World Health Organisation asks for donations
THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has called on members of the public to start donating funds to its new foundation.
It comes after US president Donald Trump threatened to permanently pull the country’s funding from the global health body.
The body said it has set up the WHO Foundation to “broaden its contributor base”. When asked whether the foundation had been set up as a response to the threat, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted the initiative had been in the making for two years.
During WHO’s tri-weekly briefing on Covid-19, Dr Tedros said: “Until now, WHO has been one of the few international organisations which has not received donations from the general public. One of the greatest threats to
WHO’s success is the fact that less than 20 per cent of our budget comes in the form of flexible assessed contributions from member states, while over 80 per cent is voluntary contributions, which are usually tightly earmarked for specific programmes.
“In effect, that means WHO has little discretion over the way it spends its funds.”
He said there was a clear need to broaden its donor base, and to improve both the quantity and quality of funding received, meaning more flexibility.
He added: “Since February 2018, we have been hard at work supporting the establishment of the WHO Foundation and today it gives us enormous pleasure to launch it officially.
“This is a historic step for WHO, as an integral part of our resource mobilisation strategy to broaden the contributor base.”
It comes after the US criticised its Covid-19 response, with President Trump sharing a letter on Twitter earlier this month in which he said: “If the World Health Organisation does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organisation permanent and reconsider our membership in the organisation.”