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.
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.
Dismay as UK poised to cut funding for global vaccination group Gavi Exclusive: Aid charities alarmed as decision would come in wake of Donald Trump’s decision to freeze USAid activities.
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.
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.
