Donors pledge over $170 million to WHO ahead of US exit

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -China, Qatar, Switzerland and others pledged over $170 million for the World Health Organization at its assembly on Tuesday, the agency said, and countries also accepted higher fees to help offset the expected loss of the U.S., the top donor.

"In a challenging climate for global health, these funds will help us to preserve and extend our life-saving work," Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said in a statement on new donations covering 2025-2028.

A WHO list showed that host Switzerland gave $40 million; Sweden gave $13.5 million; Angola gave $8 million; Qatar gave $6 million; while other pledges came from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and ELMA Philanthropies.

It did not include an earlier $500 million pledge from China since the WHO said calculations are ongoing.

"These efforts deliver a strong signal of China's support to WHO during this reform process," said Dr. Lei Haichao, China's health minister. A spokesperson for China's diplomatic mission said this pledge included both mandatory fees and voluntary donations and support for other projects.

Even before the current financial crisis, the WHO had been seeking to overhaul its funding model to make it less dependent on donations from a few big economies. Washington had provided 18% of its funding.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized the body for its handling of COVID-19, announced his intention to withdraw on Day One of his presidency on January 20 - a move that takes a year to implement. On Tuesday, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the organization as "moribund".

The WHO has already revised down its 2026-2027 budget by a fifth to $4.2 billion and cut management posts.

The new budget, formally adopted on Tuesday by the assembly which is seeking to address the funding crisis, will increase countries' mandatory fees by 20% over the next two years and make China the new top state donor.

"Our common goal must be to initiate prompt reforms to safeguard the organisation," said Björn Kümmel, head of Unit Global Health in Germany's health ministry.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)