WHO to lose nearly 2,400 jobs by mid-2026

The cuts are brutal. But with a $1 billion funding gap in 2026, there remain uncertainties ahead

Geneva, Switzerland  | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | The World Health Organization will lose a significant number of its global staff by June 2026, after months of a painful reorganization process in response to significant donor funding cuts.

Provisional data presented to member states on Wednesday showed global staff numbers will decrease by 2,371 by the end of June 2026 from 9,401 in January 2025. WHO said that includes 1,089 staff members who are leaving by natural attrition, and 1,282 staff members whose employment will be terminated.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states on Wednesday WHO is “now almost at the end of the process,” emphasizing that the objective “has been to safeguard the core functions of the organization and align our financial and human resources with those functions, while minimizing separations to the greatest degree possible.”

He added: “If we had not taken this approach, we estimate that we would have had to separate about 2,900 colleagues globally.”

In a staff email, the WHO chief executive said he expected new opportunities “will open up” in the future, and that separated staff will be prioritized for those.

One senior WHO official, however, described the cuts in one word: “CHAOS.”

Geneva and Brazzaville to be most hit

The biggest reductions will fall on the organization’s Geneva headquarters and the Africa regional office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, which will lose 808 and 774 workers of their workforce, respectively. The data shows some slight discrepancies in numbers and percentages.

The biggest impacts proportionally will be on those in either the director or entry-level professional positions. But the highest absolute number of workforce reductions will fall on locally recruited staff and those serving in administrative and support positions.

The official told Devex that one thing still to be explained is what will be deprioritized.

“We have not set out what we will not do, and the narrative from the top continues to be we do more with less, which is not realistic,” the official said.

Restructuring at WHO kicked off after the U.S. announcement of its intention to withdraw its membership from the agency in January 2025. The U.S. government was historically WHO’s largest contributor, accounting for about 16% of the agency’s total funding in 2022-2023.

In March, with the agency facing a $600 million gap in its budget, Tedros said they have “no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce.”

The months that followed saw a wide-scale, across-agency prioritization process fraught with uncertainties for staff, some of whom have voiced concerns about the fairness of the process. In September, the WHO staff association even called for a freeze on layoffs and an independent review of the process, as reported by Health Policy Watch.

WHO also downsized departments at headquarters and reduced its senior leadership team, which led to the departure of some prominent leaders, such as Dr. Mike Ryan, while others have taken different positions, including Dr. Bruce Aylward, who now heads the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board Secretariat.

$4.2 billion budget 

Uncertainties remain when it comes to funding.

WHO, recognizing a difficult funding landscape, resorted to a $4.2 billion budget for 2026-2027, a 14% reduction. However, only a portion of that funding is secured. WHO still has a $1 billion funding gap, as well as $1.1 billion of funding that includes agreements in early stages of negotiations.

Tedros asked member states to close the remaining gap in funding, and to approve future increases in assessed contributions, which are expected to be decided upon in 2027, 2029, and 2031 — long after his term has concluded.