U.S. 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, which was 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 per cent 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 US$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. Around $48 billion of that total has been obligated, it adds.
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 eight million lives over the next five years and give millions of children a better chance at a healthy, prosperous future,” it said in a statement on X.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Jennifer Rigby in Paris; Editing by Makini Brice and Mark Heinrich)
Jennifer Rigby, Reuters
