The World Health Organization (WHO) is relying too heavily on donations from organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which prioritizes specific health issues favored by donors. This has left other important priorities underfunded, including non-communicable diseases and strengthening health systems.
The Gates Foundation’s $5.5 billion in funding to WHO between 2000 and 2024 was mostly directed towards vaccine-related projects and polio, with less than 1% of its funding going towards non-communicable diseases despite them being responsible for 74% of global deaths. The WHO relies on donations from major donors like the Gates Foundation to fund specific health challenges, rather than relying solely on assessed contributions from member states.
This reliance on external funding limits the WHO’s ability to fulfill its strategic goals and creates a situation in which it is vulnerable to the influence of external donors. If the US were to withdraw from WHO as announced, the impact would be significant. The authors of the study argue that WHO needs flexible and sustainable funding to achieve its aims, but warn that if member states ignore these requests, the organization will remain reliant on external donations.
The situation highlights the tension between WHO’s need for stable funding and the influence wielded by major donors like the Gates Foundation. While it is easy to criticize large donors for shaping WHO’s agenda, the root cause of the problem lies in member states’ failure to increase assessed contributions over the last four decades.
Source: https://www.miragenews.com/who-agenda-driven-by-gates-foundation-grants-1559975