The Philippines has pledged to provide a historic $10 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its initiative that is aimed at mobilizing predictable and flexible resources for the next four years to address important global health challenges.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus thanked Manila for its financial commitment, which was made during the 75th session of the Western Pacific Regional Committee from Oct. 21 to 25 in the Philippines.
The pledge was dedicated to WHO's Investment Round, the international body's new approach to mobilizing predictable and flexible resources for its core work for 2025 to 2028.
The Investment Round was launched after Covid-19 amplified the severe inequities and inequalities in health that the world is now facing.
WHO's regional vision for the next four years is to weave health for families, communities and societies in the Western Pacific. Based on the vision's information document, "our societies need to be better organized to support health systems that are inclusive and respectful of diversity–regardless of disability, race, ethnicity or gender–in order to combat inequity."
What WHO said it needs to do is the following:
• Promote the health of all people of all ages in all places at all times,
• Provide equitable access to good-quality health-care services through strengthened systems, using transformative primary health care as a cornerstone for Universal Health Care, and
• Protect human populations from exposure and impacts of life-threatening situations caused by biological threats, as well as food safety incidents and non-biological threats including climate-related disasters.
The Philippine government co-hosted a special event, where it made a historic pledge of $10 million.
In his remark, Department of Health (DOH) Secretary of Health Ted Herbosa said that "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."
"Today, we have taken a significant first step towards a future where health and well-being are accessible to everyone," he said during the event.
Malaysia also pledged $2 million while eight Pacific Island countries also committed to double their funding contributions to WHO for 2025.
First-ever voluntary contributions to WHO were announced by Cook Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The announcement of the new pledge came in addition to $18 million announced by Singapore in May.