The Programme budget 2026–2027 is the first to be fully developed based on the Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14), prioritizing health equity, resilience, and country-level impact. Building on the foundation of GPW 13, it outlines strategic shifts to strengthen primary health care, promote universal health coverage, strengthen health emergency preparedness and response, and boost progress towards healthier populations. Amid a complex global context marked by epidemics and pandemics, climate change, economic instability, and inequality, WHO reaffirms its leadership role and the importance of multilateral cooperation in safeguarding global health. This Programme budget also reflects a disciplined response to constrained financial realities, revising the overall envelope from the Executive board version of US$ 5.3 billion to US$ 4.2 billion while maintaining focus on high-impact results.

The Programme budget underscores WHO’s continued commitment to supporting Member States through technical cooperation, policy development, and evidence-based interventions tailored to national needs. It reinforces equity as a guiding principle, with a focus on vulnerable populations and a robust results framework to ensure accountability and transparency. 

The results framework of the Programme budget 2026–2027 is grounded in principles of results-based management, providing a clear and logical connection between inputs, activities, and the resultant health improvements, ensuring that every action contributes to WHO’s overarching goals. For 2026-2027, Member States are presented with 18 outcomes (15 joint outcomes, 3 corporate outcomes); and 42 outputs that constitute the main results of GPW14, and the core of the draft Programme budget 2026–2027 (Joint and corporate outcomes and outputs).

The Programme budget 2026–2027 builds upon key recommendations of the recent independent evaluations and lessons learned from previous budget cycles, including the need for effective prioritization. The prioritization process of WHO outcomes builds on the experiences of the Programme budget 2024–2025 where country priorities were identified through an iterative process involving country level consultations to ensure alignment with national situations and priorities, focusing on areas where WHO's technical cooperation is most needed and highlighting WHO’s value added. The country prioritization can be viewed under the Dashboards section.

To support the strategic alignment across WHO’s three organizational levels, a prioritization exercise was also conducted across headquarters and the regional offices. It was based on deliverables of the Programme budget 2026–2027 within each output and aligned with country prioritization, while taking into account the current economic and financing context.

Informed by prioritization, budget allocation reflects priorities set collectively by the Secretariat and Member States and, in time, influence resource allocations and resource mobilization efforts. The total Programme budget for 2026-2027 is set at US$ 6,206.7 million, a 9% decrease from the previous biennium. The Programme budget is structured into four segments:

Base programmes: represents the core mandate of WHO and the largest part of the budget. It is proposed to be set at US$ 4,267.1 million, a decrease of US$ 701.1 million from 2024–2025. This adjustment responds to the current and evolving global financing environment.

An overview of the base programmes budget by major office and strategic objective – including joint outcomes 1–6 and corporate outcomes 7–8 – is provided in the table below (US$ million).

Emergency Operations and Appeals: includes WHO’s operations in emergency and humanitarian settings, as well as its response to acute events. The reference budget is US$ 1 billion (same as in previous biennia), and will be adjusted as needed, in response to the occurrence of event and as allowed by Director General’s delegated authority.

Polio Eradication: represents WHO’s share of the implementation of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative strategy budget. The segment is estimated at US$ 770.9 million, aligned with the extended Global Polio Eradication Strategy through 2029.

Special Programmes: includes special programmes that have additional governance mechanisms and budget cycles that inform their annual and biennial budgets. This segment is estimated at US$ 168.7 million, reflecting coordinated efforts among co-sponsors and oversight bodies.

The costing of resolutions and decisions approved by governing bodies was also assessed. For 2026–2027, budgetary implications of approved mandates amount to at least US$ 2.3 billion within the base programmes of the Programme budget. 

On Monitoring, Performance Assessment and Evaluation, improvements are underway to systematically track and evaluate progress towards health outcomes. The WHO results framework utilizes impact measurement systems, outcome indicators aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, and output/leading indicators to measure the Secretariat’s contributions to health outcomes and impact. The Programme budget 2026-2027 includes the full set of outcome and output indicators, with their baselines and targets, which will also be available on this platform.