WHO Launches 2026 Emergency Appeal Seeking $1 Billion for Crisis Health Response

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially launched its 2026 global appeal, calling for nearly US$1 billion to ensure millions of people living in humanitarian crises and conflict zones can access essential health care services.

The announcement comes as WHO reflects on its 2025 achievements, where the organisation and its partners supported 30 million people through its annual emergency appeal. These vital resources facilitated life-saving vaccination for 5.3 million children, enabled 53 million health consultations, supported more than 8,000 health facilities, and facilitated the deployment of 1,370 mobile clinics in crisis-affected regions worldwide.

The 2026 appeal aims to respond to 36 emergencies across the globe, including 14 Grade 3 emergencies—the highest level of organisational response required. These emergencies encompass both sudden-onset disasters and protracted humanitarian crises where health needs remain critically acute.

Speaking at the launch, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, delivered a powerful message about the importance of global solidarity. This appeal is a call to stand with people living through conflict, displacement and disaster—to give them not just services, but the confidence that the world has not turned its back on them. It is not charity. It is a strategic investment in health and security. Access to health care restores dignity, stabilises communities and offers a pathway toward recovery, he stated.

The 2026 appeal arrives at a particularly challenging moment, marked by converging global pressures. Protracted conflicts, escalating climate change impacts, and recurrent infectious disease outbreaks are driving unprecedented demand for health emergency support—whilst global humanitarian financing continues to contract alarmingly.

In 2025, humanitarian funding fell below 2016 levels, leaving WHO and its partners able to reach only one-third of the 81 million people originally targeted to receive humanitarian health assistance. This shortfall underscores the urgent need for renewed commitments and international solidarity to protect vulnerable populations in the world's most fragile settings.

WHO's priority emergency response areas for 2026 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. The organisation will also continue responding to ongoing outbreaks of cholera and mpox in affected regions.

As the lead agency for health response in humanitarian settings, WHO coordinates more than 1,500 partners across 24 crisis settings globally. This coordination ensures that national authorities and local partners remain at the centre of all emergency response efforts, building sustainable local capacity.

Ambassador Noel White, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations Office in Geneva and co-chair of the launch event, reaffirmed his nation's commitment. Every humanitarian crisis is a health crisis. That is why Ireland is proud to support the WHO emergency response through unearmarked, flexible and predictable funding of the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, he said.

Also speaking as co-chair, Ms Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations Office at Geneva, highlighted WHO's indispensable role. In today's most complex emergencies, WHO remains indispensable—protecting health, upholding international humanitarian law, and ensuring life-saving care reaches people in places where few others can operate. From safeguarding access to sexual and reproductive health and rights to supporting frontline health workers under immense strain, WHO's role is vital. Norway calls on all Member States to strengthen support for WHO so it can continue delivering for those who need it most, she stated.

WHO and partners' emergency response actions encompass keeping essential health facilities operational, delivering emergency medical supplies and trauma care, preventing and responding to disease outbreaks, restoring routine immunisation programmes, and ensuring access to sexual and reproductive, maternal and child health services in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

Early, predictable investment enables WHO and partners to respond immediately when crises strike—reducing death and disease, containing outbreaks, and preventing health risks from escalating into wider humanitarian and health security crises with far greater human and financial costs.

Whilst WHO and other humanitarian partners have been forced to make difficult choices to prioritise the most critical interventions, what remains are the most impactful activities. With the requested resources, WHO can sustain life-saving care in the world's most severe emergencies, whilst building a bridge towards peace and long-term recovery.