The World Health Organization is freezing hiring, suspending investments and cutting non-essential travel in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to take the US out of the global body.

The US withdrawal “has made our financial situation more acute,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff in an email seen by Bloomberg dated Jan. 23. Plans include “cost redundancies and efficiencies,” he wrote.

A WHO spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the email.

The WHO will be freezing recruitment “except in the most critical areas,” the director general wrote. Travel expenditure will be significantly reduced, with all meetings to be virtual by default without “exceptional approval.” Office refurbishments and expansions will also be suspended.

Trump’s plan to leave the WHO, one of a flurry of executive orders the incoming president signed on his return to office this week, left the WHO scrambling to replace its top donor. The US contributed $1.3 billion to the organization between 2022 and 2023, helping the WHO carry out its work on containing diseases such as HIV, polio, Ebola and a recent outbreak of lethal Marburg virus.

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Published on January 24, 2025