WHO DG-Elect Tedros Faces Challenges At Agency With Waning Influence, Potential Funding Losses

Vox: The WHO’s new boss is tasked with an impossible job
“…Last week, the WHO elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as its new leader, the first time an African has won the top spot at the United Nations’ public health agency. … Tedros inherits a fraught organization. … Today, the agency is facing the real possibility that it might lose a significant chunk of its already small budget: The WHO’s largest contributing country, the United States, may be pulling back on its support. … ‘I think it’s likely that the Trump administration will try to reduce funding to the WHO as part of a more general push to reduce its global footprint and investment in international organizations,’ said Jennifer Kates, [vice president and] director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. ‘If the U.S. pulls back [its funding],’ she added, ‘there’s a vacuum in terms of that role in leadership on development funding’…” (Belluz, 5/31).

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