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Study: Health funding lowest in 15 years

2025-07-16 09:21:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The United States has made the deepest cuts, but the United Kingdom, Germany and France have also reduced global health aid this year.

A new analysis has found that global powers have slashed their health spending in low-income countries this year, pushing health funding to its lowest level in 15 years.

International health spending had begun to decline following the COVID-19 pandemic, but fell sharply in 2025, according to a report by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

Health aid to low-income countries reached a record $80.3 billion (€68.6 billion) in 2021 and has since fallen steadily. This year, global health funding has fallen sharply to $38.4 billion (€32.8 billion), the lowest level since 2009.

On current trends, researchers expect it to fall by another 8% to about $36 billion (30.8 billion euros) by 2030. These cuts could undermine years of progress in fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, the researchers warned.

It could also make it more difficult for people in low-income countries to access pregnancy services and child health care, and lead to worsening water security and food security.

Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be hit hardest by aid cuts, with a 25% drop since last year and a 7% decline expected over the next five years.

“Drastic and immediate reductions in global health aid could compromise the progress in health that has been achieved globally,” Dr. Angela Apeagyei, the study’s lead author and assistant research professor at IHME, said in a statement.

The decline is largely due to budget cuts by major donors, particularly the United States, which has traditionally been the world's leading funder of global health. Estimates show that the United States plans to reduce its foreign aid by 67 percent this year compared to 2024.

The estimates take into account additional cuts planned by the U.S., including a proposal to cancel previously approved funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as well as U.S. cuts to Gavi, the nonprofit organization that distributes vaccines, which were announced last month. The United Kingdom and Germany also made big cuts in 2025, redirecting spending toward defense, while France reduced its global health funding due to domestic concerns about how well the money was being used, the report noted.

Not all rich countries are cutting health aid. This year, Australia, Japan and South Korea increased their spending slightly, while aid from Canada, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained unchanged.

But countries' pledges to increase health spending will not be enough to fill the gap left by funding cuts, the researchers said./ CNA