opposing plans to assess mandatory fees, or contributions, of up to 50% of the WHO’s budget in the coming years.
“The US wants to better understand existing funding mechanisms, capacity and decision-making before considering an increase in assessed contributions,” US health official Mara Burr told the WHO board on Tuesday. Washington supported efforts to close gaps in funding for preparedness.
By far the largest portion of WHO funding comes from voluntary contributions from states or private donors that decide the areas or even the projects where they should be used.
It is a factor that has prompted the Geneva-based agency to delay the use of some funds as they may not all be immediately devoted to fighting the pandemic.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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