There is mounting rage amongst World Health Organization’s (WHO) staff about planned workforce reductions, as new financial data suggests that low- and mid-level personnel are bearing the brunt of cuts—while high-ranking executives, whose real costs far exceed their published salaries, remain largely protected.
In an email to WHO staff last week, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he anticipated some 600 jobs would be shed from WHO’s Geneva headquarters for the coming 2026-2027 biennium.
At the beginning of 2025, 2,938 WHO staff were employed at headquarters, and 9,452 worldwide, not including the Americas region, which has its own separate budget. But in January, the United States, WHO’s largest donor, pulled the plug on its contributionsimmediately after US President Donald Trump took office thrusting the agency into a deep crisis.
“With a 21% reduction in the 2026-2027 budget, we are now realigning our structures with our core mandate,” Tedros told staff in an email on 19 August, coinciding with a management briefing to member states.