A $1.5 billion African public health program has come to a sudden spending halt as its funders conduct a snap audit, with some workers left without pay for months.
The Saving Lives and Livelihoods, or SLL, initiative is a three-year health program launched by the Mastercard Foundation and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021, initially set up to rapidly deliver COVID-19 vaccines across Africa. It’s the largest public health partnership between a global philanthropic organization and an African institution and has employed more than 22,000 people.
But at the end of July, a letter was sent to organizations carrying out the initiative in African countries abruptly informing them an audit of all programs across the continent was being launched and funding would be temporarily halted.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
