WHO warns of severe disruption of vital health services
(MENAFN) Essential health services in low- and middle-income countries could face serious disruption in 2025 as external health aid is expected to fall by 30% to 40% compared with 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Monday.
In guidance aimed at helping governments navigate the looming crisis, the WHO highlighted that sudden funding cuts are already limiting access to maternal care, vaccinations, disease monitoring, and emergency preparedness—reducing availability by up to 70% in some nations, based on surveys conducted in March.
Data from 108 countries indicated that more than 50 have reported job losses among health workers and interruptions to training programs.
"Sudden and unplanned cuts to aid have hit many countries hard, costing lives and jeopardizing hard-won health gains," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "But in the crisis lies an opportunity for countries to transition away from aid dependency towards sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources."
The agency noted that the current funding shortfalls are exacerbating long-standing challenges, including rising debt, inflation, economic instability, high out-of-pocket expenses, chronic underfunding of health systems, and heavy reliance on external aid.
To mitigate the impact, the WHO urged governments to treat health as a political and fiscal priority, emphasizing that health spending should be seen not just as a cost but as an investment in social stability, human dignity, and economic resilience.
The guidance advises countries to focus resources on services accessed by the poorest populations, safeguard health budgets and essential services, and improve efficiency through better procurement, reduced overheads, and strategic purchasing. It also recommends using health technology assessments to identify services and products that deliver the greatest health impact per dollar spent.
Several countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and Uganda, have already begun measures to strengthen health budgets and reform financing systems to reduce dependence on external aid, the WHO noted.
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