WHO to Cut Thousands of Jobs in 2026

The World Health Organization (WHO) said its workforce would shrink by nearly a quarter, or more than 2,000 jobs, by the middle of next year due to the fallout of losing its largest donor, the United States, earlier this year, Rueters reported.

As CMM previously reported, in January President Donald Trump signed an order to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO. The U.S. is by far the WHO’s largest financial funder, contributing approximately 18% of the organization’s funding.

According to Reuters, WHO projects that its workforce will decrease by 2,371 posts by June 2026 from 9,401 in January 2025 due to job cuts along with retirements and departures. The global health agency said in August that hundreds of staff had departed, but Rueters reported that this is the first time WHO has given the scale of global staff changes.

This week, the WHO is also scheduled to announce a US$1.06 billion deficit in its 2026-2027 budget, or about a quarter of its total required budget, down from an estimated gap of $1.7 billion in May.