The conclusion of the UK’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) last week brought good and bad news. The bad news? It began to give us details of the previously announced cuts to overseas aid, with the budget falling from £9.3bn in 2024/25 to £6.19bn in 2027/28. That’s over £3bn less spent on protecting the world’s most vulnerable people.
And the good news? Well, at least it’s over…
The shrinking of the UK’s aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income represents a “new normal”, according to the UK’s Development Minister Jenny Chapman.
We will continue to fight to restore aid spending, and to protect the lives and livelihoods at risk because of this decision.
And at the same time, we must make sure every penny of UK aid delivers the maximum pay-off in terms of lives saved and broader benefits to the UK.
A great place to start is with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Here are three reasons why Gavi is well worth the investment:
1. Save children’s lives
Save the Children works with Gavi to support immunisation in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach communities.
Take Sudan, a country gripped by conflict that has recently seen a dramatic surge in violence. Travelling big distances by motorbike and camel, our committed health workers here get Gavi-funded vaccines to villages and communities cut off from a national health system that has been shattered by years of fighting.
Vaccines against preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough are a lifeline for Sudanese children. Just as they are for children and families around the world who are facing conflict, forced displacement and extreme poverty.
Every year, almost 15 million children go without even a single dose of a basic vaccine. In recent years, as humanitarian need has proliferated, that number has grown.
2. Protect the NHS
Immunisation in these fragile communities does not only fulfil a moral imperative, it protects our own health security. These communities are on the front line of a global fight against infectious diseases – diseases that are more than capable of spreading rapidly across borders.
In 2023–24, more than 20% of secondary care bed days in the NHS were attributable to infectious disease or infections – at a cost of £5.9 billion. That’s why it’s mutually beneficial to support childhood immunisation in low-income countries: it both saves children’s lives and prevents infectious diseases from reaching UK shores.
3. Boost UK industry and soft power
Ever since a Labour government helped launch Gavi in 2000, UK investments have played a key role in helping Gavi vaccinate more than a billion children and save more than 18 million lives. At the same time, Gavi has helped shine a global spotlight on the UK’s scientific leadership.
From 18 million doses of new, ground-breaking malaria vaccines that are already saving lives in Africa, to affordable, secure digital biometric identification and record-keeping systems that are transforming health systems in Ghana, Gavi links UK scientists and innovators with partner governments in the global South.
As Minister Chapman recently highlighted, the UK is Gavi’s largest sovereign donor for the simple reason that "it works”.
We agree. Gavi works so well that 19 of the low-income countries that were originally eligible for its support now pay the whole costs of their vaccine programmes. More are due to follow in their footsteps by 2030, as governments in low-income countries invest more domestic resources in immunisation each year. They see it as a top priority; the UK should support them on the path to self-sufficiency.
Keep the promise on 25 June
When Keir Starmer announced the UK is slashing its aid budget, he pledged to protect global health. Maintaining support to Gavi at the 25 June replenishment event is a litmus test for that promise to the UK public and families around the world.
The overseas aid cuts bring hard choices for the UK government. But one of the simplest is to maintain its commitment to Gavi. We know the UK public strongly supports saving the lives of children in the greatest need and preventing the spread of infectious diseases.
Investing in immunisation is the smartest, most cost-effective way to do it. In one shot it will save lives, help protect the NHS and support UK science.
That’s the kind of bargain the government shouldn’t ignore.
