States will stare down a funding cliff and a legal limbo caused by Washington\u2019s messy departure at the World Health Organization\u2019s executive board meeting this week in Geneva.<\/p>\n
Nearly two weeks after the US withdrawal, the UN health agency\u2019s executive board meeting will be anything but business as usual. The board, convening in Geneva from 2 to 7 February, will wade through a packed agenda<\/a> with typical items ranging from immunisation to mental health to governance.<\/p>\n But more critically, the board\u2019s 34 member states will grapple with a gaping funding shortfall as its once largest benefactor dashes for the exit door without settling the bill.<\/p>\n Despite sweeping spending cuts in 2025 and increased donor pledges, the WHO is still bracing for a $660 million funding gap for 2026-2027*, equivalent to 15 per cent of its budget. Last week, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the executive board\u2019s budget committee that the agency had \u201creached a position of stability and we are moving forward\u201d. He admitted, however, that it had been a \u201cdifficult and painful process\u201d.<\/p>\n The biannual board meeting comes three months ahead of the World Health Assembly, where countries are expected to endorse the executive board\u2019s decisions. Last year, countries approved the first of a series of increases in mandatory contributions, in a push to shore up the financial deficit.<\/p>\n UNpaid dues<\/p>\n Delegates will also wrestle with Washington\u2019s murky exit from the organisation, as its refusal to settle its outstanding dues plunges it into a legal Catch-22<\/a>. A joint resolution by the US Congress in 1948 requires Washington to pay its financial obligations to the WHO in case of a withdrawal, says Stat News<\/a>. But the Trump administration has refused to pay arrears estimated at roughly $260 million \u2013 even as it said last week it was \u201cterminating\u201d its WHO membership and the funding that came with it.<\/p>\n At a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, Daniel Argaw Dagne, team lead for malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) at the WHO, estimated funding needed to sustain programmes to control and eliminate NTDs at nearly half a billion dollars alone. NTDs affect roughly 1.4 billion people worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the US withdrawal, the overseas development assistance to this area has decreased by 41 per cent from 2018,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A WHO spokesperson couldn\u2019t say whether a US representative would participate in the executive meeting. The board is also set to debate Argentina\u2019s notice of withdrawal, announced in March 2025. Given that the WHO constitution doesn\u2019t contain an explicit withdrawal clause, Buenos Aires\u2019s attempt to follow the US also falls into legal limbo territory. A WHO legal report concluded that the notification \u201cshould not be accepted as effective\u201d. Both withdrawals are set to be addressed on Friday.<\/p>\n Power shifts and reform<\/p>\n The WHO is due to brief countries on its restructuring efforts carried out over the past year, including merging departments and divisions and halving the number of directors. In a report<\/a>, it says some 1,200 posts are expected to go by June 2026, leaving the agency with a workforce of 7,360, a 22 per cent drop from January 2025.<\/p>\n Lives and careers have been upended as a result. The report acknowledges the human cost. \u201cPreventive measures\u201d or mutually agreed early exits were implemented where possible, while more \u201cinvasive\u201d measures will still be required in a significant number of cases, according to an analysis<\/a> by Geneva Health Files.<\/p>\n Staff associations, meanwhile, have complained that the process has lacked transparency and that information has been slow, particularly on the \u201c\u200b\u200brationale for certain decisions\u201d and \u201cjob losses by grade and contract type\u201d, according to a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n