The Gates Foundation has announced a significant commitment of $1.6 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, spanning the next five years. This substantial pledge aims to bolster efforts in safeguarding millions of children in the world’s most vulnerable nations from preventable diseases. The announcement precedes a high-stakes pledging summit scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels, an event co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation. This summit endeavors to secure $9 billion to sustain Gavi’s critical vaccine initiatives between 2026 and 2030.

Amid deep cuts to global aid budgets, which threaten to reverse decades of progress in child survival, Bill Gates, Chair of the Foundation, issued a stark warning. He stated that for the first time in decades, the number of child deaths globally is likely to increase this year due to massive reductions in foreign aid. Gates emphasized that fully funding Gavi represents “the single most powerful step” to prevent this tragic reversal of progress in global child health, noting that declining budgets and shifting political priorities have severely impacted international development programs.

Gavi operates as a vital public-private partnership, collaborating with governments and various organizations to fund and distribute life-saving vaccines for diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and polio. Despite its crucial role, the alliance faces considerable financial uncertainty. The previous U.S. administration had indicated intentions to cut American contributions to Gavi, which amount to approximately $300 million annually. Dr. Sania Nishtar, Gavi’s CEO, cautioned that the potential withdrawal of U.S. support could result in an estimated 1.2 million additional deaths over five years, leaving millions of children unprotected against diseases that are currently preventable. The Brussels pledging event is anticipated to bring together world leaders, donor agencies, and global health organizations to secure essential financial support for Gavi’s upcoming phase of operations.

The Gates Foundation’s latest commitment aligns with its broader philanthropic vision. Since its inception in 2000, the Foundation has dedicated over $30.6 billion to advance vaccines, encompassing their discovery, development, and distribution. Of this, Gavi has been the Foundation’s largest grantee, receiving $7.7 billion. This renewed pledge also follows the Foundation’s 25th-anniversary declaration that it will invest $200 billion over the next two decades to accelerate its core mission of helping all people lead healthy, productive lives. During this period, the Foundation, in collaboration with its partners, aims to achieve significant progress across three primary goals: ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies, preventing deadly infectious diseases in the next generation, and lifting millions out of poverty by expanding opportunities. Additional areas of focus include aiding U.S. students’ access to opportunities, strengthening digital public infrastructure, applying new uses of artificial intelligence in health, education, and agriculture, and advancing gender equality.

Since its launch 25 years ago, with initial backing from the Gates Foundation and other founding partners, Gavi has played a pivotal role in halving child mortality. It has successfully vaccinated more than 1.1 billion children across 78 low-income countries, thereby preventing nearly 19 million deaths from diseases like measles, pneumonia, and diarrhea. However, despite this remarkable progress, challenges persist: one in five children still lack access to essential vaccines, and outbreaks of preventable diseases, including measles and meningitis, are on the rise, threatening to reverse decades of gains. Gavi’s co-financing model emphasizes country ownership and long-term sustainability, wherein partner countries contribute more to their vaccine programs as their economies grow, eventually transitioning to self-financing. To date, 19 countries have successfully graduated from Gavi support.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, stands as a prime example of Gavi’s impact. In 2024 alone, Nigeria received thousands of doses of Mpox, malaria, cholera, and meningitis (MenFive) vaccines through Gavi. More recently, the Nigerian government secured a substantial $191 million health systems strengthening grant from Gavi, one of its largest, designed to enhance immunization delivery over the next four years. This funding is projected to reach at least 1.8 million zero-dose children and boost immunization coverage to 84 percent by 2028. Furthermore, Gavi is investing nearly $100 million in a nationwide measles and rubella vaccination campaign targeting over 100 million children in Nigeria.