The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO has offices worldwide and over 7000 employees. Determining the exact number of WHO employees is complex due to the organization’s extensive global operations. This article will examine available data to estimate the size of the WHO workforce.
WHO Staff Demographics
According to the WHO’s website, the organization has over 7000 people working in 150 country offices, 6 regional offices, and its headquarters. This includes both fixed-term and short-term employees. The WHO staff comes from over 150 nationalities and speak around 115 languages.
Around 80% of the WHO’s employees are based in regional and country offices around the world. Only 20% of staff work at the headquarters in Geneva. The majority of the field staff are nationals of the countries in which they work. This allows the WHO to better respond to local health needs and priorities.
WHO Headquarters Staff
The WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland has around 1600 employees. This includes:
- Professional category staff – Doctors, epidemiologists, scientists, public health specialists, etc. There are over 800 professional staff at headquarters.
- General service category staff – Administration, HR, IT, finance, facilities management and other corporate service roles. There are around 500 general service staff.
- National Professional Officers – Experienced nationals recruited from member states to bring local knowledge. There are over 250 national professional officers.
In addition, there are 30-40 senior directors managing the key departments at headquarters. The Director-General heads the organization and has 6 Deputy Director-Generals supporting them.
Regional and Country Office Staff
The WHO has 6 regional offices and around 150 country offices. The regional offices each have between 200-300 employees covering roles like medicine, public health, partnerships and finance. The country offices are smaller with between 5-100 employees depending on the country size. In total, the regional and country office staff account for around 80% or 5000+ of the WHO’s employees.
WHO Staffing Trends
The number of WHO employees has gradually increased over the past decade:
Year | Number of WHO Staff |
---|---|
2010 | 4400 |
2015 | 5400 |
2020 | 7300 |
Key drivers of this growth include:
- Expanding country office networks – 20 new country offices opened in the last decade.
- New program and partnership priorities – e.g. immunization, polio eradication, COVID-19 response.
- Increased complexity of global health governance.
However, over this period the split between professional and general service staff has remained relatively constant at 60% and 40% respectively.
Contract Types
The WHO uses several contract modalities for recruiting and employing staff:
- Fixed-term appointments – Regular ongoing WHO contracts, normally for 2-5 years duration.
- Short-term contracts – For specific short-term projects or peak periods, usually less than 1 year.
- Consultants – External experts brought in for specific assignments and deliverables.
- UN Volunteers – Skilled professionals who volunteer for WHO assignments.
- Interns – undergraduate and graduate students undertake 3-6 month internships.
Fixed-term staff make up the bulk of the workforce. Short-term contracts and consultants help the WHO respond rapidly to emergencies and new priorities. Interns and volunteers also boost its capacity in a flexible and cost-effective way.
Budget for Human Resources
For the 2022-2023 biennium, the approved WHO budget includes US$803 million for human resources. This represents around half of the US$1.9 billion overall budget. Salaries account for US$631 million of the HR budget. The remainder covers consultant fees, travel and training costs.
With personnel making up such a high proportion of costs, the WHO aims to manage staff numbers carefully. It has an ongoing target to reduce the workforce by 10% through natural attrition. New expertise is added through short-term hires and consultants rather than permanent roles.
Conclusion
The World Health Organization employs over 7000 people globally, with around 1600 staff at its Geneva headquarters and 5000 across regional and country offices. The workforce is diverse, multilingual and dominated by technical experts in fields like medicine, epidemiology and public health. WHO staff numbers have gradually grown over the past decade driven by expanded country presence and new health programs. Personnel costs account for around half of the organization’s US$1.9 billion budget. Careful workforce management and use of flexible staffing models help control human resource spending. Accurate data on WHO headcount and demographics is not always readily available. However, by piecing together figures from across the organization, we can estimate the scope and shape of this important global health workforce.