WHO Executive Board agrees on $633 million budget.

• Position: World Health Organization

WHO Executive Board agrees on $633 million budget

Despite the serious liquidity crisisaffecting the World Health Organization (WHO), its Executive Board at its seventy-ninth session (12-23 January, Geneva) reached consensus on a proposed programme budget for 1988-1989 of $633 million and a proposed use of casual income in the amount of $25 million. The budget proposals will be reviewed at the fortieth session of the World Health Assembly, scheduled to start its work in Geneva on 4 May 1987.

Dr. Halfdan Mahler, WHO Director-General,called the proposals a "phantom' budget, stating that unless a radical change took place, a huge short-fall in income from contributions could be expected. It would, he added, most probably be impossible to carry out at least 10 per cent of planned activities because of lack of funds.

The Executive Board also examineda progress report on the global strategy of Health for All by the Year 2000, the draft Eighth General Programme of Work, activities for prevention and control of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and reports on international conventions on narcotic drugs...