2025 is proving to be a pivotal moment for global health and its complex network of public, private, multilateral, non-governmental, and philanthropic organizations. Many of their representatives are based in Geneva, Switzerland, around the Palais des Nations. Faced with budget cuts announced by major historical donors, multilateral organizations have no choice but to restructure and consider the best way to streamline expertise that has become significantly fragmented in recent years.

"Global health is in a budgetary crisis," said Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health in Geneva. The general decline in development aid was already underway in several countries when the US announced a sweeping cutback in January, shortly after the Trump administration took office. Starting last year, Germany, the United Kingdom and France also implemented aid reductions of around 30% to 40%. The shock announcement from the US only hastened a crisis that has been well underway since the Covid-19 pandemic.

If the US Congress confirms the new administration's announcements, nearly all American development aid would be cut. These threats have already somewhat materialized with the abrupt elimination in March of more than 80% of programs by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a major donor to international solidarity, whose annual budget was $42.8 billion (€38.3 billion). "Without USAID's funding halt, maybe we would have continued to overlook the fact that 40% of international aid comes from the US," added Flahault.

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