In an effort to expand their outreach and capabilities, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Investment Round program in an effort to mobilize funding for its operations over the next four years. The idea for seeking new investors was conceived in January of this year as the WHO shifts from being primarily an advisory and record-keeping agency to an organization more focused on strengthening global governance and taking a leading role in determining responses to health emergencies.
In previous years, the WHO’s funding came primarily from voluntary contributions from Germany and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but after the COVID-19 pandemic put the WHO in the spotlight, it began looking for additional income sources in order to ensure a more reliable and predictable budgetary process.
When the WHO was initially founded in 1948, it relied solely on contributions from UN member states to fund its work. Today, however, UN member states only contribute 20% of the WHO’s budget with the rest coming entirely from donors.
In 2019, the WHO’s operating budget, composed of both assessed contributions and donated funds, amounted to just around $2 billion. This year, that number rose to $6.7 billion, and the WHO is hoping that its new Investment Round will add an additional $7.1 billion in voluntary funding to their operating budget over the next four years.
Source: All for Health, Health for All: investment case 2025–2028
The WHO makes its case
In a white paper entitled “All for Health, Health for All,” the WHO lays out its case for why the private sector should invest in the agency’s 2025-2028 program.
According to the document, the WHO has the capabilities of providing essential health services for people around the world and combating significant health issues such as the skyrocketing number of cases of non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and mental health disorders.
As such, Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, promises a very healthy return of $35 for every $1 invested when measured in terms of the economic benefits that result when interventions are implemented under the WHO’s “trusted guidance and support.”
According to him, a well-funded WHO is essential for the world to address multiple ongoing global threats to health because it is a unique organization with unique legitimacy and unique expertise, trusted by governments and local stakeholders around the globe.
Over the past five years, the WHO states that it has helped more than 1.2 billion people live healthier lives and helped 430 million people receive health services without financial hardship. Furthermore, in the same period, the WHO has helped 600 million people become better protected against health emergencies.
The WHO believes that voluntary funding can help it transform global health by using science and data in order to provide more efficient and tailored support to countries, thus saving more than 40 million people’s lives over the next four years.
Source: All for Health, Health for All: investment case 2025–2028
The WHO has already appointed a Chief Scientist with unified data divisions and streamlined global business functions, but it can only continue to provide this level of tailored support to countries if the agency is predictably and sustainably financed, estimated at $11.1 billion over the next four years.
The WHO believes that every dollar invested in its budget is an investment in humanity and an investment that makes the world a healthier, fairer, and safe place.
Should the WHO successfully reach its funding goals for 2025-2028, it claims it will:
- Make 10,000 fully functional solar-powered health facilities
- Reduce obesity for 1.2 billion people
- Help countries employ an additional 3.2 million health workers
- Vaccinate an additional 247 million people
- Put 200 million people on antihypertensive treatment
- Provide access to health care for 150 million people, including 40 million primary care visits
- Identity and assess 30 health threats per month
- Coordinate the response to 60 health emergencies per month
- Increase the number of WHO in-country staff on long-term contracts
In short, the WHO forecasts that it will be able to help 6 billion out of the projected 8.4 billion people live healthier lives in 2028 and protect 7 billion of them from health emergencies.
As such, the WHO believes that it will have an “immense impact” on the health of the world’s population if it can meet its funding goals for the Investor Round and implement its agenda for the next four years.
While few details were provided, the main thrust of the WHO’s argument in appealing to potential investors is that the agency will design and lead a new global health architecture over the next four years and be able to take a much more active role in giving guidance and technical support for countries through an increased presence on the ground in 154 countries if it can rely on a stable and fully-financed budget.
