Dismay as UK poised to cut funding for global vaccination group Gavi | Vaccines and immunisation

The UK is poised to cut funding to a global vaccination group that has inoculated more than a billion children in developing countries, a move aid groups say would be counterproductive and cost lives.

The expected decision is causing particular alarm given that it would come immediately after Donald Trump effectively shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), halting much of its own vaccination work.

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 last four years.

But with the UK 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 Bill and Melinda 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 1.1 billion children in 78 countries in its 25 years of operation, preventing nearly 18 million deaths.

Kitty Arie, the chief executive of Results UK, a global poverty campaign that works closely on immunisation, said Britain’s role in Gavi’s success was “such a proud thing for us”.

“So, stepping back or no longer being the leading donor in March is really quite a significant thing,” she said. “On the face of it, a cut in the UK contribution to Gavi would cost lives.”

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 Trump’s decision on USAid and to pull the US out of the World Health Organization.

“The cumulative impact of those things for global health is potentially really disastrous,” she said. “So I think it’s really 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.”

One aid source said they feared Dodds was using the government’s ongoing spending review as “cover” for the change of plan, noting that while she had said this meant she could not comment on the commitment to Gavi, other aid funding had been released.

Monica Harding, the Liberal Democats’ spokesperson on international development, said the UK had been a leader in immunising children worldwide. “Now, at a time of deepening conflicts and crises in the world it is essential we remain steadfast in our support to the world’s poorest and this brilliant effort,” she said.

Aid spending under Labour had fallen compared with even the Conservatives, she said: “All the foreign secretary’s talk of reconnecting Britain and resetting our place in the world has to be matched by action. Warm words won’t protect the world’s poorest children.”

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was contacted for comment.