Times Of Swaziland: WILL AFRICAN COUNTRIES SURVIVE US AID’S 90-DAY FREEZE? WILL AFRICAN COUNTRIES SURVIVE US AID’S 90-DAY FREEZE? ================================================================================ Emmanuel Ndlangamandla on 24/02/2025 07:43:00 The African Union has successfully met in Addis Ababa, where new leadership was elected. I would like to congratulate Hon. Moses Vilakati, who has been elected as Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE). The new AU leadership is unfortunately elected in office when the global reset by the new American Government is in motion. It will be interesting how the elected leadership and governments plan to survive the unprecedented change. The new administration in America, inaugurated a few weeks ago, is reasserting its America First Agenda in an unprecedented way. The impact is felt in America as well as globally. It seems the golden age announced by President Donald Trump during his inauguration presents a dilemma for his global partners worldwide and, in particular, the developing world that has depended on United States people’s generosity for years. Threat I recall that in one of the strategic planning process environmental analyses, the election of President Trump was viewed as a threat. No one in that meeting anticipated the extent to which these elections will change the donor landscape in an unprecedented way. Who would have thought that without a warning, the administration will freeze aid for 90 days, shocking workers who thought their jobs were secured with those contracts signed with organisations that employed them to implement life-saving measures to continue to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as mitigate its impact. Thousands of workers and their families’ livelihoods have thus been affected. How is Africa impacted? Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organisation, stated that as a medical humanitarian organisation working in many of the same crisis zones as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its partner organisations, we know that the sudden pause in humanitarian and health assistance and the rapid dismantling of critical components of the humanitarian aid system supported by the US government will cause an unmitigated humanitarian disaster affecting millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. Stopped We are talking about countless refugees and other displaced persons, children threatened by malaria and people who need HIV and tuberculosis treatment, whose care risks being stopped. Already we are hearing from local organisations that have closed their doors and are unsure when or if they will be able to reopen. The existing humanitarian waiver is insufficient and needs to be expanded to cover all necessary health and humanitarian programmes.”. One of the biggest projects affected by the aid freeze is the President’s Emergency Relief Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The groundbreaking HIV programme is credited with saving 25 million lives—including those of 5.5 million children—in more than 50 countries since it was started by Republican President George W. Bush in 2003. “This is a matter of life or death,” said Beatriz Grinstein, president of the International AIDS Society. “If funding stops, people are going to die and HIV will resurge,” she warned. Cyril Zenda published an article on February 17, on how AIDS Freeze will severely impede all humanitarian work in Africa. He noted that soup kitchens taking care of the 26 million population facing starvation in the Sudan conflict were suddenly closed down. Even the humanitarian waiver is unclear, and hence, emergency feeding centres have left millions of lives under threat. He noted that US$ 12 billion was spent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further notes that there is fear of increased death in Southern African countries like Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe, which have bare health systems. Fear The Minister for Health in South Africa said: ‘The world is baffled’. The US funds nearly 20 per cent of the South Africa US$ 2.3 billion Annual HIV/AIDS Programme. There is fear that the withdrawal will increase new infections and lead to an upsurge in AIDS deaths, warned the UNAIDS executive director. The announced withdrawal from the World Health Organisation will undermine international solidarity and leave African countries worst affected. It is also noted that over the years, USAID has been funding economic development for African countries. Plans are also underway to create an external revenue service, which will collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign-related revenue. With over 40 countries that have benefitted from AGOA, it is clearly under threat. Also noted is that the non-profit sector is a major contributor to employment in Africa, with tens of thousands of NGOs employing millions across Africa. The sudden pause leading to the closure of organisations and loss of income has dire consequences for employees, their families and countries that also benefitted from personal taxes, among other things. It is clear that the policy position by the new United States Government requires governments and intergovernmental bodies in Africa to face the problem head-on by putting measures in place on how to mitigate the effects of the aid freeze. Africa’s leaders dare not procrastinate!