GENEVA

The World Health Organization (WHO) appealed on Tuesday for $1 billion to respond to the world’s most severe health emergencies in 2026, warning that funding cuts have already forced thousands of facilities to shut and left millions without access to care.

"A quarter of a billion people are living through humanitarian crises that strip away the most basic protections: safety, shelter and access to health care," Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told a press briefing in Geneva.

He stressed that health needs are surging, whether due to injuries, disease outbreaks, malnutrition, or untreated chronic diseases, yet access to care is shrinking.

Ihekweazu said the appeal aims to cover 36 crises including Gaza and the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Myanmar.

"Already, 2025 was an exceptionally difficult year," he said, adding that "global funding cuts forced 6,700 health facilities in 22 humanitarian settings to either close or reduce services, cutting 53 million people off from health care.”

Families are facing "impossible decisions, such as whether to buy food or medicine," he said. "People should never have to make these choices."

Last year, the WHO responded to 50 emergencies in 82 countries, reaching more than 30 million people, supporting over 8,000 facilities and deploying more than 1,400 mobile clinics.

"Health is priceless," Ihekweazu said. "Today, we again invite the world to invest in health."

The US, a top donor to the WHO, officially withdrew from the organization in January.