Thailand to contribute US$1m to WHO health security programme

Thailand will work with the World Health Organization (WHO) through the UN agency’s 14th General Programme of Work 2025–2028 (GPW14) and a secondment programme to promote national and global health security.

Deputy government spokesperson Ploythalay Laksameesaengjan told the media that the Cabinet resolved this week to contribute US$1 million (about 32.24 million baht) to support the WHO Investment Round (WHO IR), which is part of GPW14.

She said the funding has been earmarked in the government’s 2027 and 2028 fiscal-year budgets, with US$500,000 (about 16.12 million baht) allocated in each year. About half of the total contribution will support the WHO Country Office for Thailand and directly benefit local health missions.

Ploythalay noted that Thailand’s contribution to the US$7.1 billion WHO IR mechanism is voluntary and is in addition to the country’s annual membership contribution to the UN agency.

She said the Cabinet had also endorsed an initiative to send five Public Health Ministry personnel a year to join the WHO’s secondment programme, beginning in fiscal 2027.

The personnel, whose secondments will be funded from the Public Health Ministry’s annual budget of about 22.51 million baht, will work either at WHO headquarters in Geneva or at its regional offices in Southeast Asia, where the WHO’s health economics framework is based.

According to the government spokesperson, the selected Thai personnel must hold positions equivalent to WHO’s P4 or P5 international professional ranks and meet the criteria set by Thailand’s Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC).

Each will work for one year to help meet the WHO’s growing personnel needs in areas including universal health coverage, antimicrobial resistance, digital health, health economics, health financing and data analytics. Their work will, in turn, help strengthen and sustain Thailand’s public health system, Ploythalay said.