WHO Chief Defends $2.1B Budget Request 05/20 06:10

   Stripped of U.S. funding, the World Health Organization chief on Monday 
appealed to member countries to support its "extremely modest" request for a 
$2.1 billion annual budget by putting that sum into perspective next to outlays 
for ad campaigns for tobacco or the cost of war.

   GENEVA (AP) -- Stripped of U.S. funding, the World Health Organization chief 
on Monday appealed to member countries to support its "extremely modest" 
request for a $2.1 billion annual budget by putting that sum into perspective 
next to outlays for ad campaigns for tobacco or the cost of war.

   After nearly 80 years of striving to improve human lives and health --- 
which critics say it has done poorly or not enough -- the U.N. health agency is 
fighting for its own after U.S. President Donald Trump in January halted 
funding from the United States, which has traditionally been WHO's largest 
donor.

   "Two-point-one billion dollars is the equivalent of global military 
expenditure every eight hours," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus 
said. "Two-point-one billion dollars is the price of one stealth bomber, to 
kill people."

   "And $2.1 billion is one-quarter of what the tobacco industry spends on 
advertising and promotion every single year. Again, a product that kills 
people," he told the WHO's annual assembly. "It seems somebody switched the 
price tags on what is truly valuable in our world."

   Tedros made no specific reference to the U.S. cuts but has said previously 
the U.S. pullout was a "mistake" and urged Washington to reconsider.

   A State Department spokesperson, in an email, confirmed Monday that "The 
United States will not field a delegation to participate in the World Health 
Assembly."

   WHO has presented a budget for the next two years that is 22% less than 
originally planned, largely in response to U.S. and other Western funding cuts, 
and says it has landed commitments for about 60% of that. But it still faces a 
budget gap of $1.7 billion.

   "We know that in the current landscape, mobilizing that sum will be a 
challenge. We are not naive to that challenge," Tedros said.

   "But for an organization working on the ground in 150 countries with a vast 
mission and mandate that member states have given us, $4.2 billion for two 
years -- or $2.1 billion a year -- is not ambitious. It's extremely modest," he 
said.

   Cuts that could cost lives

   As a result of the cuts, the U.N. health agency this year has seen a plunge 
in its ability to carry out its sweeping mandate to do everything from 
recommend reductions in sugar levels in soft drinks to head the global response 
to pandemics like COVID-19 or outbreaks like polio or Ebola.

   Tedros and his team have been grappling with a response to the U.S. cuts as 
well as reduced outlays from wealthy European countries that are worried about 
an expansionist Russia and are putting more money toward defense, and less 
toward humanitarian and development aid.

   Matthew Kavanagh, the director of Georgetown University's Center for Global 
Health Policy and Politics, said other countries have used the U.S. cut in aid 
"as cover to do their maneuvering, with many countries in Europe reducing aid."

   "The WHO faces an existential crisis that goes well beyond a budget gap to 
the question of whether this sort of multilateralism can succeed in addressing 
global health in this new era of nationalism and misinformation," he said, 
alluding to discord between many countries that could cost lives.

   "Literally millions will likely die needlessly on the current trajectory and 
the world's health ministers do not seem capable of a coherent response," 
Kavanagh added.

   Pandemic preparedness on the agenda

   On tap for the nine-day World Health Assembly are two major advances that 
are aimed to buttress WHO's financial strength and bolster the world's ability 
to cope with future pandemics.

   Member countries are expected to agree to raise annual dues, known as 
"assessed contributions," by 20% to support WHO finances and reduce dependency 
on governments' voluntary contributions -- which change each year and make up 
over half of the budget.

   They are also expected to agree to a hard-wrought " pandemic treaty " that 
was born of a desire to avoid any replay of the patchy, unequal response to 
COVID-19 when the next -- and inevitable, most experts say -- pandemic hits.

   Among other things, the treaty would guarantee that countries that share 
critical samples of viruses will receive any resulting tests, medicines and 
vaccines and give WHO up to 20% of such products to make sure poorer countries 
can have access to them.

   "Every World Health Assembly is significant, but this year's is especially 
so," Tedros said. "This is truly a historic moment."

   The treaty's effectiveness will face doubts when the U.S. -- which poured 
billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop COVID-19 
vaccines -- is sitting out, and because countries face no penalties if they 
ignore it, a common issue in international law.

   Kavanagh said passage of the treaty "could be a significant victory -- 
evidence that the U.S. government may no longer be indispensable in global 
health" and could offer an opportunity for developing nations in the "global 
South" over the longer term.

   Management shake-up as critics blast WHO

   Trump has long derided WHO, including back in his first term when he pulled 
the United States out over its alleged kowtowing to China and other alleged 
missteps in the Covid pandemic. President Joe Biden put the U.S. back in.

   On his first day back in office in January, Trump signed an executive order 
to pause future transfers of U.S. government funds to the WHO, recall U.S. 
government staff working with it, and announce a formal pullout by next January 
-- under a one-year timetable required under U.S. law.

   Other opponents continue to lash out at WHO. CitizenGo, an activist group 
that supports right-to-life and religious liberty issues, protested Monday 
against the pandemic treaty outside the U.N. compound in Geneva where WHO's 
meeting was taking place.

   The rally included a balloon sculpture in the shape of the world and a 
banner inveighing against "globalist elites" and showing an image of Tedros and 
billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, a major WHO supporter, shaking 
hands while surrounded by dollars.

   "In the aftermath of Covid, the WHO got together and thought was a good idea 
to centralize even more power," said CitizenGo campaigner Sebastian Lukomski, 
accusing WHO of an effort to "remove more fundamental freedoms and not learn 
from the mistakes that were taking place during COVID."

   In the run-up to the assembly, WHO has been cleaning house and cutting costs.

   At a meeting on its budget last week, Tedros -- a former Ethiopian health 
and foreign minister -- announced a shake-up of top management that included 
the exit of key adviser Dr. Michael Ryan from the job as emergencies chief.

   Tedros said last week that the loss of U.S. funds and other assistance have 
left the WHO with a salary gap of more than $500 million.