The World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies department is facing „existential threats“ because of the growing number of health crises that have left it so cash-strapped that, at the end of last year, it needed emergency funds to pay staff salaries.

This document, which was made public ahead of the WHO’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, stated that it will probably have to reapply for funding in order to pay salaries through June.

The department handled 72 emergencies in 2023. These included massive worldwide cholera outbreaks, earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza.

A public health emergency

According to the report by an independent oversight committee, in order to meet the growing demands, countries should step up their own preparedness initiatives, and the WHO should enhance the way it assigns duties to national authorities.

In addition, it suggests new protocols for the WHO’s handling of protracted humanitarian crises as opposed to the acute illness outbreaks that the department also handles.

The document states that „more frequent natural disasters and conflicts in fragile states pose existential threats“ to the effectiveness of the emergency program. Furthermore, the WHO’s emergencies program „will be obliged to cut back critical activities“ if countries do not increase their capacity.

A „public health emergency of international concern,“ or PHEIC, is the highest level of alert in the WHO’s grading system for emergencies. The WHO declared the end of the emergency for both Covid-19 and mpox in 2023, leaving only polio at this level.

But the organization also handles a growing number of other crises, such as floods, infectious disease outbreaks, and conflicts.

Additionally, the WHO’s emergencies program had a „critical“ funding gap of US$411 million (RM1.9 billion), or nearly a third of its total budget, last year, the report stated, even though the organization’s overall budget was „relatively well funded.“

The report will be discussed by member states today after they have taken action to reform WHO funding.