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.