The Gates Foundation has announced a commitment of $1.6 billion over the next five years to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to deliver lifesaving vaccines to children and prevent disease in the world’s most vulnerable communities.

The Foundation made the announcement on its official website on Tuesday.

“For the first time in decades, the number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year instead of down because of massive cuts to foreign aid. That is a tragedy,” warned Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation.

“Fully funding Gavi is the single most powerful step we can take to stop it,” added.

The foundation’s renewed support comes amid a global crisis. International development programmes have been severely impacted by declining budgets and shifting political priorities.

After years of stagnation, foreign assistance plummeted this year, putting at risk the hard-won progress in child survival and public health made over the last 25 years.

“The legacy of our generation cannot be that we looked away as millions of poor children died of preventable causes.

“The world now has affordable, effective, proven tools that save lives. Wealthy nations should fully fund Gavi and the Global Fund, the organisations created to get those products to the people who need them,” said Gates.

The announcement precedes the Global Summit: Health & Prosperity through Immunisation, a pledging event for Gavi taking place on June 25 in Brussels, co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation. At the summit, Gates will join global leaders, many of whom are expected to announce new commitments to Gavi’s mission.

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Since its launch 25 years ago, with initial support from the Gates Foundation and a group of founding partners, Gavi has helped cut child mortality in half. It has vaccinated more than 1.1 billion children across 78 low-income countries, preventing nearly 19 million deaths from diseases like measles, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.

Despite that progress, the Foundation said one in five children still lack access to essential vaccines, and outbreaks of preventable diseases—including measles and meningitis—are increasing, threatening to reverse decades of gains.

Since 2000, the Gates Foundation has committed more than $30.6 billion to advance vaccines—investing in their discovery, development, and distribution. Of this, US$7.7 billion has been directed to Gavi, making it the foundation’s largest grantee.

Today’s renewed commitment to Gavi comes on the heels of the foundation’s 25th anniversary announcement that it will spend $200 billion over the next 20 years to accelerate its mission to help all people live healthy, productive lives. During this time, the foundation will work together with its partners to make as much progress as possible towards three primary goals:

• Ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies
• Preventing deadly infectious diseases in the next generation
• Lifting millions out of poverty by expanding opportunities