America Magazine: The deadly impact of the end of USAID and PEPFAR in southern Africa
Improvements in health care in Eswatini have relied for years on the generosity of the American people. During the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Eswatini’s population plummeted, and life expectancy dropped from 61 in 1988 to 44 by 2003. It reached 61 again in 2023 after the first emergency response from the US Agency for International Development to Eswatini’s HIV/AIDS crisis. That’s the success — what USAID did for this country.
Despite previous assurances by Lesotho’s Minister of Health that the country’s HIV response will cope without US funding, senior officials say testing rates are dropping and prevention programmes have been gutted. Only 12% of Lesotho’s R2.2-billion health budget was government-funded last year.
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