The US Government has announced that USD$1.5 billion in aid for health will not be released until terms are set for “collaboration in the mining sector” and business sector reforms. Up until very recently, the US government planned to sign its Memorandum of Understanding on health funding on December 11th. In a move that surprised many close to the process, that date was abruptly scrapped. Instead, Caleb Orr, Department of State official in charge of energy and business development traveled to Zambia, met with the President and announced that economic cooperation supersedes and is a pre-requisite for health funding.
On one level, this development is unsurprising. All of the Memoranda of Understanding are transactional. All tie health funding to access to markets, data and specimens. The Rwandan signing happened after the signing of an economic accord that the Department of State lauded for unlocking economic potential for America.
But it is also unprecedented, according to veterans of America global health foreign aid who describe the naked, public bartering of mining concessions for humanitarian aid as “uncharted” and “first of its kind in the world for the Department of State.”
Read the full analysis here.
Source : Emilysbass.substack.com
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