Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has pared down its staff in its Geneva headquarters, Washington DC and New York by 33% – from 643 to 440 people, the agency confirmed today, following a June replenishment drive that fell about $2 billion short of a $11.9 billion fundraising goal for 2026-2030.

Beginning in 2026, the agency will also rollback support to partner agencies, The World Health Organization and UNICEF for their vaccine initiatives. “As part of the package of trade-offs agreed by Gavi’s Board, WHO and UNICEF will see approximately a 30% reduction in funding,” a Gavi spokesperson confirmed of plans for the next five-year period, 2026-2030.

The new Gavi strategy, approved by ts Board Thursday, also vests greater power in countries to determine their own vaccine priorities – beyond the most essential child and youth regimens – with a pared-down budget of $10 billion.

“In a major strategic shift that further centers country ownership, nearly 90% of the budget available to Gavi for vaccine procurement in its next strategic period will be allocated directly to countries through “country vaccine budgets”,” said the organization in a press statement after the four-day board meeting concluded.

“In a time of financial constraints, countries will have full control of how to optimise and prioritise immunisation programmes per their national strategies and context.” Gavi said it would also increase it’s support for fragile and conflict-settings by 15% – despite cuts elsewhere.

Gavi Leap

The changes part of the new Gavi Leap  strategic plan for 2026-2030.

“As a result, more than a third of Gavi’s overall funding for countries will be focused on the 25% most vulnerable children. Allocations for country vaccine budgets will also prioritise the lowest income countries with the highest number of deaths amongst children under five. A new agile funding mechanism, called the Gavi Resilience Mechanism, will provide flexible support to countries and partners in fragile and humanitarian settings around the world,” the organization said.  

In low income countries, the budget cuts should not lead to the roll-back of existing vaccine schedules, a Gavi spokesperson emphasized in response to queries by Health Policy Watch. But new schedules and campaigns will be added more slowly.  And in the case of some lower-middle income countries, Gavi will pare back some support in favor of domestic sources.  At the same time, new and more efficient procurement hould also add economies to the system.

Since the pledging event, Gavi has now raised $9.5 billion, with new commitments still pending, so that Gavi officials expressed confidence that they could meet the $10 billion target with ease.

The organization also will shift away from “rolling applications” so that all countries compete for funding on a more equal playing field.  “This also ensures countries that apply more quickly do not have an advantage in terms of access to Gavi financing and that all countries have an advance view of resources available for the next five years – and can clearly identify in advance areas to supplement with domestic financing,” the Gavi statement said.

Basic vaccine coverage assured

According to sources in Gavi explained that support will work through country vaccine budgets that will allow countries to:  

• Maintain funding for key routine programmes: including polio vaccination (IPV and hexavalent); the pentavalent vaccine (diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b); pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV);  routine measles/measles-rubella vaccination, as well as catch-up and follow-up campaigns;  Human Papillomavirus (HPV) campaigns among young teens and young women;  rotavirus and yellow fever.
• Provide for a hepatitis B dose at birth – continuing with longstanding expert advice for the jabs estimated to have prevented some 200 million cases of hepatitis B between 2001-2020. A 2020 Lancet study estimated the vaccines will prevent some 38 million deaths among people born betweeen 2000 and 2030 in 98 low- and middle-income countries. Despite the evidence, a newly reformed US vaccine advisory committee stacked with vaccine skeptics on Friday recommended to delay the birth dose by at least a month – a decision that critics say will reverse decades of progress against chronic liver disease.
• Decide on other priority vaccines at national level –  meaning countries can choose/tailor which ones to implement based on their priorities, context, and available funding.

“Through the Gavi Leap, we are putting in place an ambitious programme of reforms that will enable countries to have increased agency and ownership over use of resources and decreased administrative burden, which will help our Alliance achieve its programmatic objectives. These changes are well on their way to implementation, with grant management reform – a key pillar of the Gavi Leap – already in place and a year-long Secretariat review that will see our headcount reduce by 33% now complete,” said Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi.

Building on the post pandemic “Big Catch-Up Campaign”

During its fifth strategic period from 2021 to 2025, Gavi exceeded the target of achieving a 10% reduction in under-five mortality in supported countries, the organization said. 

In 2024 alone, Gavi-supported vaccination programmes saved at least 1.7 million lives in 2024, the highest number recorded in a single year. Critical new efforts to introduce malaria vaccines and revitalise HPV vaccination programmes against cervical cancer also achieved their targets. While delivering on these goals, the Alliance also helped the world respond to infectious disease emergencies – supporting an unprecedented number of outbreak response efforts, delivering 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 146 countries via COVAX, and enabling recovery of routine immunisation coverage after the pandemic through “the Big Catch-Up” campaign.   

Despite those successes, the broader crisis in global health finance was reflected in Gavi’s June replenishment drive – which saw the United States, traditionally a major donor, withhold any new pledges altogether for the upcoming period.  The event featured a blistering attack by US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy around alleged vaccine safety issues – which both Gavi and other top experts  repudiated.  See related story.

GAVI Vaccine Alliance Secures More than $9 Billion from Donors – Despite US Ambush at Pledging Event

Image Credits: Gavi/2017/Karel Prinsloo, Gavi , Gavi Leap .