New sustainable financing model
Following the re-election of Dr Tedros Adhanhom Ghebreysus as WHO Director-General, delegates at the World Health Assembly agreed a landmark decision on sustainable financing for WHO, adopting a series of recommendations from a Sustainable Financing Working Group made up of WHO Member States.
The recommendations aim to make WHO’s funding more predictable and flexible, and less dependent on voluntary contributions. Amongst the recommendations is a request to the Secretariat to develop budget proposals for an increase in assessed contributions (membership dues) to 50% of WHO’s core budget by 2030. In the last budget cycle, assessed contributions made up only 16% of the approved Programme Budget.
Other recommendations include that the Secretariat explores the feasibility of a replenishment mechanism to further broaden WHO’s financing base and the establishment of a Member States task group on strengthening WHO budgetary, programmatic and financing governance to analyze challenges in governance for transparency, efficiency, accountability and compliance.