‘Voluntary donations account for 88 per cent of WHO funding’

New Delhi: Who funds the World Health Organisation? Figures extracted from the UN health body’s documents for the 2010-21 period show voluntary contributions account for maximum funding and that it has risen from 75 per cent in 2010 to 88 per cent in 2021, according to research published in the BMJ Global Health, an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on all aspects of global health.

The WHO receives financial contributions in two main forms: assessed contributions (ACs) and voluntary contributions (VCs). The BMJ Global Health study says the ACs received from member states are fully flexible, meaning WHO can decidehow that money is spent.

In contrast, VCs that WHO receives from member states and non-state actors from both profit and not-for-profit sectors are overwhelmingly earmarked, that is, they come with conditions that specify the programmes and projects that the donor will fund. According to the study, there has been no change across the decade in the ranking of VCs by donor type, with member states contributing the most, followed by philanthropies, other UN agencies.

“Though the contributions from philanthropies remained significant, they account for a declining percentage of the total VCs to WHO, falling from a high of 24 per cent in 2016 to 17 per cent in 2020. The private for-profit sector VCs to WHO have also steadily declined from a high of 3 per cent in 2016 to 1 per cent in 2020,” the study says. It adds that across the period 2010-11 to 2020-21, in terms of monetary value the USA has contributed the most VCs to WHO, followed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK.