US aid cuts strain response to health crises worldwide: WHO

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The United States slashing foreign aid risks piling pressure on already acute humanitarian crises across the globe, a World Health Organisation official said Sunday, also warning against withdrawing from the UN agency.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding, moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programmes, and announced plans to leave the WHO.

Washington, which had long been the WHO’s biggest donor, did not pay its 2024 dues, and it remains unclear if the United States will meet its membership obligations for 2025

The agency, already facing a gaping deficit this year, has proposed shrinking its budget by a fifth, likely reducing its reach and workforce, according to an earlier AFP report citing an internal email.

“The WHO with its partners have a significant role in sustaining healthcare systems, rehabilitation of healthcare systems, emergency medical team training and dispatching, pre-placement of trauma kits,” Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said.

“Many of these programmes have now stopped or are not going to be able to continue,” she said.