Funding crisis: Millions of children face vaccine shortages

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) has warned that funding cuts from donor countries will limit its ability to help millions of children, including their vaccination.

Kenya is among the countries that have benefited from vaccination programmes conducted by Unicef in collaboration with GAVI and the Ministry of Health.

A cut in support may affect Kenya’s vaccination programme. According to Unicef, the cut from donor funding countries comes after two years of reduced aid, despite rising global crises.

“Announced and anticipated funding cuts will limit Unicef’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need,” Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

For example, Russell observed that millions of children affected by conflict need to be vaccinated against deadly diseases such as measles and polio.

Disadvantaged children from across the continent and globe, according to the official, must access education and be kept healthy despite the funding gap.

“As needs continue to outpace resources, Unicef has consistently brought efficiencies and innovations to our work, and we have stretched every contribution to reach vulnerable children.

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But there is no way around it, these new cuts are creating a global funding crisis that will put the lives of millions of additional children at risk,” said the Unicef boss. Russell emphasised that Unicef is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from governments, private sector partners, and individuals.

The support, she added, has helped save millions of children’s lives, ensured infectious diseases do not spread across borders, and mitigated the risks of instability and violence.

“With our partners, we have made historic progress. Since 2000, global under-five mortality has dropped by 50 per cent. Millions of children are alive today thanks to this work. Millions more have been protected with improved health and brighter futures.

Unicef implores all donors to continue to fund critical aid programmes for the world’s children. We cannot fail them now,” read the statement in part.

The statement comes at a time when states across the globe, particularly on the African continent, are feeling the effects of the freeze on foreign aid following the signing of an executive order by US President Donald Trump.

A shortage of infant vaccines has remained a persistent issue in Kenya, which experts largely attribute to the government’s lack of projection regarding population growth.

Approximately one million babies are born in the country annually, but an estimated 300,000 miss immunisation.

Earlier this year, the country reported a shortage of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, just six months after a previous shortage was reported in June last year, risking the transmission of tuberculosis (TB).

In June 2024, the country reported a shortage of four childhood vaccines: measles-rubella, oral polio vaccine, tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, and BCG.

Every year, the Ministry of Health aims to vaccinate at least 1.5 million children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, polio, tuberculosis (TB), and pneumonia.

The jabs are given to newborns to immunise against six killer childhood diseases—tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, and measles—through the Kenya Expanded Programme on Immunisation (KEPI).

To bridge the funding gap, Dr Margaret Lubale, Director of the Health NGOs Network (HENNET), said there is a need to budget and co-finance vaccine procurement to ensure a smooth supply.

Additionally, the health advocate stressed the importance of timely domestic financing.

“Funds must be available in real-time, ideally within a nine-month cycle, to ensure vaccine supplies. Additionally, we need to integrate data on vaccine projections with budget allocation processes,” said Dr Lubale.

The vaccination programme has witnessed a reduction in budgetary allocation over the years.

Between 2016/17 and 2018/19, the vaccine procurement budget remained constant at Sh703 million (USD 6.9 million).

In the 2019/20 financial year, the vaccine budget was increased to Sh748 million (USD 7.3 million), followed by an 87 per cent increase to Sh1.4 billion (USD 13.4 million) in 2020/21 after Health Committee engagements with NVIP and non-state actors.

In 2021/22, under the 2022/23 budget, the allocation increased to Sh1.56 billion (USD 15 million), a figure that remained constant in 2022/23.

For the 2023/24 budget, the National Treasury approved estimates of Sh9.8 billion for the period under review, but this was revised to Sh9.4 billion in February.