GLOBAL POLIO ERADICATION BUDGET CUT BY 30%, $1.7BN FUNDING GAP LOOMS
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a partnership that includes World Health Organization (WHO) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will face a major funding setback in 2026 after its budget was slashed by 30%.
The organisation announced that it is also confronting a $1.7 billion funding gap through 2029, driven primarily by declining foreign aid, led by the United States’ withdrawal from WHO.
In response, the GPEI said it would scale down its operations in lower-risk areas except during outbreaks while focusing on cost-cutting measures and efficiencies.
“The significant reductions in funding… mean that certain activities will simply not happen,” said Jamal Ahmed, WHO’s Director of Polio Eradication, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Other major donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, have also reduced their contributions.
To adapt, GPEI partners plan to strengthen surveillance and vaccination efforts in high-risk regions while increasing collaboration with other global health programmes such as measles campaigns. The initiative will also deploy fractional dosing strategies, using as little as one-fifth of a vaccine dose to stretch supplies while maintaining protection against infection.
Polio eradication has been a central global health goal for decades. While mass vaccination campaigns since 1988 have achieved major progress, eradication deadlines have repeatedly been missed the first in 2000.
In 2025, there were 36 reported cases of wild polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan the two countries where the virus remains endemic. Essential operations will continue in these areas.
Additionally, 149 cases of vaccine-derived polio have been recorded this year in several countries, including Nigeria. Both wild and vaccine-derived cases have declined compared to 2024, but experts warn that sustained funding is critical to finally ending the disease.
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