Looking for new donors, improve quality of funding: WHO chief

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said that the institution plans to look for new sources of funding, and also improve the quality of funding in an attempt to provide help to countries who are in dire need if a dangerous public health crisis emerges.

"As part of the transformation agenda, we have developed the first investment case, and we have developed a strategic plan to mobilize resources... we have also developed a strategy to build a foundation which we hope would be established soon and looking for new sources of funding and also expand our donor base," Tedros told the media.

He said that the global health body's budget was 'very, very small', hoping that challenges pertaining to financing is resolved soon. "WHO`s budget is very, very small, it`s not more than $2.3 billion a year and that`s very small... Imagine the budget of a medium-sized hospital... for WHO, which is actually working in the whole world. We started the transformation three years ago. So, we`re working on it and we hope that the challenges we`re facing with regard to financing will be resolved," he said.

Explaining the strategy behind securing new donors for funding, Tedros said, "Hopefully when this strategy actually is implemented -- we have started already implementing -- we don`t see it in terms of just mobilizing funding, but we will expand and strengthen our programs and deliver better to the world to those who need our service."

The WHO also expressed "greatest concern" for its core budgets which are used for frontline health services in some countries.

"Much of the U.S. funding that reaches us here actually goes directly out in the emergencies program to humanitarian health operations all over the world, in all sites of fragile and difficult settings. It`s... actually the greatest proportion of funding that we receive from WHO within the emergencies program," Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme said.

However, he was hopeful that other countries would step up to ensure that the aforementioned funds keep flowing.

It is to be noted that United States President Donald Trump had announced halting America's funding of the World Health Organization (WHO) as he ordered a review to assess the UN body's role in "severely mismanaging and covering up" the spread of the deadly coronavirus last month.

Trump had accused the WHO of taking side with China in the coronavirus outbreak that has forced more than half of the world's population under lockdown.