Working toward a sustainably-financed WHO

Working toward a sustainably-financed WHO

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This page was last updated on 29 February 2024.

In May 2022, the World Health Assembly adopted a set of recommendations put forward by the Member State Working Group on Sustainable Financing.

WHO requires sustainable, predictable, and flexible financing to effectively carry out our work, address global health threats and meet the expectations of our Member States for better health for all at all ages.

Longer-term, predictable funding enables WHO to plan better, better focus on global health priorities, respond to constantly shifting health threats and maintain independence from special interests. It also enables WHO to retain talent, maintain a stable workforce and allocate funds more efficiently.

Flexible funds allow greater agility in allocating funds where they are most needed, within the framework of what has been agreed by Member States in WHO’s General Programme of Work.

During the past decades, WHO’s work has been hindered by a lack of long-term, predictable and flexible funding. Indeed, in 2022-2023, only 13% of WHO’s financing was from fully predictable sources of funds i.e. Member States’ assessed contributions or “membership fees”.  

 

 

Sustainable, predictable, and flexible financing

At its meeting in January 2021, WHO’s Executive Board established the Sustainable Financing Working Group to begin work on a path towards resolving the widening gap between the world’s expectations of WHO and the financial resources available to us to meet them. The Working Group included representatives from all Member States. It met 7 times in 2021 and 2022 and presented a set of recommendations to the World Health Assembly in May 2022 with a view to fully fund WHO’s base budget with flexible funds.

Among recommendations made by the Working Group were that fully flexible funds should cover WHO’s core work (what we call WHO’s base budget), starting by committing to a gradual increase in Member States’ membership fees; and that WHO explore the feasibility of creating a replenishment-type mechanism to broaden its funding base. The recommendations also included that the Secretariat launch initiatives to strengthen governance, transparency, accountability and compliance.

Member States agreed during WHA75, in May 2022, to the gradual increase of membership fees to ensure it covers 50% of the core budget by 2030-31, with an initial increase of 20% towards the 2024-2025 one. Following intensive consultations during 2023, a proposal for an “Investment Round”, a new mechanism to mobilize the remaining 50% of the base budget, was presented to and approved by the Executive Board in January 2024.

The Investment Round, a near year-long effort during 2024, will provide a unique opportunity for Member States and other contributors to participate in a series of events and to make financial pledges to the base budget of WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work for 2025-28 (GPW 14).