The Director-General says: A “paradigm shift” is needed in the way WHO is financed WHO

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The head of the World Health Organization warned member states that the UN’s global health body was “built to fail” without a “paradigm shift” in the way it is funded and supported.

In stark language delivered to the WHO’s Executive Board, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 5.5 million people, emphasized the need to strengthen health systems as well as pandemic preparedness plans.

Addressing the specific issue of Covid-19, Tedros also cautioned that conditions remain ideal for more variables to emerge. He said it was dangerous for countries to assume Omicron was the last alternative or that we were “at the end of the game”.

“There are different scenarios for how the epidemic will spread and how the acute phase may end,” he said.

“But it is dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last alternative or that we are at the end of the game,” he added. “On the contrary, globally, conditions are ideal for more variables to emerge.”

However, he insisted, “we can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency, and we can do it this year,” by reaching goals like the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70% of each country’s population by the middle of the year. This year, with a focus on people most at risk of contracting Covid-19.

“It is true that we will live with Covid for the foreseeable future and will need to learn how to manage it through a sustainable and integrated acute respiratory disease system” to help prepare for future pandemics, he said.

But learning to live with Covid doesn’t mean we give this virus a free ride. It cannot mean that we are accepting approximately 50,000 deaths a week from a preventable and treatable disease.”

In wide-ranging remarks on Monday, Tedros told members: “Covid-19 has demonstrated that health is not just a national issue; it is an international issue. The scale of the challenges we face is enormous, and is reflected in the breadth of your agenda this week.”

Supporters say the WHO’s reliance on voluntary funding from member states and charities forces it to focus on the priorities set by funders, and makes it less able to criticize members when things go wrong. The WHO Working Group’s proposal on sustainable financing calls for mandatory member contributions to be gradually increased to half of the agency’s $2 billion core budget by 2028, from less than 20% now.

“For too long, health has been fragmented and removed from priorities, both nationally and internationally. It is time to realize that if we fail to invest in health, we fail to invest in the future,” Tedros said.

Addressing long-term concerns about the organization’s performance, Tedros said members are entitled to expect higher standards from the organization, including “enhanced governance, efficiency, accountability and transparency,” noting “a zero-tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.”

The reference to sexual abuse appears to be a reference to a damning report released last year that found that 21 staff members working for the United Nations World Health Organization were among the perpetrators of serious sexual abuse during the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The comments appeared to be directed at concerns – some politically motivated and particularly vexed by the previous Trump administration, which withdrew from the WHO – about the WHO’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic and research into its origins.

Referring to the continuing spread of the pandemic, Tedros said: “This Sunday marks two years since I declared a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of concern under international law – about the spread of Covid-19.

At the time, there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths reported outside of China. Two years later, nearly 350 million cases were reported, and more than 5.5 million deaths – and we know these numbers are an underestimate.

Returning again to the issue of equality in vaccines, he added: “As it stands, 86 Member States in all regions were unable to reach last year’s target of vaccinating 40% of their population – and 34 Member States, mostly in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region On average, they were unable to vaccinate even 10% of their population.

“Eighty-five per cent of Africa’s population has not yet received a single dose of the vaccine. How can this be acceptable to any of us? We simply cannot end the emergency phase of the epidemic unless we close this gap.”

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