WASHINGTON, United States – The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) finances are organised in two-year cycles.

The WHO’s budget for the 2018 and 2019 two-year bracket was US$5.62 billion, of which US$4.3 billion was in specified voluntary contributions, according to figures now updated until the fourth quarter of 2019.

Looking at the specified voluntary contributions that have been fully distributed is one way of making comparisons between the contributions of donors to the WHO.

In this sector, the United States is the biggest contributor with US$553.1 million, or 14.67 per cent of the total specified voluntary contributions that ended up being fully distributed.

The money, which can often be highly earmarked for particular projects, is paid out throughout the year as projects and needs arise.

The next biggest contributors are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (9.76 per cent), the GAVI vaccines alliance (8.39 per cent), Britain (7.79 per cent) and Germany (5.68 per cent).

They are followed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (5.09 per cent), the World Bank (3.42 per cent), Rotary International (3.3 per cent), the European Commission (3.3 per cent) and Japan (2.73 per cent).

China’s contribution of US$7.9 million amounted to 0.21 per cent of the total — behind Luxembourg (0.3 percent) and Pakistan (0.36 per cent).

 ASSESSED CONTRIBUTIONS

Assessed contributions are the dues countries pay to be a WHO member. They are calculated relative to the country’s wealth and population and payable as of January 1.

 At US$957 million in the last budget cycle, assessed contributions are the second-biggest tranche of the WHO’s funding.

The United States contributed US$237 million, nearly 25 percent of the total. China contributed US$76 million, or eight per cent of the total.

“China speaks extensively to African countries in particular, to position itself as a defender of a more equitable new world order,” said Alice Ekman, the senior Asia analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

“The WHO is only one multilateral structure among others; China’s influence is significant within the UN system — and it’s not just about its financial contribution,” she told AFP.

 WHERE THE WHO’S SPENDING GOES

Within the specified voluntary contributions sector in the 2018 and 2019 budget — before the coronavirus crisis — the WHO’s biggest spending outlay was on polio eradication (26.51 per cent).

Next came increasing access to essential health and nutrition services (12.04 per cent); vaccine-preventable diseases (8.89 per cent); establishing effective coordination and operations support (6.1 per cent), and preventing and controlling outbreaks (5.96 per cent).

 In terms of regional distribution, it reached those projects via Africa, which received US$1.32 billion; the eastern Mediterranean (US$1.23 billion); the WHO headquarters (US$591 million); southeast Asia and Europe (US$223 million each); the western Pacific (US$166 million) and the Americas (US$24 million).