Ministers from multiple countries hit by the abrupt cuts in external funding for health have agreed on the urgent need for country-owned and -implemented strategies and a laser-sharp focus on health data. In a press statement, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that people in at least 70 countries are missing out on treatment due to global funding cuts.
He told WHO members at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva that in at least 70 countries, patients are missing out on treatments, health facilities have closed, health workers have lost their jobs, and people face increased out-of-pocket health spending.
WHO is currently facing a USD 600 million hole in its annual budget and cuts of 21 per cent over the next two-year period.
The ministers attending the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly in Geneva agreed on the urgent need during ministerial dialogue co-hosted by WHO and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation at the Professor Senait Fisseha, Vice President of Global Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, set the tone by noting that the crisis presents an opportunity for a turnaround in how health financing policies and health data systems are built and operated.
