Trump Administration Ties HIV Aid To Zambia Mining Access Under America First Strategy

The Trump administration is pushing foreign governments, including countries with high HIV rates, to sign new agreements or lose access to life-saving aid under its “America First Global Health Strategy.”

“One million children could die if the United States cuts its funding, charity warns”

BBC

Emily Bass, an expert consultant with Physicians for Human Rights, told Scripps News that the approach is “unabashedly transactional,” and she warned that the U.S. is “basically says the quiet part out loud” in a draft MOU circulating for Zambia.

BBC

In that draft, the U.S. would provide Zambia with $1 billion in health funding over five years if Zambia commits $345 million of its own health funding, while Zambia would grant American businesses more access to its mining industry.

Bass also pointed to a prior U.S.-Zambia plan that aimed to “unlock a substantial grant package of U.S. support in exchange for collaboration in the mining sector.”

USAID’s dismantling has triggered consequences that extend beyond the United States, with the impacts felt by Canadian aid organizations and the populations they serve, according to The Conversation.

The article says that by the end of March, the administration announced USAID personnel would be cut from 10,000 to about 15 positions, and it notes that a survey on February 14 by the Quebec Association of International Cooperation Organizations (AQOCI) looked at multiple impacts of the cuts.

CNN

In Africa, Le Monde.fr reports that on March 10, Washington confirmed the abandonment of 83% of the programs and the closure of USAID, which was created in 1961.

Le Point adds that USAID was definitively enacted on July 1 and that the agency, created in 1961, saw 83% of its programs cut, with Sub-Saharan Africa particularly hard hit because 40% of USAID’s budget was devoted to it.

As the U.S. shifts and reduces international health support, multiple sources warn of direct harm to vaccination and disease programs.

“Sixty years earlier, in the United States, Elon Musk decided to turn the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) into a 'grinder,' and in the United Kingdom, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced deep cuts in the already drained international aid budget, with rich countries already questioning the effectiveness—and even the purpose—of international aid”

Courrier international

The BBC reports that Dr.

Sania Nishtar, director of Gavi, warned that “One million children could die” if the United States reduces its vaccine funding, and it says Gavi is seeking $300 million (£230 million) for 2025 while engaging with the White House and Congress.

CNN reports that the Trump administration plans to redirect $2 billion in funding intended for global health programs to cover the cost of closing USAID, according to a notification obtained by CNN.

Health policy experts told CNN that redirecting the money could result in tens of thousands of deaths, including an estimated 121,000 preventable deaths from tuberculosis and at least 47,600 preventable deaths from malaria.