Beyond the headline: Gavi 6.0 pledges in a constrained funding landscape

Introduction

World Immunization Week, observed April 24-30, 2026, is a timely reminder of what is at stake in global health financing. Vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years, making them the most widely distributed health intervention in the world, with Gavi central to that achievement. Yet the financing that underpins this progress is under serious strain.

Gavi announced that it secured over US$9 billion for its 2026-2030 strategic period, Gavi 6.0 — a significant sum, but still short of its proposed US$11.9 billion target. Gavi's own reporting shows that only US$6 billion of the funding secured comprises new pledges for 6.0, with the remainder made up of reallocated funding from previous pledges. Several of Gavi's largest sovereign donors have embedded significant volumes of previous commitments into their 6.0 figures, inflating the total beyond what is truly new money.

Gavi's funding gap is part of a wider financing crisis: USAID has been dissolved, the WHO and other UN agencies have faced severe budget cuts, and ODA has contracted sharply across major donors. OECD data confirm that 2025 marked the largest single-year contraction in ODA on record, falling 23.1% in real terms to US$174 billion, the second consecutive annual decline. Multilateral funding fell by 12.7%, and while it has proven more resilient than bilateral funding, an uncertain funding landscape casts the future of many prominent multilaterals into question.

As donors leverage high-profile multilateral pledges to counteract criticism of widespread development funding cuts, advocates must look beyond top-level replenishment figures to understand what funding is truly additional in a constrained landscape. The Donor Tracker publication examines the 6.0 pledges of prominent Gavi donors in detail, drawing on data from the Donor Tracker's new Multilateral Funding Tracker.

Pledges to Gavi 6.0

The same top donors driving overall cuts to development funding in 2025 — the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan — are also significant sovereign Gavi donors, with Norway as an exceptionally large donor to Gavi outside of the top five.

UK

Although many sources report a higher total, Gavi's reporting shows that the UK included US$447 million of previous commitments in its headline pledge of US$1.7 billion to Gavi 6.0. Critics have characterized this as 'double-counting.' In real terms, the pledge represents an almost 27% decline between the 5.0 and 6.0 periods.

Japan

Japan pledged after the general 6.0 replenishment conference, and the US$550 million pledge was not included in the widely publicized US$9 billion replenishment figure. Whether Japan included previous commitments in its headline figure is unknown; however, it appears likely given trends among other top donors. At face value, the US$550 million pledge represents a significant increase from Japan's Gavi 5.0 pledge. Japan, however, far exceeded its original 5.0 pledge due to COVID-19 contributions.

Germany

Similarly to the UK, Germany included US$217 million of previous commitments in its headline pledge figure of US$682 million. Although the totals committed to 5.0 and 6.0 appear comparable, a significant portion of the 6.0 funding does not represent truly additional resources available to Gavi.

Norway

Norway included US$136 million of previous commitments in its headline pledge figure of US$629 million, making its new pledge significantly lower than the 5.0 pledge. The announcement was received critically, particularly given that Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was personally involved in the creation of Gavi 25 years ago and had advocated for Norway to make a high pledge.

US

While the actual foreign assistance request did not follow the presidential proposal to eliminate funds for Gavi in 2026, no funds have been disbursed by the Trump administration to Gavi, and the US has accordingly lost its Gavi board seat. No funding for Gavi appears in the 2027 presidential budget request, making the future of US contributions highly uncertain.

Conclusion

Although Gavi has reported proceeds to 6.0 as US$9 billion, truly new pledging is likely considerably lower. Donor-level analysis reveals a consistent pattern: the UK included US$447 million of previous commitments in its headline pledge, Germany US$217 million, and Norway US$136 million — totaling US$800 million in recycled commitments across those three donors alone. Japan's double-counting status remains unconfirmed, and the US has yet to disburse any funds.

The scale of recycled commitments is not entirely surprising: the pandemic-era surge in funding meant that the Gavi 5.0 goal was ultimately surpassed significantly, leaving donors with existing commitments to roll forward. The practical consequence, however, is real. With Gavi already facing a gap of nearly US$2.5 billion against its US$11.9 billion target, even with significant repurposed COVID-19 funds, the risk of backsliding on key health outcomes is significant.

Financing pressure is driving multilaterals to adapt, though in different directions. The Global Fund is tightening its scope and decreasing funding to MICs, UMICs, and some LMICs in order to concentrate resources on the lowest-income countries. In contrast, Gavi is increasing its eligibility threshold from US$1,000 GNI per capita to US$2,300, seeking to reduce the risk of countries losing access to support at a time when bilateral funding cuts leave them with fewer alternatives. Gavi and many other global health multilaterals are also pushing for increased country ownership and co-financing of health programs, as well as simplified and aligned application procedures, in order to become leaner and more efficient with available resources.

World Immunization Week 2026 is a reminder of what sustained investment in immunization has made possible — and of what is needed to ensure that progress does not stall. For advocates, understanding actual funding flows, not just replenishment announcements, is essential to holding donors accountable and driving ambition in global health. The Donor Tracker's new Multilateral Funding Tracker displays only new funding from donors in the deep-dive view, helping advocates critically examine actual flows and available funding.