WHO Executive Board meets in the shadow of second Trump withdrawal

PHM's item commentaries for EB156 (selected items) are now posted. Navigate through the EB156 Tracker page to the PHM comments on individual item or download the integrated commentaries file here.

The WHO Tracker page provides easy direct access to relevant papers and reports on each item as well as a link to the individual item commentaries.

This Commentary is produced through PHM’s team of policy analysts and network of consultants. Feedback is welcome; write to [email protected].

Trump unfreezes global health: scenarios and strategies
On 20 Jan 2025, Donald Trump:

• reinstated his 2020 notice of withdrawal from WHO and ordered US officials to cease all cooperation with WHO and to cut off US financial transfers to WHO ($643m or 16% of base segment in 2023). In the same order he announced plans to set up alternative structures to replace WHO.
• announced the US withdrawal from “withdrawal from any agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”.
• announced a “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance”. Health programs affected include PEPFAR ($7b in 2023), polio eradication ($160m in 2023), Gavi ($400m in 2023) and the Global Fund ($2b in 2023).

The advent of Trump is a shake-up, an unfreezing of established institutions, norms and global relationships. It is both a window of opportunity for progressive forces, but also a possible tipping point towards disaster, including a deepening health crisis, runaway global heating and devastating conflict.

The Trump withdrawal must be appraised with an eye to the long standing coloniality of global health, including through WHO.

It is also necessary to understand the domestic drivers of the Trump withdrawal from WHO and Paris and the closure of USAID.

So, what happens next? And how should we respond?

Our preliminary reflection is here. PHM will publish a more broad-ranging analysis shortly.

The WHO Tracker and PHM item commentaries are produced as part of WHO Watch which is a project of the People's Health Movement. WHO Watch aims to contribute to democratising global health governance, through new alliances, new information flows and by broadening the policy discourse.

See the WHO Tracker page for this EB156 session (here). See PHM’s integrated commentary on the full agenda; also downloadable in French from the Tracker EB156 page. To ensure that you receive Update Alerts subscribe to the Updater.

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