WHO launches $1 billion global appeal

Geneva [Switzerland], February 4: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday launched its 2026 global appeal for nearly $1 billion to ensure that millions of people living in humanitarian crises and conflicts can access healthcare.
"This appeal is a call to stand with people living through conflict, displacement and disaster to give them not just services, but the confidence that the world has not turned its back on them," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The 2026 appeal seeks to respond to 36 emergencies worldwide, including 14 "grade 3" crises requiring the highest level of organisational response at a time of stinging funding cuts as humanitarian and health financing is experiencing its sharpest decline in a decade, the agency said.
"Around one quarter of a billion people are living through humanitarian crises that have stripped away safety, shelter and access to healthcare [while] global defence spending now exceeds $2.5 trillion a year," Tedros said at the launch in Geneva.
Source: Emirates News Agency