Global vaccine group Gavi has $9 billion, short of its target

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By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -Global vaccine group Gavi has more than $9 billion for its work over the next five years helping to immunize the world’s poorest children, including money raised at a Brussels fundraising summit, it said on Wednesday.

The total, which Gavi announced at the end of the event, was less than targeted. It included new funding from governments and philanthropic donors, as well as money left after COVID-19 and other work. Gavi said more pledges were likely in the coming weeks.

Overall, the group was aiming to have $11.9 billion for its work from 2026 to 2030 and wanted to raise at least $9 billion at the summit without counting leftover money. In an interview with Reuters, Gavi Chief Executive Sania Nishtar said the bulk of the total was new pledges but did not elaborate.

“In a very, very dire moment for global health… this is far better than I had hoped it would be,” said Nishtar.

The total did not include a pledge from the United States. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said the United States would no longer fund Gavi and accused it of ignoring vaccine safety, without citing any evidence.

In response, Gavi said safety was its primary concern. The U.S. previously gave Gavi around $300 million a year. Nishtar said the statement was unfortunate, but Gavi hoped to continue a conversation with the U.S.

“Drastic cuts in aid coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines threaten to unwind decades of progress,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the summit, without referring to the U.S. specifically.

The United Kingdom was the biggest donor, pledging $1.7 billion, followed by the Gates Foundation, which pledged $1.6 billion.

Gavi board chair Jose Manuel Barroso said the result was important given that other countries have followed the U.S. in cutting international aid budgets.

“We know that it is not exactly what we wanted. Let’s be honest, we wanted more ambition,” he said.

Gavi said it was aiming for the money to immunize a further 500 million children and save around eight million lives from deadly diseases like measles and diphtheria from 2026 to 2030. The group also said it was planning reforms, partnerships with other global health groups and cost-cutting at its headquarters in Geneva to cope with the reduced sums raised.

Nishtar also said that multilateral development banks had committed to $4.5 billion in loans, available for vaccination programmes for countries for the first time. New donors also pledged money, including countries that were formerly supported by Gavi, like Indonesia and Uganda, she said.

“But we have to be mindful that if we fall short… (there will be) lives that we are unable to save,” she said.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)