Vaccine group Gavi seeks to broaden donor base as aid budgets shrink 

By Ahmed Eljechtimi

RABAT (Reuters) -Global vaccine group Gavi is seeking new donors for its work funding childhood immunisation in the world's poorest countries, its chief executive told Reuters, as many traditional funders cut international aid budgets. 

Gavi is aiming to raise $9 billion at a summit in Brussels later this month for its work from 2026-2030, but countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and France have all signalled that they plan to slash global aid funding in the coming years, and their pledges remain uncertain. 

"We want to broaden our donor base," Gavi's Sania Nishtar told Reuters in Rabat, where she met officials to encourage Morocco to join as a new donor.

She said that India and Indonesia, which had previously been supported by Gavi, were now contributing as donors to the organization, which works with low and middle-income countries to buy vaccines for diseases from measles to cholera.

Other countries like Portugal have also increased their funding commitment, she said. 

During her Morocco visit, Nishtar toured a vaccine manufacturing facility near Casablanca under development by Marbio, a biopharmaceutical venture backed by Morocco.

She said the plant had "a good chance" of benefiting from Gavi's $1.2 billion African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, a scheme aimed at boosting vaccine production on the continent.

Gavi has already sought out more private sector donors, initiated cost-saving initiatives, and discussed closer collaboration with other global health groups as part of plans to try to tackle potential shortfalls in funding.

Nishtar said the organization was making contingency plans, but she hoped that donors at the June 25 summit would give enough that they would not be needed.

A U.S. government document showed in March that the U.S., which has previously given around $300 million to Gavi annually, did not plan any future funding.

Nishtar said that Gavi has not yet received this year's funding, which has already been approved by Congress.

Gavi is currently focused on combating a global measles outbreak and is responding to cholera outbreaks in Sudan, South Sudan, and Angola, where it has made special arrangements to supply vaccines from its stockpiles, Nishtar said.

It is also supporting Sierra Leone, where the spread of mpox has accelerated. 

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Additional reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Aidan Lewis)