The prediction that Britain is likely to cut funding to global vaccination group Gavi – which has inoculated more than 1bn children in developing countries – has been greeted with alarm by aid groups, which say it would be counterproductive and cost lives.
The news is particularly worrying, they say, as the shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will already halt that agency’s own vaccination work.
The Guardian reports that the UK has consistently been one of the biggest single donors to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), giving the Geneva-based public-private organisation more than £2bn over the past four years.
But with the country’s aid budget cut back from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP, and large sums from the remaining pot diverted to pay for the cost of supporting asylum seekers in the UK, officials and aid groups say contributions to Gavi are likely to be cut back significantly.
The last Conservative Government topped up aid funding to make up some of the money spent on asylum seekers, and it is understood it was planning to increase funding to Gavi.
Questioned by MPs last week, the International Development Minister, Anneliese Dodds, said funding for Gavi from the next financial year would depend on the government’s wider spending review, and talked about trying to “broaden the donor base” for the alliance.
Officials say a significant reduction is expected, but they point to other major aid efforts, such as the announcement in November of nearly £2bn in UK funding for the International Development Association, a World Bank fund for the lowest income countries.
Aid charities and campaigners argue that Gavi, to which the US has also previously been a major funder, along with the Gates Foundation, has proved to be hugely cost-effective and is heavily focused on UK aid priorities such as ending gender disparities and helping developing nations support themselves.
Gavi’s statistics show that it has vaccinated more than 1.1bn children in 78 countries in its 25 years of operation, preventing nearly 18m deaths.
Katie Husselby, the director of Action for Global Health, which groups together more than 50 UK-based organisations in the sector, said any decision on Gavi should be seen in the context of a “really challenging time for global health”, including Donald Trump’s decision on USAID and to pull the US out of the World Health Organisation.
“The cumulative impact of those things for global health is potentially disastrous,” she said. “So it’s important that this decision around Gavi is viewed within that backdrop. The global context is incredibly challenging, and we’re seeing a lot of backsliding on health progress.”
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