They added: “While we appreciate the competing priorities every country is faced with, any cut to UK funding would have a disastrous effect on Gavi’s work supporting routine immunisation of more than half the world’s children, maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against diseases like Ebola and cholera, reaching vulnerable communities in humanitarian contexts with vital services, and helping countries and the world quickly respond to outbreaks.”.
According to data collated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), to which the UK has previously been one of the main contributors, even a small cut in UK funding would be expected to result in millions fewer vaccinations, leading to huge numbers of preventable deaths.
Hundreds of thousands of children in the world’s poorest countries will die if the UK cuts back funding for a hugely effective vaccination programme as part of its significant reduction in overseas aid, the Guardian has been told.
The projections, put together by aid agencies based on Gavi’s records and seen by the Guardian, will place more pressure on the government over its plan to hugely reduce overseas aid, using the money to spend more on defence, after the resignation in protest on Friday of Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister.
The projections, dating from before the new cuts, calculated that even if the UK kept its contribution to Gavi steady, rather than a hoped-for increase of 10%, this would lead to the Geneva-based alliance vaccinating 8 million fewer children, about 200,000 of whom would subsequently die.
