GENEVA: The World Health Organisation has proposed slashing a fifth of its budget following the US decision to withdraw, and must now reduce its reach and workforce, its chief said in an internal email on Saturday.

The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly $600 million in 2025 and has “no choice” but to start making cutbacks, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the message sent on Friday to the UN health agency’s staff.

Besides triggering the US pullout from the WHO after returning the White House in January, President Donald Trump decided to freeze virtually all US foreign aid, including vast assistance towards boosting health worldwide. The United States was by far the WHO’s biggest donor.

“Dramatic cuts to official development assistance by the United States of America and others are causing massive disruption to countries, NGOs and United Nations agencies, including WHO,” Tedros said in his email.

He said that even before Trump triggered the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, the organisation was already facing financial constraints, and had begun working on efficiency measures more than nine months ago.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2025