EXCLUSIVE: WHO Has a New $4.2 million Contract Pending with Boston Consulting Group
World Health Organization 09/07/2025 •
Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly in May, where WHO member states approved a stripped-down base budget of $4.2 billion for the next two years (2026-27).

The World Health Organization has a draft $4.295 million contract with the Boston Consulting Group pending in its Global Management System (GSM), Health Policy Watch has learned – even while Save the Children has suspended its connection to BCG, over the reported involvement of two former staff members in the development of controversial projects in Gaza.

If approved and executed, the new WHO contract would be the second one in six months to be awarded to BCG. 

Some $2,849,745 was spent by WHO on the Boston-based consultancy between 7 April and 15 May, according to GSM records seen by Health Policy Watch – to support the first phase of WHO’s massive restructuring. 

The WHO reorganization has been triggered by the January withdrawal of WHO’s largest donor, the United States, and a subsequent budget crisis that left a $1.7 billion hole in WHO’s planned $4.2 billion base budget [not including emergencies] for the next two years (2026-2027). 

The initial BCG consultancy was disclosed by Health Policy Watch in April, after it was discussed at a WHO ‘Town Hall’ convened by senior management. At the time, WHO Staff Association President Catherine Kirorei Corsini told WHO colleagues that the consultancy was being financed by “voluntary and earmarked funding from Bill and Melinda Gates….  And this because it’s voluntary and earmarked, it cannot be used for anything else.” Her remarks were confirmed later by a WHO spokesperson.

Continuation of a second phase

Oropouche mosquito monitoring
Sampling disease-carrying mosquitos in Latin America; fears that pending budget cuts will gut the rank and file WHO staff first of all.

But according to the terms of reference attached to the first BCG contract, seen by Health Policy Watch, the $2.849 million consultancy that ran from 7 April-15 May, was only “Phase 1”,  to be followed by a longer and larger Phase 2 that would further “implementation” of HR restructuring “to support long-term strategic objectives” as well as support “procurement savings to maximize cost-efficiency.”

Should that second contract for $4.295 million be approved, that would make for a massive $7.144 million in consultancy awards to the firm over a period of less than a year. 

Asked to comment on the pending continuation of the work to a second phase, the amounts involved, or the issues around the past activities of BCG staff or former staff in Gaza, WHO did not respond as of publication time. 

BCG also did not respond to queries by Health Policy Watch. 

However, regardless of reputational issues, WHO staff have also questioned why the organization should be spending millions on external consultants to advise on its reorganization – at a time when its also facing massive staff cuts. 

Save the Children suspension

Save the Children Clinic in Deir al Balah, northern Gaza. The organization has a network of humanitarian operations across the war-torn enclave.

On Tuesday, Save the Children reportedly “suspended” its decades-long relationship with BCG, citing “utterly unacceptable” work on Gaza-related projects – including a plan to relocate about a quarter of Gaza Palestinians out of the enclave following a cease-fire, a decision reported by The New Humanitarian. 

“We suspended our work with BCG on June 13 and we are now awaiting the outcome of their review,” Save the Children spokesperson Belinda Goldsmith was quoted saying in an email to TNH on 8 July.  

Save the Children’s decision followed a report last Friday by the Financial Times that BCG had “modeled” the costs of relocating Palestinians out of Gaza as part of a politically controversial post-war reconstruction plan. 

Earlier in June, the FT also reported that BCG staff had also been involved in the early stages of planning for the conflict-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Israeli and US-supported entity that began distributing food aid in Gaza last month tried to sidestep UN aid channels, but soon became mired in controversy as hundreds of Palestinians were killed traveling to and from the Foundation’s four distribution sides  over the past several weeks.   

In an 8 July email to all staff, Save the Children International CEO Inger Ashing referred to the FT’s reporting on BCG’s involvement with the controversial GHF and  “modelling a plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from Gaza”  as “utterly unacceptable”, TNH reported. 

“Following that, we suspended all ongoing work with BCG pending the outcome of their external investigation and asked all Member teams to do the same,” wrote Ashing, to national-level Save the Children organisations. 

BCG has repudiated its connection to controversial Gaza projects 

Only the most able-bodied can run the gauntlet to reach Gaza’s food distribution points, which include four GHF outposts and scattered UN delivery points.

In a response dubbed “correcting the record” Sunday, 6 July, BCG said that two former partners had engaged secretly in a Gaza post-conflict evacuation cost assessment – without BCG’s knowledge.   

“Recent media reporting has misrepresented BCG’s role in post-war Gaza reconstruction,” BCG stated. “Two former partners initiated this work, even though the lead partner was categorically told not to. This work was not a BCG project. It was orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals. We fully disavow this work. BCG was not paid for any of this work.

As for the earlier work in relation to the GHF, BCG said that:  “In October 2024, a BCG team from the U.S., led by two partners, provided pro bono support to help establish an aid organization intended to operate alongside other relief efforts to deliver humanitarian support to Gaza. They failed to disclose the full nature of the work. These individuals then carried out subsequent unauthorized work. 

“Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards.

“We are shocked and outraged by the actions of these two partners. They have been exited from the firm. BCG disavows the work they undertook. It has been stopped, and BCG has not and will not be paid for any of their work.

“We are acting with urgency and seriousness to learn from this and to ensure it does not happen again,” BCG added. “We deeply regret that in this situation we did not live up to our standards. We are committed to living our values—with accountability for our failures and humility in how we move forward.”

Image Credits: Wikipedia , WHO/Pierre Albouy, PAHO/WHO, Save the Children , X/Channel 4 .

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