The World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed its call for the United States to reverse its decision to withdraw from the U.N. health agency, warning of potential global health consequences and budget concerns.
In his opening remarks at an executive board meeting on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees the health agency regrets the U.S. decision and hopes Washington will reconsider.
“We would welcome constructive dialogue to preserve and strengthen the historic relationship between WHO and the USA that helped bring significant impacts like the eradication of smallpox,” Tedros said, according to a WHO transcript of his speech.
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO.
According to financing data from the WHO, the U.S. contributed an estimated $988 million between January and November of 2024, marking approximately 14% of the WHO’s $6.9 billion budget.
A document presented at a WHO budget meeting last week and obtained by The Associated Press said that U.S. funding “provides the backbone of many of WHO’s large-scale emergency operations.”
This funding has been aimed toward combatting disease globally. For example, U.S. funding covers 95% of the WHO’s tuberculosis in Europe, along with 60% of the agency’s TB efforts in Africa, the Western Pacific, and headquarters in Geneva.
In addition, as a result of U.S. withdrawal, the WHO’s responses in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan were at risk along with its polio-eradication and HIV programs, the document said.
President Trump’s executive order cited four key reasons for Washington’s withdrawal.
It said the WHO organization mishandled global health projects such as COVID-19 and failed to implement reform programs.
It also said the WHO organization failed to “demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and “continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.”
In his call for the U.S. to reconsider its position Tedros said the WHO has implemented its deepest and most wide-ranging reforms over the past seven years. Those reforms, he said in his remarks, have “touched every part of our work: our strategy, operating model, processes, partnerships, financing, workforce and culture.”
In the health agency’s defense, he added that the WHO has implemented reforms focused on addressing financing imbalances, responded appropriately to the COVID-19 crisis and has been impartial existing to serve the needs of all countries and peoples.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.