The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm over a deepening global crisis in health financing, urging immediate and coordinated action as many nations struggle with rising debt and declining international aid.
In a statement on Monday (Nov 3), WHO said that drastic cuts in external funding have severely disrupted essential health services across low- and middle-income countries. The agency released new guidance to help nations mitigate both the short- and long-term effects of these financial shocks.
“The world is now facing a global health financing emergency that requires urgent and unified action,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while addressing African Union member states in Geneva.
Under the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, the United States historically the largest contributor to global health aid made significant reductions in foreign assistance. Other major donors have also scaled back funding, creating widespread hardship, particularly in poorer regions of Africa that depend on aid to sustain basic healthcare services.
According to WHO estimates, external health funding in 2025 is expected to fall by more than 30 percent compared to 2023. Data collected in March indicated that around 70 percent of low- and middle-income countries have already faced immediate service disruptions.
“These sudden funding cuts are already having a devastating impact,” Tedros warned. “One-third of countries are reporting severe shortages of essential medicines and health programmes.”
He noted that even before these recent reductions, health financing was inadequate, as mounting debt from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded chronic underfunding of public health systems. However, he emphasized that the current crisis could serve as a turning point an opportunity for countries to shift from aid dependency toward “sovereignty, self-reliance, and solidarity.”
Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, echoed this sentiment, stressing that African nations must now intensify efforts toward financial independence in health.
In its new guidance, WHO recommends that governments prioritize investments in health, safeguard health budgets despite fiscal pressures, and focus spending on high-impact services and products that deliver the greatest health benefits per dollar spent.
Several African countries are already taking steps in this direction. Nigeria, the host of Monday’s (Nov 3) event, has increased its health budget by $200 million this year to compensate for reduced foreign aid. Ghana has also boosted its health funding by lifting the cap on excise taxes allocated to its national health insurance scheme, raising its budget by 60 percent.
“Spending on health should not be seen as a cost but as a high-return investment,” said African Union Health Commissioner Amma Twum-Amoah. “Africa must take ownership of its health future and move from dependency to health sovereignty.”
