UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 (IPS) – On February 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its Global appeal by 2026 to provide millions of people living in protracted conflict and humanitarian crises with access to life-saving healthcare. Following a trend of sharply declining international funding, the agency warns that it is becoming increasingly difficult to respond to emerging health threats, including pandemics and drug-resistant infections.
According to figures According to the United Nations (UN), approximately a quarter of a billion people are currently facing humanitarian crises that threaten their access to health care and shelter, while global defense spending has exceeded $2.5 trillion annually. In the meantime, WHO estimates that approximately 4.6 billion people do not have access to essential health care services and that 2.1 billion people face significant financial pressure due to rising health care costs.
These disparities are expected to increase in the coming years, as the world is expected to face a shortage of 11 million health workers by 2030, more than half of whom will be nurses. Aiming to raise nearly $1 billion to support citizens in 36 emergencies – 14 of which are classified as extremely serious – WHO aims to protect and support millions of people living in the world’s most vulnerable crises.
“This call is a call to support people living through conflict, displacement and disaster – to not only provide them with services, but also to give them confidence that the world has not turned its back on them,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It is not charity. It is a strategic investment in health and safety. In fact, access to health care restores dignity, stabilizes communities and provides a path to recovery.”
Since its founding in 1948, WHO has served as a critical lifeline for crisis-affected populations – promoting universal health coverage, coordinating international responses to health emergencies, and monitoring emerging health threats and progress worldwide. In 2025 alone, WHO and its partners provided emergency health services to approximately 30 million people, delivered vaccinations to 5.3 million children, facilitated 53 million health consultations, supported more than 8,000 health facilities and deployed 1,370 mobile clinics.
“In today’s most complex emergencies, WHO remains indispensable – protecting health, upholding international humanitarian law and ensuring that life-saving care reaches people where few others can operate,” said Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, Norway’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva. “From ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and rights to supporting frontline health workers who are under enormous pressure, WHO’s role is critical.”
The 2026 appeal follows a year in which humanitarian funding fell below 2016 levels, leaving WHO and its partners able to reach only a third of the 81 million people originally earmarked for health assistance. Moreover, this comes after the United States left the WHO on January 22, which is estimated to reduce the agency’s budget for 2026 and 2027 from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
Ghebreyesus addressed The WHO Board of Directors warned on February 2 in Geneva of the far-reaching consequences expected after last year’s sharp budget cuts, describing 2025 as one of the organization’s “most difficult years” in its history. “Sudden and severe cuts in bilateral aid have also caused massive disruptions to healthcare systems and services in many countries,” he said.
Ghebreyesus also noted that the agency narrowly avoided a much more serious financial collapse as a large number of member states agreed to levy mandatory contributions. This would reduce WHO’s dependence on voluntary designated funding. These reforms have enabled the WHO to mobilize roughly 85 percent of its 2026-2027 core budget, although Ghebreyesus warned that the remaining deficit will be “difficult to mobilize” in the current tense financial environment. He warned that “pockets of poverty” remain in areas that are severely underfunded, including emergency preparedness, antimicrobial resistance and climate resilience.
Ghebreyesus also warned that the financing crisis has exposed deeper challenges to global health governance, especially among low- and middle-income countries struggling to maintain access to essential services. He emphasized that the crisis presents a crucial opportunity for transformation, noting that a “leaner” WHO can focus more on its core mission and mandate within the broader UN reform initiative80. “This means sharpening our focus on our core mandate and comparative advantage, doing what we do best – supporting countries through our normative and technical work – and leaving to others what they do best,” he added.
As a result of declining global funding, the WHO says it and its partners are “being forced to make difficult choices” about which operations to continue in the future. The agency has stated its intention to focus only on the most critical, high-impact interventions, such as keeping essential health services running, providing emergency medical supplies and trauma care, restoring immunization efforts, ensuring access to reproductive, maternal and child health care, and preventing and responding to disease outbreaks.
“In 2026, WHO will once again adapt its emergency response. We will apply the discipline of emergency medicine: we will first focus on actions that save lives,” said Ghebreyesus. “We are placing greater emphasis on country leadership and local partnerships. We are focusing on areas where WHO adds the greatest value and reducing duplication so that every dollar has maximum impact.”
In 2026, WHO will prioritize its emergency health response in the occupied Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Myanmar, while addressing ongoing outbreaks of cholera and mpox. As the lead agency for health coordination in humanitarian crises, WHO works with more than 1,500 partners in 24 emergencies worldwide to ensure that national authorities and local organizations remain at the heart of emergency response efforts.
Furthermore, WHO’s future strategy places a strong emphasis on helping countries reduce dependence on external aid and build long-term financial self-sufficiency. A key element of this approach is the mobilization of domestic resources, including the introduction of higher health taxes on harmful products such as tobacco, sugary drinks and alcohol.
In recent months, WHO has made important progress in strengthening global responses to emerging health threats, even as antimicrobial resistance continues to escalate – with one in six bacterial infections worldwide now resistant to antibiotics. The agency has also expanded its disease surveillance capabilities, relying on AI-powered epidemic intelligence tools to help countries detect and contain hundreds of outbreaks before they turn into major crises. WHO’s work has also been strengthened by last year’s adoption of the Pandemic Agreement and the amended International Health Regulations (IHR), which aim to strengthen global preparedness in the post-COVID-19 era.
“The pandemic has taught us all many lessons – especially that global threats require a global response,” Ghebreyesus said. “Solidarity is the best immunity.” He emphasized that the WHO’s future effectiveness depends on predictable, sustainable financing: “This is your WHO. Its strength is your unity. Its future is your choice.”
IPS UN office report
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