Send Money: W.H.O. Appeals for ‘Quick’ $1.5+ Billion in Additional Funding

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Monday issued an appeal from its Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters for upwards of $1.5 billion in additional funding to respond to health crises it sees evolving around the world.

“We aim to reach some 87 million people with life-saving humanitarian assistance this year,” said W.H.O. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Reuters reports.

“To do this, we need support totalling $1.5 billion, and we need this funding to arrive as early as possible and with as much flexibility as possible… A reactive approach is not enough.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization WHO, attends a press briefing at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 15, 2023. (Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Tedros went on to say the money is needed “quickly” by the United Nations agency and will be used “to protect the health of the most vulnerable populations in 41 emergencies around the globe in 2024.”

He further promised “every US$ 1 invested in W.H.O. delivers a return on investment of at least US$ 35” although he did not give evidence to support his claim of the investment return.

The U.S. has been the W.H.O.’s top individual donor in recent years, with Washington contributing more than $400 million to the organization in 2020.

The sprawling World Health Organization headquarters dominate near the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. (Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The U.S. taxpayer funds came at the start of the pandemic and the resulting handling of the crisis by the organization quickly led to calls for Tedros to resign.

The public health body’s budget was set at $6.83 billion in 2023, designed to hold over the next two years, including a 20 percent hike in mandatory membership fees.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to defund the W.H.O. in April 2020 due to the organization’s “severely mismanaging and covering up” of the severity of the Chinese coronavirus in late 2019 and early 2020.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden restored funding to the W.H.O. in January 2021.

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