Will US President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the WHO have any real impact? Not unless he chooses to set up a parallel organisation
The World Health Organisation (WHO) was founded in 1948 when the world war II ended. It was given the mammoth task to promote world health. Since then WHO has been in frontline when it comes to HIV, Ebola, SARS – the list is quite long.
On 15 th April at the peak of COVID-19 crisis in the US, President Donald Trump announced his decision to halt all US funding to the WHO amounting to about $400M annually.
Well so what?
Even though famous Americans like Bill Gates did not find this move a good one and tweeted his disapproval, Trump remained steadfast on his decision. So, the question remains.
Incidentally WHO has a budget of around $ 5 Billion for 2020-2021 so even if the US does not fund it, it still has the remaining $4.6 Billion. So Trump’s announcement seems to be more symbolic rather than something that could deeply impact world health. Of course, before announcing his decision, Trump did criticize the WHO for taking the side of
China during the COVID crisis; but that was probably for the consumption of his domestic constituency more than the world.
What then is the future for WHO?
WHO has a long list of dedicated donors including countries like UK, Germany as well as NGOs like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Rotary International to name a few. Clearly there are plenty of entities who would pay WHO handsomely for doing what is doing even though its biggest donor US backs out. Another factor to consider is that WHO is actually a monopoly, unless the US goes further to have its own version of WHO which seems too much of a stretch at the moment.
WHO is actually a monopoly, unless the US goes further to have its own version of WHO which seems too much of a stretch at the moment
So, the WHO does not have any  rivals at present because there are no significant
competitors. How about the causes for whom WHO directly spends the money it gets? At present WHO spends most money for Polio eradication, essential nutrition, vaccine preventable diseases, etc.
Prevention and controlling outbreaks like COVID19 is actually at the bottom of its top 10 list for funding. Clearly the demand for the actions of WHO is not going away anywhere soon as Polio, malnutrition remain big health threats and the world’s quest for effective vaccines will only become more ardent in the aftermath of COVID19.
Having said that let’s consider is it possible for another organization to come up and take the role of WHO? In short, the massive funding and infrastructure required is a big barrier to entry. Just the US stopping funds won’t stop the WHO.
Finally, let’s consider if there are substitutes to WHO. Is there any other organization at present able to deliver what WHO does? Again, the short answer is no. Each country has its own health organization, but none really can deliver anything close to what WHO does in the global scale.
