Manila -- Ten more countries in the Western Pacific pledged to provide an additional US$ 12.1 million to the World Health Organization through its first-ever Investment Round.
This comes in addition to US$ 18 million announced by Singapore in May. The WHO Investment Round aims to secure predictable, flexible, and resilient resources for WHO’s core work over the next four years.
The seventy-fifth session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific began on Monday with Member States formally endorsing the new regional vision Weaving Health for Families, Communities and Societies in the Western Pacific Region (2025-2029): Working together to improve health, well-being and save lives.
The financial commitments were made during a special event on the Investment Round at the Regional Committee today.
Governments and partners from across Asia and the Pacific in attendance emphasized the importance of ensuring WHO has robust financing to implement its global strategy for the 2025-2028 period, the 14th General Programme of Work, which was approved by Member States at the World Health Assembly in May 2024.
The Philippine government co-hosted the special event and made a historic pledge of US$ 10 million to the WHO Investment Round. During his remarks,
“A robust, reliable, and sustainably funded WHO is crucial for the Western Pacific region and the world to address inequities and inequalities in health which were amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic," said Teodoro J. Herbosa, Philippine health secretary. "Today, we have taken a significant first step towards a future where health and well-being are accessible to everyone.”
Malaysia also demonstrated its support of WHO’s work through a US$ 2 million pledge towards the Investment Round.
In a powerful symbol of Pacific leaders’ commitment to health and WHO’s pivotal role in supporting them, eight Pacific Island countries pledged to double their funding contributions to WHO for 2025.
The contributions were announced today by Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
“We have launched the first WHO Investment Round, which aims to mobilize the sustainable and predictable resources we need to do our work. Thank you all for your commitment to promoting, providing and protecting health, for all people of the Western Pacific," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general.
Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said the "historic" contributions "is a sign of governments’ confidence in WHO as their partner in health, and a recognition of the need for sustainable financing in order to deliver on the vision of weaving health for families, communities and societies in the Western Pacific."
“We are off to a great start for the Investment Round in the Western Pacific based on today’s event,” Piukala said. “Today we also heard that we should expect to see more countries and partners stepping up to provide additional resources in the coming weeks.”
Launched at the World Health Assembly in May 2024, the Investment Round aims to mobilize contributions that are flexible and thereby aligned with WHO’s strategy as approved by its Member States, predictably provided at the start of the four-year programme cycle to enable strategic decision-making, and resilient in that they will derive from a larger, more diverse set of donors.
WHO’s Investment Round will culminate at the G20 leaders’ summit chaired by Brazilian President Lula da Silva next month.
Subscribe to
our digital
monthly edition
Kommentare