(Bloomberg) -- 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 immunizations and research for cures for diseases that kill millions of people each year, are seeking to replenish their coffers with about $100 billion 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, the UK 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 $9 billion it needs.
“The resource constraints are a challenge and the traditional G-7 donors have competing priorities,” 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 $1 billion — even as it still needs more than $6 billion 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 $267 million, 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 US has already pledged $1.58 billion toward the latest round. Countries including the UK and Germany have indicated that they will at least maintain previous commitment levels, even as formal pledges have yet to materialize.
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 nonprofit has been working with some of these countries for two decades, some of the funding from Gulf countries has recently increased, she said.
Budgets Slashed
“Across the board, foreign aid budgets are under immense pressure,” said Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of the Center for Global Development’s global health-policy program. “Many of the major traditional donors are slashing their aid budgets.”
One strategy to fill what’s ceded by traditional donors is to lean on new funders, she said.
“Collectively, the group of Gulf donors have been a set of rising players that are worth watching,” she said.
Despite their growing role, the Arab Gulf states remain small donors for Gavi and the Global Fund and the support of these countries is not enough to top up the potential gaps left by the historically large donors.
“We have many signs suggesting that the prospects for a successful fundraising cycle, given this broader context we’re in, looks very grim,” said Madan Keller.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.