Alarm as WHO accepts increasing amount of dark money from corporate donors

Experts say millions in corporate funding and concealment of donors’ identities raises key conflict-of-interest concerns

The World Health Organization Foundation took an increasing amount of dark money from corporate donors during the three years since its 2020 inception, research has shown, raising concerns among some experts and campaigners that big business is playing a larger role shaping the institution’s policies.

Through the end of 2023, the last year for which records were available, the foundation had taken about $83m in corporate donations, and concealed the identity of donors for about 60% of the sum, a new report into the issue states.