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WHO 152nd Session of the Executive Board - Item 20 - Budget and finance matters - EU Statement

01.02.2023 Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in Geneva

Chair,

Director-General,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

This statement is made on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[*], the potential candidate country Georgia, as well as Armenia align themselves with this statement.

The EU welcomes the increased transparency in the preparation of the draft budget 2024-2025 and thanks the Secretariat for implementing the requests of MS in this regard.

We appreciate the new structure of the draft budget towards a simpler and more streamlined Programme Budget with a strong country focus and the three main objectives:

  • strengthen country capacity to accelerate progress towards the triple billion targets, while guaranteeing the full implementation of the GWP13;
  • continue the work defined by the recent revision of the Programme budget 2022–2023;
  • further strengthen accountability and transparency, incorporating guidance from the Agile Member States Task Group on strengthening WHO’s budgetary, programmatic and financing governance.

However, we urge the secretariat to include a description of the “outcome level” ie what the secretariat de facto is going to deliver. This is central to results based budgeting and essential for MS to follow implementation.

The EU welcomes the Secretariat efforts to implement the recommendations of the Working Group on Sustainable Financing, the preparation of the current reform package and in this context the draft budget 2024-2025, taking into account the proposed increase in assessed contributions. We also support the continued examination of the possible establishment of a replenishment model. We also welcome the proposed revised approach to the allocation of flexible resources.

Together, these measures are designed to contribute to a more sustainable and predictable financing for WHO, and we are confident that they will be important tools in addressing gradually the issue of persisting "pockets of poverty" in budget financing.

Thank you.

[*] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.