By Daily Revelation Editor
A representative in the United States Congress has accused that country’s President Donald Trump of seeking to benefit his allies by linking discussions over HIV/AIDS funding for Zambia with broader talks surrounding the African nation’s mining sector.
According to the New York Times, representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that tying health funding to mineral access risks undermining decades of global health diplomacy.
“Lifesaving aid should not be conditioned on opaque business deals benefiting the president’s allies,” he told the NYT.
The same media organisation reported that the Trump administration has linked discussions over HIV/AIDS funding for Zambia with broader talks surrounding the African nation’s mining sector, underscoring how the critical minerals race can be intertwined with foreign aid, according to a report by the New York Times.
The newspaper reported that State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with H.I.V. in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government of the southern African country to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals.
At stake is the welfare of the 1.3 million people in Zambia who rely on daily H.I.V. treatment that is provided through the decades-old U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (known as PEPFAR) and on tuberculosis and malaria medications that save tens of thousands of Zambian lives each year.
To increase the pressure on Zambia, the Trump administration is considering whether to “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
These are very stringent conditions Zambia is being asked to chew in order to access the $1 billion deal over five years with the Americans. However, the same has come in for harsh criticism from the Zambians, following in on the trend where other governments, such as the one in Zimbabwe, have walked away walked away from negotiations, as demands about data and biological sample sharing were an intolerable infringement on sovereignty. In Kenya, activists have taken that country’s deal to the courts over similar concerns.
We urge the government of Zambia to consider national interest first by refusing to yield to this deal in the format it has been presented. Definitely, the $1 billion is significant, but it’s not insurmountable. If it can’t come from the United States, it definitely can be secured through some win-win situations bilaterally or even multilateral. If the US will not review the harsh measures, and if they will follow through on the threat to pressure the country into accepting the deal in its current format, the government should reject it ultrightly.
But this must teach Zambia some valuable lessons actually, in that the resources it has failed to utilise prudently, others have seen an opportunity in them and seeking to exploit them against a $1 billion offer. If we managed to exploit our resources, the $1 billion is something that can easily be arranged to fund our own health sector.
There is surely no dignity in begging. This country has got all the resources to make the $1 billion look like pocket money. However, we seem to entertain the weird view that only foreigners should exploit these resources, and that our only preoccupation should be to get employed from them. And we shall remain beggars with that kind of mindset actually until we learn to appreciate that the peanuts we get in terms of donor aid can easily be secured if we exploited our resources properly.
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By Daily Revelation Editor
A representative in the United States Congress has accused that country’s President Donald Trump of seeking to benefit his allies by linking discussions over HIV/AIDS funding for Zambia with broader talks surrounding the African nation’s mining sector.
According to the New York Times, representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that tying health funding to mineral access risks undermining decades of global health diplomacy.
“Lifesaving aid should not be conditioned on opaque business deals benefiting the president’s allies,” he told the NYT.
The same media organisation reported that the Trump administration has linked discussions over HIV/AIDS funding for Zambia with broader talks surrounding the African nation’s mining sector, underscoring how the critical minerals race can be intertwined with foreign aid, according to a report by the New York Times.
The newspaper reported that State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with H.I.V. in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government of the southern African country to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals.
At stake is the welfare of the 1.3 million people in Zambia who rely on daily H.I.V. treatment that is provided through the decades-old U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (known as PEPFAR) and on tuberculosis and malaria medications that save tens of thousands of Zambian lives each year.
To increase the pressure on Zambia, the Trump administration is considering whether to “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
These are very stringent conditions Zambia is being asked to chew in order to access the $1 billion deal over five years with the Americans. However, the same has come in for harsh criticism from the Zambians, following in on the trend where other governments, such as the one in Zimbabwe, have walked away walked away from negotiations, as demands about data and biological sample sharing were an intolerable infringement on sovereignty. In Kenya, activists have taken that country’s deal to the courts over similar concerns.
We urge the government of Zambia to consider national interest first by refusing to yield to this deal in the format it has been presented. Definitely, the $1 billion is significant, but it’s not insurmountable. If it can’t come from the United States, it definitely can be secured through some win-win situations bilaterally or even multilateral. If the US will not review the harsh measures, and if they will follow through on the threat to pressure the country into accepting the deal in its current format, the government should reject it ultrightly.
But this must teach Zambia some valuable lessons actually, in that the resources it has failed to utilise prudently, others have seen an opportunity in them and seeking to exploit them against a $1 billion offer. If we managed to exploit our resources, the $1 billion is something that can easily be arranged to fund our own health sector.
There is surely no dignity in begging. This country has got all the resources to make the $1 billion look like pocket money. However, we seem to entertain the weird view that only foreigners should exploit these resources, and that our only preoccupation should be to get employed from them. And we shall remain beggars with that kind of mindset actually until we learn to appreciate that the peanuts we get in terms of donor aid can easily be secured if we exploited our resources properly.
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