WHO launches investment round to sustainably finance its health for all mandate

Support declared by Brazil, France, Germany, Norway, and Qatar 

The World Health Organisation (WHO)  launched its first-ever Investment Round as part of a broader plan to transform funding amid challenges like climate change, mass migration, pandemic threats, an ageing world population, and turbulent geopolitics.

The year – long initiative, co-hosted by countries,  will invite Member States and other donors to fund WHO’s 2025 – 2028 strategy, culminating in a pledging event hosted by Brazil around the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

“It’s about ensuring WHO is fully funded and improving the quality of the funding we receive. Much of the funding we receive is unpredictable, reactive, and tightly defined,” Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, opening the event on the eve of the Health Assembly. “The Investment Round aims to change that, by generating funding that is more flexible, predictable, and resilient.”

WHO’s third investment case, to be launched at the Health Assembly on May 28, 2024 estimates that full funding of the strategy, the Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14), will contribute to saving 40 million lives from 2025-2028.

Member States have also approved an increase in their assessed contributions, on the pathway to providing 50 per cent of WHO’s base budget by 2030. With the Investment Round, WHO is seeking to expand its donor base by mobilising new contributions from the WHO Member States that have not yet provided voluntary contributions and by tapping into new private sector donors through the WHO Foundation.