WHO to lose a quarter of its workforce by mid-2026, document shows

The World Health Organization logo is pictured at the entrance of the WHO building, in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec 20, 2021. REUTERS

The World Health Organisation said its workforce would shrink by about a quarter - or over 2,000 jobs - by the middle of next year as it seeks to implement reforms after its top donor, the United States, announced its departure.

US President Donald Trump's administration withdrew from the body upon taking office in January, prompting the agency to scale back its work and cut its management team by half.

Washington is by far the UN health agency's biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding.

The Geneva-based WHO projects that its workforce will shrink by 2,371 posts by Jun 2026 due to job cuts as well as retirements and departures, according to a presentation set to be shown to its member states on Wednesday.

While the global health agency said in August that hundreds of staff had departed, this is the first time it has given the full scale of the expected change to its workforce.

The slides also showed that the Geneva-based body has a $1.06 billion hole in its 2026-2027 budget, or nearly a quarter of the total required, down from an estimated gap of $1.7 billion in May.

That excludes some $1.1 billion of expected funding that includes deals at various stage of negotiation, the slides showed, without giving details.