On U.S. foreign aid freeze

The Trump administration’s unceremonious pause of U.S. foreign aid is already sending jitters to developing countries like Malawi, interrupting lifesaving programs as the government and health service providers are scrambling to adjust.

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered federal-funded aid organizations and agencies to hold aid for three months pending review. President Donald Trump issued the order on the first day of office, along with other executive orders, which he said seek to put the interests of America first.

Well, that’s their money and they have the right to decide whether to give or pause when they see some red flags.

And talking of red flags, abuse of foreign aid through fraud by some service providers, especially in Africa and Malawi in particular, might have also compelled the Trump administration to issue this freeze.

But the biggest red flag, which I see necessitated the president Donald Trump to pull the plug on foreign aid to developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is how the continent is treating U.S.

Currently, there’s a growing anti-Western rhetoric in many countries in Africa. The love for Africa’s newfound partners—China and Russia—has blossomed such that the U.S., France, Britain have become unpopular on the continent.

And yet, the U.S. is one of the top ten donors to the World Health Organization (WHO) whose life-saving programs focus on HIV, tuberculous, and other pandemics such Covid-19, Ebola.  But China and Russia aren’t in the top ten list either.

U.S. Lilongwe Embassy website says in Malawi, over 900 000 people living with HIV are currently on anti-retroviral therapy, with U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for HIV Relief (PEPFAR) supporting 98 percent of them.

Also, PEPFAR is currently supporting more than 13 000 healthcare workers in different categories to provide quality HIV services. The U.S. is also supporting the education sector, with the construction 200 secondary schools across Malawi, among other aid packages.

However, due to perhaps a lack of knowledge or just laissez-faire attitudes, some of us intentionally ignore these facts, but instead, choose to focus on criticizing the U.S. for meddling in domestic affairs.

Last year in April, President Lazarus Chakwera scoffed the travel bans to the United States of America imposed on four public officials for their alleged involvement in corruption. He said the U.S. government instead, needed to focus on its numerous challenges including gun violence, police brutality against blacks, proliferation of drug trade, segregation and work to improve its porous borders, among others.

Such rhetoric from leaders and its citizens across Africa including Malawi, is what makes the U.S feel short-changed. And true to Chakwera’s words, the Trump administration is now more inward-looking by solving some of the problems he listed out first before assisting developing countries.

It’s true that U.S. must never interfere in matters of other sovereign states including Malawi, but demanding accountability from the recipients of their taxpayers’ money isn’t a big ask. The U.S. is protecting the interests of its people.

Now this temporary halt of U.S. foreign aid, must therefore, be interpreted as a coded message to developing countries including Malawi. The Trump administration is demanding more accountability for their money and measured outcomes of the programs they sponsor.

President Donald Trump is also signaling to us Africans that it’s time we start taking charge of our affairs. It’s time we start allocating at least 15 percent of our annual budgets to health to ensure we tackle HIV, tuberculosis and malaria as pledged in the Abuja Declaration of 2001.

Yes, Trump is directing us like an orchestra to fix our broken systems, end corruption and pilfering, spend money on priority areas and within our means, and stop doing business as usual.

But above all, Trump is telling us that America isn’t as weak as others may think but still, it wields influence as a super-power and the fate of millions of people in developing countries including Malawi is in their hand.

So, if you we entertain our newfound partners more than the U.S., it will walk away and leave us in the cold to figure out if our newfound partners can save us.