By Jennifer Rigby
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration plans to end U.S. funding for Gavi, an organization that helps buy vaccines for children in poor countries, and will scale back efforts to combat malaria, among thousands of cuts revealed in a document prepared by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The administration will continue to fund some grants that pay for drugs that treat HIV and tuberculosis and provide food aid to nations where civil wars and natural disasters are occurring, according to the document, which was first reported by the New York Times.
The document, reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday, lists international aid programs that will be dismantled as well as those that will be retained.
Washington has drastically scaled back foreign aid since Trump took office, with around 80% of contracts abruptly cut to align with the new administration’s ‘America First’ policy, sowing chaos, confusion and suffering worldwide.
The 281-page document lists 898 programs that will remain active, totaling $78 billion in spending – much of which it says has already been disbursed.
In total, 5,341 awards will be terminated, representing just under $76 billion, the document says. The government has obligated, or made a legal commitment to spend, around $48 billion of that total.
The U.S. government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gavi said that U.S. support for its operations was “vital”.
“With US support, we can save over 8 million lives over the next 5 years and give millions of children a better chance at a healthy, prosperous future,” it said in a statement on X.
Gavi estimates it has saved 18.8 million children’s lives since its inception in 2000, by helping countries buy routine childhood vaccines to protect against deadly diseases ranging from measles to diphtheria.
When asked about the U.S. plans, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the United Nations was a “tremendous supporter” of Gavi. He described it as “an amazing symbol of multilateral cooperation, of public-private cooperation, in the fight against diseases – diseases that know no borders.”
“We encourage everyone to give and give generously,” he said.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Ahmed Aboulenein and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Jennifer Rigby in Paris and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Makini Brice, Mark Heinrich and Nia Williams)
