WHO announces major restructuring, staff reduction due to funding shortfall

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is implementing a significant restructuring plan that will involve a reduction in the number of employees and a substantial decrease in departments from 76 to 34, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Monday.

“As you know, we have been engaging in a major structural realignment, guided by an in-depth analysis of priorities.”

Addressing the World Health Assembly, Dr. Tedros stated that this major structural realignment is a direct consequence of a lack of sufficient funding, necessitating a prioritization of the organization’s core functions.

“The prioritization exercise has informed the development of a new streamlined structure for headquarters, which reduced the executive management team from 14 to 7. The number of departments from 76 to 34,” Tedros said in a report to the World Health Assembly.

The Director-General explained that an in-depth analysis of priorities guided the development of this new, streamlined structure for the WHO headquarters.

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This restructuring has already led to a reduction in the executive management team from 14 to 7 members.

The drastic reduction in the number of departments is expected to lead to a corresponding decrease in the number of employees as the organization adapts to its constrained financial resources and focuses on its most critical global health initiatives.

The WHO leadership emphasized that this difficult decision was necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the organization in addressing global health challenges.