US backs WHO reforms lead by member states

The United States said on Tuesday that member states must lead efforts to reform the World Health Organization (WHO), including any decision to provide additional funding to the U.N. agency.

The United States said on Tuesday that member states must lead efforts to reform the World Health Organization (WHO), including any decision to provide additional funding to the U.N. agency. "It is our duty to provide the WHO and the broader international system with the tools to do its work effectively, efficiently, independently and transparently," Garrett Grigsby of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who headds the U.S. delegation, told the WHO's Executive Board in Geneva.

"We must rise to this occasion even as we combat the pandemic and ressurect our economies," he said, speaking by videoconference from Washington. Britain's envoy, speaking on behalf of the Group of Seven wealthy nations, said that any WHO reforms need to be "ambitious and grounded in robust evidence".