4 days ago
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The Trump administration is planning to end funding for Gavi, a global health organization that helps provide vaccines and other life-saving care to developing countries.
A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by the New York Times lists the Trump administration’s plans for thousands of foreign aid programs, including financial cuts to the organization that buys vaccines for children, as well as scaling back on programs that combat malaria in developing countries.
Gavi is estimated to have saved the lives of 19 million children since it was set up 25 years ago with the US contributing 13% of its budget, the Times said.
“The US has historically been one of Gavi’s biggest donors and I hope that longstanding champions on Capitol Hill will urge the administration to reverse course,” said Janeen Madan Keller, policy fellow and deputy director of the Global Health Policy program at the Center for Global Development.
She added: “Gavi is one of the most impactful global health initiatives. We know that vaccinating children is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve health and save lives – which is exactly why Gavi has enjoyed bipartisan support to date.
“This latest move will turn back years of hard-won progress and stymie Gavi’s efforts to stop the spread of infectious disease outbreaks before they reach the US border.”
Dr Austin Demby, health minister of Sierra Leone, told the newspaper he was “shocked and perturbed” by the decision. “This is not just a bureaucratic decision, there are children’s lives at stake, global health security will be at stake,” he said.
The document, which the Times reports comes from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), lays out the foreign aid programs it intends to cut and those it plans to keep. The administration intends to only maintain certain programs, such as providing food aid to nations where civil wars and natural disasters are occurring and continuing to fund some grants that pay for drugs that treat HIV and tuberculosis.
A cover letter included in the documents reportedly details what remains of USAID after the sweeping cuts, with the majority of funding eliminated and only 869 of more than 6,000 employees still on active duty. Trump’s administration has decided to continue just 898 USAID awards and to end 5,341, the letter says, with the remaining programs totaling $78bn in worth.
The list of terminations was confirmed to the Times by a spokesperson for the state department, which now runs what is left of USAID.
The spokesperson told the paper that “each award terminated was reviewed individually for alignment with agency and administration priorities, and terminations were executed where Secretary Rubio determined the award was inconsistent with the national interest or agency policy priorities”.
It is not currently clear if the administration has the legal power to end these programs, as most health funding is allocated by Congress.
The cuts are the latest in a long line of moves the Trump administration has made against USAID. Last week, a judge ruled that the USAid shutdown led by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) probably violated the US constitution. Data collected by analyst organisations shows that Trump’s USAID cuts will likely have a devastating impact on global climate finance.
