World Health Organization said its workforce would shrink by nearly a quarter – or more than 2,000 jobs – by the middle of next year as it seeks to push through reforms after its main donor, the United States, announced its withdrawal.
Administration of US President Donald Trump left the body after taking office in January, prompting the agency to shut down its operations and cut its management team in half.
Washington is by far the UN health agency's largest financial contributor, contributing about 18% of its total funding.
Geneva-based WHO forecasts its workforce will fall by 2,371 positions by June 2026 from 9,401 positions in January 2025 due to job cuts as well as retirements and departures, according to a presentation to be shown to member states on Wednesday.
This does not include many temporary staff or consultants who U.N. sources say have been fired. A WHO spokesman confirmed the total number of staff leaving the organization and said staff numbers would be reduced by 22%, depending on how many vacant positions are filled.
While the global health agency said in August that hundreds of staff had left, it was the first time it had shared the full scale of the expected changes with its global staff.
“This year has been one of the most challenging in WHO's history as we have gone through a painful but necessary process of prioritization and realignment that has resulted in a significant reduction in our global workforce,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a message to staff on Tuesday seen by Reuters, adding that the process was nearing completion.
“We are now preparing to move forward with our renewed and renewed Organization,” he added.
The slides also showed the Geneva-based organization has a $1.06 billion hole in its 2026-27 budget, or nearly a quarter of the total, down from an estimated $1.7 billion deficit in May.
That excludes $1.1 billion in expected funding, which includes deals at various stages of negotiations, shown on the slides without any details.
A WHO representative stated that the proportion of the two-year budget currently unfunded is lower than in previous years, attributing this to a smaller budget; launching a fundraising round; and an increase in mandatory duties of member states.
