President Donald Trump has announced halting America’s funding of up to $500 million annually to the World Health Organisation while a review is being done to assess its role in “severely mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the deadly coronavirus when it first emerged in China.

“Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the WHO while a review is conducted to assess the WHO’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump told reporters.

Trump and his senior officials have previously accused the Geneva-based UN health body of taking side with China in the coronavirus outbreak that has brought America’s economy, the world's largest, to a standstill.

US taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO, in contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less, the president said.

“As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the US has a duty to insist on full accountability, one of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations,” Trump said.

He also alleged that WHO failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts.

The UN secretary-general expressed support for the WHO after it came under attack from Trump over the pandemic, saying that now is not the time to look back and assess how all those involved reacted to the crisis. “As it is not that time, it is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the WHO or any other humanitarian organisation in the fight against the virus,” Guterres said.

He said that now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.

Funding for WHO

WHO’s Programme Budget is financed through a mix of assessed and voluntary contributions. Assessed contributions are the dues countries pay in order to be a member of the organisation. The amount each member state must pay is calculated relative to the country's wealth and population.

Assessed contributions have declined as an overall percentage of the Programme Budget and have, for several years, accounted for less than one quarter of the organisation’s financing. The balance is mobilised through voluntary contributions.

However, assessed contributions remain a key source of financing for the organisation, providing a level of predictability, helping to minimise dependence on a narrow donor base, and allowing resources to be aligned to the Programme Budget.

WHO assessed contributions are due and payable as of January 1 from all WHO member states and associate members (currently 194 member states and two associate members). 

Where the total annual assessed contribution for a member state is $200,000 or greater, that member’s contributions are assessed half in US dollar and half in Swiss francs, otherwise, contributions are assessed in US dollars only. WHO accepts Voluntary Supplementary Assessed Contributions (VAC).

The US contributed nearly $900 million to the WHO’s budget for 2018-19, according to information on the agency’s website. That represents one-fifth of its total $4.4 billion budget for those years. 

The US gave nearly three-fourths of the funds in “specified voluntary contributions” and the rest in “assessed funding” as part of Washington’s commitment to UN institutions.

A more detailed WHO budget document provided by the US mission in Geneva showed that in 2019, the US provided $452 million, including nearly $119 million in assessed funding. In its most recent budget proposal from February, the Trump administration called for slashing the US assessed funding contribution to the WHO to $57.9 million.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the second-largest funder of the WHO.

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