World Health Organization officials are making some tough decisions on their programs as the agency deals with the loss of U.S. funding.
Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO deputy director-general and executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said they have already scaled back the ambition of the health emergencies two-year budget from $1.2 billion to $872 million.
“Now contracting by 25% to 28% sounds easy on paper. But the question is, what do you want to stop doing? You want to stop doing Ebola? You want to stop doing emergency medical teams responding to major disasters in the world? Would you like to stop intelligence gathering so that we know what the next epidemic or pandemic will be?” Ryan said during a press briefing on Monday.
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About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
