Th 2026 World Health Assembly comes after a particularly difficult year for WHO, weakened by the announced US withdrawal and deep funding cuts.
“The WHO’s budget has been reduced by around 21 per cent, or nearly one billion dollars. Hundreds of jobs have been eliminated, programs have been reduced,” Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider noted in her address.
“The WHO had to, and was able to, undergo profound reform in the midst of the emergency.”
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, also suggested WHO had weathered the storm, and that the hantavirus crisis provided “a clear illustration of why the world needs an effective, trusted, impartial, reliably-funded WHO”, she added.
SENSITIVE ISSUES
Disagreement between wealthy and developing nations has meanwhile blocked closure on the WHO’s landmark 2025 pandemic treaty.
Countries had aimed to finalise during this year’s assembly a key annex to the agreement, which deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential, then sharing benefits derived from them such as vaccines, tests and treatments.
But they appeared set to grant themselves another year to finalise stalled negotiations.