The Trump administration's announcement that it would withdraw from the World Health Organization has made the agency's financial situation "more acute," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff in an email sent Thursday night.
In response, the WHO, he said, will freeze recruitment, "except in the most critical areas," and "significantly" cut back on travel expenditures.
Missions to provide technical support to countries should be "limited to the most essential."
"This set of measures is not comprehensive, and more will be announced in due course," the email added. "I thank those staff who have already sent suggestions for mobilizing resources and further improving our efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and I invite all staff to do the same."
The letter was viewed by AFP and Politico.
The U.S. withdrawal will take one year to complete.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order detailing how the withdrawal process might begin.
His move calls for pausing the future transfer of U.S. government funds to the organization, recalling and reassigning federal personnel and contractors working with WHO, and for officials to "identify credible and transparent United States and international partners to assume necessary activities previously undertaken by" WHO.
The U.S. has historically been among WHO's biggest donors, providing the U.N. health agency not only with hundreds of millions of dollars, but also hundreds of staffers with specialized public health expertise.
Ghebreyesus said he hoped the new administration would "reconsider it."
"We are open to engaging in constructive dialogue to preserve and strengthen the historic relationship between WHO and the USA," he said.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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