The World Health Organization’s health emergencies program “certainly don't have enough money” to implement all its plans, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19 response.
Amid rising concern at the 75th World Health Assembly over global health financing, particularly for issues other than the COVID-19 responses, Van Kerkhove was asked if the program had enough funding to properly work.
Speaking at a Devex event on the sidelines of the WHA, Van Kerkhove replied: “The short answer is, of course not … we certainly don't have enough money to carry out all of the actions.”
Van Kerkhove said WHO deals with “everything from the COVID-19 pandemic … the situation in Ukraine, the situation in Afghanistan, with monkeypox, preparedness activities for arboviruses, the whole spectrum. We don’t yet have enough funds.”
While Van Kerkhove did not specify the entire shortfall, she gave as an example WHO’s plan to end the emergency phase of COVID-19. The agency was “about a billion dollars short of funding that for 2022,” said Van Kerkhove. Such a shortfall “impacts everything,” she added.
She continued: “Because when we receive funding at the World Health Organization, that money doesn’t sit here in Geneva … we get that money out to our regions, to our countries to implement the plans to ensure that when we issue this guidance around clinical treatment or infection control or on vaccine delivery that we are able to support countries, national governments, and partners to be able to implement them.”
About the author
William Worley@willrworley
Will Worley is the Climate Correspondent for Devex, covering the intersection of development and climate change. He previously worked as UK Correspondent, reporting on the FCDO and British aid policy during a time of seismic reforms. Will’s extensive reporting on the UK aid cuts saw him shortlisted for ‘Specialist Journalist of the Year’ in 2021 by the British Journalism Awards. He can be reached at william.worley@devex.com.
