An enormous list of World Health Organization (WHO) member states, 173 in all, lined up to speak in favour of the pandemic agreement at the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Monday – an extraordinary demonstration of the breadth of support for the document. By the end yesterday’s meeting of Committee A, member states passed […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) is confronting an unprecedented financial crisis, with a projected shortfall of $2.5 billion for the 2025–2027 period. In his official remarks to the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee (PBAC) on 14 May 2025, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the Organization may be forced to close certain country […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) faces “significant challenges” amid “significant achievements”, characterised by a 21% budget cut alongside the imminent adoption of a pandemic agreement, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of the World Health Assembly on Monday. Tedros appealed to member states to support its “extremely modest” budget, reduced from $5.3 billion […] Continue reading ->
The United States appears set to skip this year’s World Health Assembly at a historic moment when other WHO member states are expected to agree to a Pandemic Agreement, that has been nearly three years in the making. A provisional list of WHA delegates, published late Sunday night by WHO, included no reference at all […] Continue reading ->
Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, of Tanzania, was elected as the new African Region nominee for Regional Director, in a special meeting of the WHO African Regional Committee on Sunday – replacing fellow Tanzanian, RD-elect Dr Faustine Ndugulile, who died suddenly in November, 2024. The WHO Executive Board will be asked to approve Janabi’s nomination at […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s budget for 2026-27 could reduce the agency’s global footprint by about 20% from a total of 9,463 staff as of December 2024, to 7,525 – with the biggest cuts in entry-to mid-level professional staff who are ranked as P1 to P3. Some 30% of staff P 1-3 in 400 positions would be terminated, according […] Continue reading ->
Essential research on tuberculosis and HIV cancelled. Clinical trial participants in limbo. Young researchers’ careers halted – and billions of dollars invested and expertise developed over 30 years potentially down the drain. These are some of the impacts on South Africa of the decision by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) barely a week ago […] Continue reading ->
Significant portions of health care budgets across Africa have vanished. Countries across the continent are grappling with the unprecedented scale and speed of recent reductions in development assistance for health. In 2021, external financing supported more than a third of health expenditures in half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While multilateral and bilateral development assistance […] Continue reading ->
Three key issues feature in the United Nations zero draft of the political declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health, published on Thursday in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on 25 September. Tobacco control, hypertension and improving mental health care are the cornerstones of proposed action to contain NCDs. The draft proposes 2030 global […] Continue reading ->
The final draft of the pandemic agreement for the World Health Assembly (WHA) next week was published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday – along with a document outlining the long road member states still have to travel before it is enforced. This follows the historic agreement reached on the text in the […] Continue reading ->
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