FILE PHOTO: A medical health worker prepares a dose of the mpox vaccine at the Edison municipal vaccination centre in Paris, France July 27, 2022. Alain Jocard/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN: Arab Gulf states are increasingly being asked for health-care funding as concern grows over the ability of traditional European donors to continue meeting contribution needs.
At least five major funds, including some that help finance childhood immunisations and research for cures for diseases that kill millions of people each year, are seeking to replenish their coffers with about US$100bil by the end of next year.
That’s creating a so-called traffic jam that threatens the future of global health financing and with it, the world’s health security.
Simultaneously, aid budgets for countries including Germany, Britain and France are either declining or likely to do so, with economic challenges, conflict and climate change making the pitch for more cash for global health a harder sell.
Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, was one of the first to go to donors this year asking for funding. So far, it’s raised a third of the US$9bil it needs.
“The resource constraints are a challenge and the traditional G7 donors have competing priorities,” Gavi chief executive officer Sania Nishtar said in an interview in Berlin.
Nishtar was attending a global health summit where the World Health Organization confirmed it had raised almost US$1bil – even as it still needs more than US$6bil to reach its goal.
Gavi, which helps bring vaccines for diseases such as cholera and measles to children in the world’s poorest countries, is “tapping the donors that have not traditionally supported in a massive way”, Nishtar said. This includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
When Gavi formed in 2000, its donors were mostly western nations. Now Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain have pledged US$267mil, part of a broader trend of Arab Gulf states becoming more prominent in multilateral humanitarian funding.
Nishtar is “cautiously optimistic” that Gavi will meet its funding requirements. The United States has already pledged US$1.58bil toward the latest round.
Countries including Britain and Germany have indicated that they will at least maintain previous commitment levels, even as formal pledges have yet to materialise.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which faces a fresh round of fundraising next year, saw pledges from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE quadruple in its last funding period.
The Arab Gulf states are an important region for the Global Fund, Dianne Stewart, head of its donor relations department, said in an interview.
While the non-profit has been working with some of these countries for two decades, some of the funding from Gulf countries has recently increased, she said.
“Across the board, foreign aid budgets are under immense pressure,” said Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of the Centre for Global Development’s global health-policy programme.
“Many of the major traditional donors are slashing their aid budgets.” — Bloomberg
