Policy Updates

On September 2, 2025, ONE released a report indicating that the German government's proposed development budget cuts could lead to an estimated 650,000 deaths, nearly three million children unvaccinated against polio, and fail to prevent nine million new infections of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

The report highlights a significant planned decline in the budget of the BMZ by 2026, amounting to a 28% decrease from 2022 levels. During the same period, Germany's defense spending is set to increase to more than EUR86 billion (US$100 billion). The report highlights that the cuts represent just 0.05% of the total federal budget but may have life-threatening consequences for millions of people globally.

The report focused on the impact of a combined EUR542 million (US$632 million) reduction for 2025 and 2026 across four major international health and development organizations:

• The GFATM faces the largest cut of at least EUR350 million (US$408 million), with a potential additional reduction of EUR100 million (US$117 million) under discussion. This could result in 650,000 preventable deaths and a failure to stop nine million new infections;
• Funding for the GPEI is set to be halved between 2024 and 2026, a reduction of EUR18 million (US$21 million) that would leave 2.8 million children unvaccinated and risk 18,500 cases of permanent paralysis;
• A EUR160 million (US$187 million) cut to the IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the lowest-income countries, is projected to block between EUR500 million (US$583 million) and EUR600 million (US$700 million) in leveraged investments for health, water, and social safety nets; and
• Germany’s contribution to the UNFPA is expected to drop by one-third by 2026,falling from EUR43 million (US$50 million) in 2024 to EUR28 million (US$33 million) in 2026, endangering up to 925 lives and leaving hundreds of thousands of women and girls without access to health services and protection from violence.

On June 25, 2025, German Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan announced a EUR600 million (US$688 million) contribution to Gavi to support global immunization through 2030, at Gavi's replenishment conference held in Brussels.

Alabali-Radovan emphasized that investing in vaccine access is both a humanitarian and economic priority, underscoring Germany’s long-standing role in strengthening global health systems. The funding will help immunize hundreds of millions of children and build more resilient healthcare infrastructure in low-income countries.

On May 18, 2025, German Federal Minister of Health Nina Warken announced an additional EUR10million (US$11 million) in funding for the WHO ahead of the World Health Assembly, emphasizing Germany’s commitment to WHO reforms and pandemic preparedness following the US’ withdrawal from the organization.

The World Health Assembly, scheduled from May 19-27, 2025, will focus on adopting an international pandemic agreement. This agreement includes provisions to enhance global pandemic prevention, data sharing, and equitable vaccine access. Pharmaceutical companies will commit to donating 10% of vaccine production to WHO and selling another 10% at affordable prices for distribution to lower-income countries.

Germany’s contribution builds on its total funding of US$323 million for 2024–2025, underscoring its support for WHO’s core tasks, including global health monitoring and equitable healthcare access. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus praised Germany’s leadership in strengthening global health systems and pandemic resilience.

On April 6, 2025, Germany pledged EUR2 million (US$2 million) to the WHO following the US withdrawal of funding.

This contribution is in addition to Germany's US$317 milllion contribution for 2024-2025 which aims to strengthen global health systems, improve pandemic preparedness, and ensure continued access to essential healthcare services in vulnerable regions. Germany’s leadership in global health funding highlights its commitment to multilateral cooperation.

On October 10 and 11, 2024, the G7's Health Ministerial Meeting took place in Ancona, Italy. The discussion focused on three overarching priorities: Global Health Architecture and Pandemic Preparedness and Response, healthy and active aging, and the One Health Approach.

The G7 Health Ministers Communiqué, released at the end of the meeting, highlights the G7's commitment to supporting SDG #3 through universal health coverage, primary health care, and sexual and reproductive health. This also includes maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, strengthening the global health architecture by investing in PPR, promoting regional manufacturing of health products, and equitable access to quality health services.

The communiqué emphasized the health-related impacts of conflicts with a reference to the crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Sudan. Furthermore, in the communiqué, the G7 Ministries committed to continue to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund, whose replenishment processes will occur in the upcoming months.

The Civil 7 engagement group, a platform through which civil society can engage with the G7, reacted with a communiqué in which they expressed an appreciation for the re-commitment to ending HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through robust support for the Global Fund in its replenishment next year. This support is crucial to ending the three epidemics as agreed upon in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Finally, the G7 Health Ministers also adopted a policy brief on the opportunities presented by AI for both healthcare providers and patients.

On September 10, 2024, the European Commission’s HERA facilitated the delivery of nearly 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to the DRC, marking the first shipment of its kind to the country.

An additional 100,000 doses are expected soon, contributing to the total of 215,000 vaccines pledged to combat the mpox outbreak in Africa. Team Europe will donate a total of 566,500 mpox vaccine doses to affected African countries, with contributions from France, Germany, Spain, Malta, Portugal, Luxembourg, Croatia, Austria, and Poland.

The EC also released EUR1 million (US$1 million) in humanitarian assistance to support care, prevention, epidemiological surveillance, risk communication and distribution of kits in the DRC.

On July 22, 2024, the World AIDS Conference, hosted in Munich, kicked off with a call to reinforce the fight against HIV/AIDS and protect vulnerable groups from discrimination.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated the goal to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030. He announced that Germany will join the UNAIDS Global Partnership for Action to Eliminate all Forms of HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination. Scholz further noted that Germany is contributing EUR1.3 billion to the Global Fund from 2023 to 2025 and stressed that Germany will continue its support for the Global Fund, as well as for UNAIDS and WHO.

Germany has introduced significant cuts to development in its 2025 draft budget. The German contribution to the Global Fund for its upcoming replenishment and funding cycle remains uncertain.

On June 20, 2024, multiple global health actors, including Germany, announced new measures to support the build-up of vaccine manufacturing capabilities on the African continent at a conference, titled Protecting Our Future - The Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation.

The conference was organized by France and hosted in Paris in partnership with Gavi and the Africa Center for Disease Control.

A key announcement was AVMA, which is slated to provide around US$1 billion across 10 years to limit the risk for private firms and bolster competitive vaccine production in African countries. The mechanism aims for the production of more than 800 million vaccine doses on the African continent within the next 10 years.

Germany and partners in Team Europe will provide around 70% of the funding for AVMA. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Development Minister Svenja Schulze both delivered messages of support. Strengthening regional vaccine manufacturing capabilities is a longstanding objective of German development policy.

On May 28, 2024, German State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth became the first high-ranking German official to meet the new Senegalese government following President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s election, where he discussed energy transition, local vaccine production, and creating jobs for the local youth population.

Flasbarth emphasized the long-standing partnership between Germany and Senegal, particularly in renewable energy, highlighting Senegal's peaceful governmental transition as a sign of its robust democracy.

Senegal's government expressed commitment to continuing its strong partnership with Germany, especially within the framework of the Just Energy Transition Partnership established in 2023. The partnership involves multiple international stakeholders and aims to enhance energy supply, reduce poverty, and create job opportunities, especially for young people. Flasbarth’s visit also addressed vocational training and support for small enterprises to generate new income opportunities.

The cooperation includes establishing a vaccine production facility in Diamniadio and creating an independent regulatory body for vaccine approval. The initiative aims to position Senegal as a key player in the West African public health sector by enhancing local medicine and vaccine supply capabilities.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.