Global leaders commit $1.9 billion to eradicate polio amid funding cuts

Dec 8 (Reuters) - Global leaders pledged $1.9 billion to advance polio eradication on Monday, accelerating efforts to protect 370 million children from polio each year amid significant funding cuts.

The budget of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership that includes the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation, is expected to take a 30% cut in 2026 and has a funding gap of $1.7 billion up to 2029.

The shortfall is largely due to a global pullback from foreign aid, led by the U.S., which is withdrawing from the WHO, although its future funding for polio is not yet final. Other wealthy donor governments like Germany and the UK have also made cuts.

The GPEI partners, in response, plan to focus more on surveillance and vaccination in areas with a high risk of polio transmission.

"The new support pledged in Abu Dhabi will be instrumental in helping the GPEI reach all children in the final endemic countries and stop variant polio outbreaks around the world." said Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

The pledging event, hosted by Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, will reduce the remaining resource gap for GPEI's 2022 to 2029 strategy to $440 million.

Pledges were made from a diverse group of donors and countries, including $1.2 billion from the Gates Foundation and $450 million from Rotary International.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)