Gates bigger funder of WHO than US govt

Gates bigger funder of WHO than US govt

Updated at: 1352 PST, Monday, June 28, 2010 NEW YORK: Two entities making the biggest voluntary contributions, the US government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in World Health Organisation (WHO). A closer look at the list of voluntary contributors suggests that the Gates Foundation could now be the biggest contributor, bigger than even the US. At the 63rd World Health Assembly in May, a 24-page briefing document produced by the WHO secretariat gave details of voluntary contributions for the financial period 2008 and 2009. According to this document, the US contributed $424.5 million and the Gates Foundation $338.7 million. However, a careful examination of the list of voluntary contributions and the donors shows there are several organizations like the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) which has contributed over $85 million and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) that has given over $9 million to WHO. The Gates Foundation happens to be one of the biggest donors for both GAVI and PATH. The Gates Foundation also happens to be a generous donor to many foundations and universities making contributions to the WHO. For instance, the Johns Hopkins University, which contributed about $4.3 million to WHO, got about $88 million in 2009 alone from the Gates Foundation. The allocation of the budget is supposedly determined by World Health Assembly and WHO Regional Committee meetings.