ABUJA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a 2026 global appeal seeking nearly one billion dollars to strengthen responses to health emergencies worldwide.
The organisation disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, saying the appeal is aimed at ensuring that millions of people affected by humanitarian crises and conflicts can access essential health care.
WHO said that in 2025, it and its partners supported about 30 million people through its annual emergency appeal.
The funding enabled the delivery of life-saving vaccinations to 5.3 million children, facilitated 53 million health consultations, supported more than 8,000 health facilities and led to the deployment of 1,370 mobile clinics.
According to the statement, the 2026 appeal targets 36 emergencies globally, including 14 Grade Three crises that require the highest level of organisational response.
These emergencies include both sudden-onset and protracted humanitarian situations where health needs remain critical.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the appeal was a call for global solidarity with people affected by conflict, displacement and disasters.
“This is not charity. It is a strategic investment in health and security,” he said.
“Access to health care restores dignity, stabilises communities and offers a pathway towards recovery.”
Ghebreyesus noted that the appeal comes amid mounting global pressures, including protracted conflicts, the escalating effects of climate change and recurring infectious disease outbreaks, all of which are increasing demand for emergency health support. He added that this was happening at a time when global humanitarian financing continues to decline.
He revealed that in 2025, humanitarian funding dropped below 2016 levels, leaving WHO and its partners able to reach only one-third of the 81 million people initially targeted for humanitarian health assistance.
“Renewed commitments and solidarity are urgently needed to protect and support people living in the most fragile and vulnerable settings,” he said.
The Director-General said WHO’s priority emergency response areas in 2026 would include Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen, as well as ongoing outbreaks of cholera and mpox.
He added that as the lead agency for health response in humanitarian settings, WHO coordinates more than 1,500 partners across 24 crisis settings worldwide, while ensuring national authorities and local partners remain central to emergency response efforts.
Speaking as co-chair at the launch event, Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Noel White, said every humanitarian crisis was also a health crisis.
He said this informed Ireland’s support for WHO’s emergency response through flexible and predictable funding of the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
Also speaking, Norway’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ms Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, said WHO remained indispensable in today’s most complex emergencies, protecting health and upholding international humanitarian law.
She said the organisation ensured life-saving care reached people in areas where few others could operate, including support for sexual and reproductive health services and frontline health workers under severe strain.
“Norway calls on all Member States to strengthen support for WHO so it can continue delivering for those who need it most,” she said.
Sørheim-Rensvik explained that WHO and its partners focus on keeping essential health facilities operational, delivering emergency medical supplies and trauma care, preventing and responding to disease outbreaks, restoring routine immunisation, and ensuring access to maternal, child, and reproductive health services in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
She added that early and predictable investment allows rapid response when crises occur, reducing deaths and disease and preventing health threats from escalating into wider humanitarian and security crises with higher human and financial costs.
She noted that with the requested funding, WHO would be able to sustain life-saving care in the world’s most severe emergencies while helping to lay foundations for recovery and peace.
