The head of leading vaccines group Gavi alliance said Thursday it has not received confirmation from the U.S. government that it might be losing more than $1 billion in pledged funding as part of a reported proposal by U.S. authorities to cut support for international aid groups.
According to a leaked 281-page spreadsheet issued by the United States Agency for International Aid this week, the U.S. plans to terminate 5,341 awards to dozens of groups it had previously supported, including the Gavi alliance, a global vaccines group that helps immunize more than half the world’s children against infectious diseases. The spreadsheet was first reported by The New York Times.
“We have not received a termination notice from the U.S. government,” said Dr. Sania Nishtar, Gavi’s Chief Executive. In a statement on Thursday, Nishtar said Gavi was “engaging with the White House and Congress,” hoping to secure the $300 million approved by Congress for their activities this year, as well as longer-term funding.
Nishtar said that a cut to Gavi’s funding would be “disastrous,” potentially resulting in more than 1 million deaths from preventable diseases.
The U.S. had pledged to provide more than $1.5 billion through 2030 to Gavi, founded in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the World Bank.
The Geneva-based group says it has helped vaccinate more than 1 billion children in 78 poorer countries against diseases including measles, Ebola and malaria, averting nearly 19 million deaths.
Dr. David Elliman, a children’s health expert at University College London, called the reported U.S. withdrawal of funding from Gavi “cruel" and “utterly misguided."
“If diseases such as measles and TB increase anywhere in the world, it is a hazard to us all,” he said.
The USAID spreadsheet lists more than 5,341 awards that the U.S. is planning to terminate to groups including UNICEF, the International Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Save the Children, Doctors of the World and Action Against Hunger.
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