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What Trump’s funding cuts to WHO mean for the world

Adam Kamradt-Scott
Special to Kitsap Sun

President Donald Trump has announced the U.S. is cutting its funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) – a decision that will have major implications for the global health response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. contributes more than $400 million to the WHO per year, though it is already $200 million in arrears. It is the organization’s largest donor and gives about 10 times what China does per year.

Trump has accused the organization of mishandling and covering up the initial spread of COVID-19 in China, and of generally failing to take a harsher stance toward China.

What will Trump’s decision to cut funding mean for the organization?

Who are members of the WHO?


While various civil society, industry and faith-based organizations can observe WHO meetings, only countries are allowed to become members. Every May, member states attend the World Health Assembly in Geneva to set the WHO’s policy direction, approve the budget and review the organization’s work.

Currently, there are 194 WHO member states, which means the organization has one more member state than the United Nations.

How is the WHO funded?


Assessed contributions are calculated based on the gross domestic product and size of the population, but they have not increased in real terms since the level of payments was frozen in the 1980s.

The second source of funding is voluntary contributions. These contributions, provided by governments, philanthropic organizations and private donations, are usually earmarked for specific projects or initiatives, meaning the WHO has less ability to reallocate them in the event of an emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Have countries pulled funding before?




Has there been political criticism of the WHO before?


Five years later, the organization was accused of acting too late in declaring the West African Ebola outbreak a public health emergency.



Nor does the organization have the power to force a country to share any information. It can only request.


Does China have increasing influence over the WHO?

Understandably China has grown in power and economic influence since 2003, when then-Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland publicly criticized it for trying to hide the spread of the SARS virus.

China has also been criticized for blocking Taiwan’s bid to join the organization. Taiwan has had one of the most robust responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

But China is ultimately just one of the WHO’s 194 member states. And one of the great ironies of Trump’s criticism is that the organization has been criticized by other member states for decades for being influenced too heavily by the United States.

What happens if the U.S. cuts funding?



More broadly, if the U.S. extends these cuts for other global health initiatives coordinated by the WHO, it will likely cause people in low-income countries to lose access to vital medicines and health services. Lives will be lost.


For decades, the world has looked to the U.S. to provide leadership on global health issues. Due to Trump’s attempt to shift blame from his administration’s failures to prepare the U.S. for the arrival of COVID-19, he has now signaled the U.S. is no longer prepared to provide that leadership role.


Adam Kamradt-Scott is an associate professor at the University of Sydney, Australia.