He said on Thursday that he faces drastic cuts to his humanitarian emergency budget this year, with the outlook “bleak” for 2026.
Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the , traditionally the world’s top donor, has greatly reduced its international aid, and other major donors have presented “tight” budgets.
Theresa Zakaria, WHO’s head of humanitarian and disaster response, said the UN health agency received 40 percent less funding for humanitarian emergencies around the world this year than in 2024. “It’s a huge cut,” she told reporters during a news conference.
The WHO has identified more than 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and “had to make a very difficult choice to determine who to prioritize and who not to,” he added.
In these difficult circumstances, the WHO says it is focusing on the most needy, in the most difficult places.
As a direct result of these cuts, more than 5,600 health centers were forced to reduce their services worldwide and more than 2,000 were forced to suspend their activity.
“This directly limited access to health services for 53 million people” around the world, according to Zakaria. And “the outlook for 2026 is bleak indeed.”
In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Haiti, “we are already seeing an increase in the maternal mortality rate and the malnutrition rate, and the situation does not stop worsening,” explained the WHO official.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was very concerned about the consequences for the poorest countries.
However, “many countries are realizing the situation and declaring that a change of mentality is needed”, mobilizing their national resources to finance their own health systems, “including emergency health needs”, however the head of the WHO noted as a positive consequence.
