Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and thank you all for joining us today.
As you know, since the U.S. announced its intention to withdraw from WHO, we have been conducting a process of prioritization and realignment.
That exercise has produced a new organizational structure, which I presented to staff this morning, and which I will present to you in a few moments.
But first, a few words on our financial situation.
The refusal of the U.S. to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between US$ 560 and US$ 650 million.
This is the reality we are facing, and which is driving the prioritization and realignment, the new structure, and the reduction in our workforce – although when we do this, we see it as an opportunity to change the organization.
However, we need to realize that this reality would have been much worse if Member States had not agreed to increase assessed contributions progressively to 50% of our budget – and we thank you for that historic commitment.
That agreement has already made a major difference.
Without the increase, assessed contributions for the current biennium would have been US$ 746 million.
Instead, for the 2026–27 biennium, we expect assessed contributions to be US$ 1.07 billion, even without the U.S. contribution.
In other words, we are US$ 320 million better off than we would have been without the increase in assessed contributions.
And if Member States approve the next increase, assessed contributions in the next biennium will be higher without the U.S. than they were in 2022–23 with the U.S.
The point here is to show that your decision to increase assessed contributions was made in order to make the Organization’s financing more resilient and protect it from shocks – and it’s working.
Thank you again for that historic decision in 2022 to increase the assessed contributions. If you had not made that decision, we would be in a far worse position now.
Nonetheless, the sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce.
There is an urgency to our situation, but we also want to make sure that we get this reduction right, to protect the work of the Organization now and in the long term.
This is our current structure, with 11 divisions and 76 departments.
In designing our new structure, our starting point was the 14th General Programme of Work, and the priorities that Member States have set – to promote, provide and protect health.
Accordingly, our new headquarters structure will be based on three core pillars:
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control;
Health Systems;
and Health Emergency Preparedness and Response.
The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control division combines our work on specific health issues in one division, providing an end-to-end focus, from prevention to palliative care, and everything in between;
The Health Systems division covers our work on the classic “building blocks” of health systems;
And the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response division will do what it says on the tin.
Supporting the work of these three technical divisions will be the Office of the Chief Scientist;
While the division of Business Operations and Compliance will include the traditional corporate functions, with a mandate for continuous improvement.
Finally, the Office of the Director-General will oversee several corporate functions including accountability, governance, legal and external relations.
We are still considering options for the Deputy Director-General.
As the new organigramme shows, we are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from twelve to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by almost half, from 76 to 34.
The regional offices are finalizing their structures, which are aligned with headquarters.
It’s important to emphasize that this new structure is one outcome of prioritization, but it is by no means the end of the process.
It gives us a framework to continue moving forward with the next set of decisions about specific deliverables, and the staff we need to deliver them.
As I mentioned earlier, we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of at least US$ 560 million. This represents about 25% of staff costs in the current biennium.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean a 25% cut in the number of positions.
Exactly how many positions are abolished will depend on many factors, including grade and duty station, because, as you know, we will be relocating some of the functions to other geographic areas.
We expect that the most significant impact will be at headquarters, and as you have seen from the new structure, we are starting with reductions in senior management.
All regional offices will be affected to varying degrees.
We expect the least impact at country level, although we do plan to close some offices in high- and upper-middle income countries, which no longer need in-country support.
However, our focus on strengthening our country offices is unchanged.
We had a very honest discussion with staff this morning, and said to them that these are very painful decisions for all of us. They are decisions we have made after careful consideration, after exploring all options, and because we have no other choice.
This morning we explained to staff the next steps, and outlined the process for mapping and matching directors, unit heads and staff to the new structure.
This process will be managed by four committees:
An ad hoc review committee;
A reassignment committee;
A selection committee;
And a transparency and fairness committee.
We are also providing a range of services to support staff through this process, including support for career transition, resources on mental health, and a centralized portal with information about separation including health insurance, pensions and more - and we will have a dedicated desk for staff to get more information.
We will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues, but we will do it humanely and with kindness and dignity.
We have reached one significant milestone in our journey, but we still have a long journey ahead.
And even as we make this transition, we remain fully focused on serving our Member States and implementing the mandate you have given us in GPW14.
In fact, many countries need our support now more than ever.
Over the past few weeks I have spoken to many ministers, especially in developing countries, and the impact of the sudden cut in funding from USAID is very severe.
At the same time, many countries recognize the need to transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance, and they see this situation as an opportunity to accelerate that transition. They agree that a change in mindset will be very important – the mindset of aid dependency has to be changed. That’s what they told me. So they see the termination of aid as an opportunity, although it came suddenly.
WHO therefore has a critical role in supporting countries to navigate this challenging period, mobilize domestic resources and sustain health services.
I thank Member States for the input and support you have given us so far on this journey.
We will continue to seek that input and support as we make this transition over the coming weeks and months.
In particular, we seek your commitment to refrain from mandating the Organization with more work at a time when we are scaling down to ensure we deliver on our core functions, with quality and on time.
The focus now must be on consolidating our core work and protecting the future of our Organization – your Organization.
We believe as WHO this exercise will help WHO to emerge stronger and more empowered.
Thank you.