Latest news with #USAid
Irish Times
16 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Bono criticises USAid cuts in lengthy interview with podcaster Joe Rogan
Bono has criticised cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAid) budget in a lengthy interview with influential US podcaster Joe Rogan. He cited academic research by Brooke Nichols, a mathematician and professor of infectious diseases at Boston University, that suggests some 300,000 people have died as a consequence of the cuts. The U2 frontman's comments riled billionaire Elon Musk, whose department of government efficiency (Doge) implemented the dismantling of USAid. Mr Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday. On his social media platform X, the Tesla chief executive responded to Bono's remarks on the subject by calling him a 'liar/idiot' and saying 'zero people have died'. READ MORE During a three-hour interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, which is streaming service Spotify's top podcast, Bono talked about his role in encouraging former US president George W Bush to increase overseas aid spending, particularly on antiretroviral drugs intended to combat Aids. He said a broad coalition of support for the aid spending was built and it greatly benefited the US's image overseas. Now, he said, 'all of that was torn down without a heads-up, without any notice, because people thought foreign aid was like 10 per cent of the budget or 20 per cent and it was doing things that it shouldn't have been doing'. 'I'm sure there was some waste ... but I can tell you as a person who saw what the United States was doing around the world, I saw America display itself at its finest,' he said. 'I remember being in the Oval Office with president Bush and we had these antiretroviral drugs. I said, paint them red, white and blue, Mr President, because these are the best advertisements for America there'll ever be.' [ Bono: Stories of Surrender review: A punch-to-the-guts stage show once you get past the Bono-ness of it all Opens in new window ] He said that to celebrate the slashing of USAid, as some have, is an act of 'evil'. He said it felt like these vital programmes were vandalised and destroyed 'with glee'. Bono maintained an amiable tone with Mr Rogan throughout the interview, which aired on Friday. Mr Rogan, who has previously been accused of spreading misinformation during some of his podcasts, endorsed Donald Trump in advance of the 2024 US presidential election. The bulk of the discussion was concerned with Bono's new film Stories of Surrender, his book Surrender, U2, and the band's upcoming album.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Watch: The moments that define Musk's time in government
He has been glued to Donald Trump's side since he declared his support for the Republican leader in the wake of his first assassination attempt – and funnelled more than $260 million into his re-election efforts. But Elon Musk has finally stepped away from his role as Mr Trump's 'first buddy' after four months spent slashing federal spending, shuttering USAid and firing thousands of workers. The billionaire is leaving the administration, and his role at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), the newly created agency to root out government waste. Days after he publicly broke with Mr Trump to criticise the US president's spending plan, claiming it 'undermines' the work he had been doing with Doge, Mr Musk said his 'scheduled time' in the government had come to an end. Mr Musk, 53, had been designated as a 'special government employee', giving him access to work in the administration for 130 days. The deadline was set to expire on May 30. The Tesla billionaire thanked Mr Trump 'for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending', but has denied falling out with his boss. His announcement comes after Mr Musk criticised Mr Trump's 'big, beautiful bill', which has promised to deliver $4.5 trillion (£3.3 trillion) worth of tax cuts while significantly increasing America's deficit. Mr Musk told CBS: 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion.' Mr Musk also said he resented how his agency was 'becoming the whipping boy for everything'. He told the Washington Post: 'Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it, even if we had nothing to do with it.' Mr Musk has for weeks been signalling he was moving away from his government role, and getting back to work at his private companies. 'I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,' Mr Musk told Ars Technica this week. His departure comes after some cabinet members came to blows with the Tesla chief executive over his obsession with firing federal workers. In his few months as a fixture of the Oval Office, cabinet meetings and cosy Fox News interviews, Mr Musk also delivered a string of memorable moments – which often involved a form of novelty headwear. Here is a look at some of Mr Musk's key moments: The most bizarre moment of Mr Musk's spell in the White House was perhaps when his four-year-old son accompanied him during an Oval Office press briefing, in which Mr Musk addressed concerns about Doge. Sharply dressed in a camel-coloured coat, X Æ A-Xii, who is known as 'X', overshadowed both the US president and his father as he picked his nose behind the Resolute Desk and stuck his fingers in Mr Musk's ears during the February meeting. 'This is X, and he's a great guy – high IQ,' Mr Trump said, before referring to X, one of Mr Musk's 13 children, as a 'high-IQ individual'. While launching into a defence of Doge's efforts and rallying against 'unelected' officials, Mr Musk repeatedly became distracted by his son. At one point he hoisted the blonde-haired boy onto his shoulders, as the youngster proceeded to play with his father's ears as he tried to discuss slashing budgets and deficits. 'Sorry for this,' Mr Musk said. 'Otherwise, I might enjoy this, but as he's sticking his fingers in my ears,' he added, laughing. However, not everyone enjoyed X's appearance in the Oval Office, including his mother, Grimes. 'He should not be in public like this,' she wrote on X, adding that she was 'glad he was polite'. When shares in Tesla slumped amid public backlash to Mr Musk's government involvement, the president appeared to lend his 'first buddy' a helping hand, allowing him to turn the perfectly manicured White House lawn into a car showroom. As Mr Trump shopped from a fleet of five models of the electric vehicles, he denounced violence against the car company as domestic terrorism after showrooms were targeted by protesters. Standing with Mr Musk and his four-year-old son, X, Mr Trump said he planned to buy a Tesla as he heaped praise on the 'great product'. The US president then clambered onto the driver's seat of a cherry red Model S, which costs roughly $80,000, before saying: 'That's beautiful. This is a different pedal … everything is computer.' The comical moment went viral, with some critics noting the irony of Mr Trump hawking electric vehicles after frequently criticising them on the campaign trail. Mr Musk and Mr Trump showcased their close relationship during their first joint interview on Fox News in February. In a rare appearance without a Maga cap, Mr Musk kicked off the interview by declaring: 'I love the president... I just want to be clear about that.' Meanwhile, Mr Trump described his close ally as 'a great person,' 'an amazing person,' 'a caring person' and 'a brilliant guy'. Credit: Fox News Channel Hannity Sitting in chairs less than a metre apart, the pair laughed at each other's jokes and made their admiration for one another clear. The duo's concerted backslapping prompted interviewer Sean Hannity to say: 'I feel like I'm interviewing two brothers here.' At another point Mr Trump said Mr Musk had called him saying the media was 'trying to drive us apart'. While Mr Trump and his officials dressed in suits for the administration's first cabinet meeting, Mr Musk turned up in his 'Maga goth' cap and a black T-shirt reading 'tech support'. In a move that revealed just how much power Mr Musk may exercise over the newly-formed government, Mr Trump asked his 'first buddy' to deliver remarks before any of his actual cabinet members. 'He's sacrificing a lot,' Mr Trump said as he introduced Mr Musk. 'He's getting a lot of praise, I'll tell you, but he's also getting hit', he said at a time when several cabinet members had pushed back against his demand that federal employees explain what they had achieved that week or face the sack. Mr Musk stood at the edge of the mahogany conference room table, awkwardly pressing his fingers together like a Bond villain or The Simpsons character Mr Burns, as he spoke about his cost-cutting efforts at Doge. When asked by a reporter if any cabinet members were unhappy with Doge, Mr Trump said: 'If you are, we'll throw him out of here.' 'Is anybody unhappy?' he added. 'They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this.' By the third cabinet meeting Mr Musk was given a seat at the table, despite not actually being part of the cabinet. Wearing a bright red Maga cap with 'Trump was right about everything' emblazoned on the front, Mr Musk soaked up praise from some cabinet officials over his cost-cutting efforts. Mr Musk took his penchant for novelty headwear to new lengths when he wore a hat in the shape of a block of cheese while campaigning for Wisconsin's Supreme Court election. At a rally for the Trump-backed candidate Brad Schimel, Mr Musk appeared on stage wearing the yellow headwear – known as a 'cheesehead' hat – favoured by supporters of the Green Bay Packers American football team. During the event Mr Musk held his arms out and leapt in the air before signing the hat and throwing it into the cheering crowd. Despite Mr Musk's efforts and a $21 million contribution, Mr Schimel lost to his liberal opponent Susan Crawford. Many see this failure by the billionaire to rally enough support for the Republican's pick as the beginning of the end for Mr Musk's time in the White House. Mr Musk used a chainsaw to slash through 'bureaucracy' during a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Wearing reflective sunglasses, a heavy gold chain and a black Maga hat, Mr Musk told the crowd he wanted to 'get good things done, but also, you know, have a good time doing it'. During his address Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, who has cut around 30 per cent of government spending, emerged from backstage and handed Mr Musk a red chainsaw with 'viva la Libertad carajo' etched into it – which means 'long live liberty, damn it'. 'This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,' Mr Musk shouted as he waved the giant power tool above his head. The Tesla boss's power struggle with Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, last month boiled over into a West Wing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)-style shouting match witnessed by Mr Trump. As they fought over who should choose the next leader of the IRS, Mr Bessent reportedly shouted 'f— you! F— you! F— you!' in Mr Musk's face, to which Mr Musk replied: 'I can't hear you… say it louder'. 'It was two billionaires, middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing,' one witness told Axios. The falling out, which started outside the Oval Office and spilled out past the Roosevelt Room, was spectacular, according to White House insiders, with an aide at one point stepping in between the two men. It was an impasse that Mr Bessent eventually won. Incensed by Mr Musk installing Gary Shapley as the acting commissioner, Mr Bessent is said to have complained to Mr Trump. Days later Mr Shapley was ousted for Michael Faulkender, the deputy secretary of the Treasury. The argument with Mr Bessent was just one of several sharp-tongued moments Mr Musk is reported to have had with members of Mr Trump's cabinet, having also apparently come to blows with Sean Duffy, the transport secretary, and Doug Collins the secretary of veterans affairs. Mr Musk was silent as he watched Mr Trump ambush South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office with footage he claimed showed white farmers being persecuted. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, was seen glaring intensely at Mr Ramaphosa in a moment that was widely shared online. Standing behind JD Vance, Howard Lutnick and Pete Hegseth, Mr Musk did not appear to blink as he glowered at Mr Ramaphosa, his fingers pressed so fiercely into the sofa in front of him they had turned purple. Mr Musk has been a vocal critic of South African policy, claiming on X his Starlink satellite internet service provider was 'not allowed to operate in South Africa simply because I'm not black'. South African authorities say a formal application for Starlink has not been submitted. Under South African law, foreign-owned companies are required to sell 30 per cent of their subsidiaries to shareholders who are black, or from other racial groups disadvantaged under the former apartheid system of white minority rule, in order to acquire a licence. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Data drought: How funding losses are compromising South Africa's HIV response efforts
About 40% of the health workers who collected data in the country's HIV hotspots either lost their jobs in February or will be jobless in September, leaving a massive knowledge gap in their wake. Experts warn that not knowing what we don't know is dangerous. 'Picture the patient walking into the facility. The first person who greets them is the data capturer, who looks at their file. From there, the data tells the story of what should happen next,' says Moses Mashupye, who was a data capturer for the Anova Health Institute, working with public clinics in Capricorn District, Limpopo. 'You're the engine of the facility. You know where to refer people, track patterns, and raise red flags when needed.' Mashupye is one of 1,601 data capturers who lost their jobs when the Trump administration abruptly halted all Pepfar funding for HIV and TB projects through the United States Agency for International Development, USAid, in February. Another 1,421, funded through the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), are also likely to lose their jobs in September, when the US government's financial year ends. According to health department spokesperson Foster Mohale, USAid and CDC-funded data capturers account for about 40% of the workers who collected crucial HIV data in the country's HIV hotspots. The massive scale of these losses is likely to have a big impact on the quality and continuity of HIV data — leaving researchers, policymakers and activists without the information they need to make sense of the funding cuts and find solutions. The data collected ensured patients didn't fall through the cracks — Mashupye already knows of hundreds of patients who missed appointments for antiretroviral treatment (ART) or testing — and helped the health department monitor the disease. That missing information means guesstimates and anecdotes are driving key decision-making about the 7.9-million people living with HIV in the country. Now, much of that information is simply not being captured. Counting our data capturers Mohale says the data capturer jobs were lost in the 27 health districts where the US government funded projects and health workers. Together, those districts account for 82% of South Africa's HIV burden. At a press conference on 15 May 2025, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said he was trying to fill that gap. Gauteng has hired and trained 75 data capturers, and North West has hired 173, and Mpumalanga 200. But that still leaves us thousands short. 'Data is at the heart of understanding where we are and what progress we're making, and what our problems are in making better progress,' said Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa), who says South Africa has an obligation to meeting its part of the United Nations' goal to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030. For this, countries around the world have halfway targets, known as the 95-95-95 goals, that need to be met by the end of 2025. South Africa needs to have 95% of all people with HIV diagnosed, and of those 95% need to be on antiretroviral treatment. Of those on antiretroviral treatment 95% need to have so little virus in their bodies that they can't transmit it to others; scientists call this being virally suppressed. Motsoaledi says South Africa is currently at the 96-79-94 mark. The second '95' is what we're so behind on; we're struggling to get people who know they have HIV on treatment and keep them on it. Data collection is central to identifying, then fixing gaps like these in HIV programmes. Which is why Pepfar spent more on data capturers than any other type of health workers in South Africa — about 12.5% of all salary funding — and that includes nurses, community health workers and lay counsellors. Skilled data capturers like Mashupye, who handled sensitive patient data and helped spot trends that shaped disease responses, earned about R10,000 to R14,000 a month, said Kate Rees, a public health medicine specialist at the Anova Health Institute. 'I think this is the nub of the problem,' said Linda-Gail Bekker, head of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, at a recent Bhekisisa and Southern African HIV Clinicians Society webinar about the impact of the funding cuts hosted by Bhekisisa and the HIV Clinicians Society. 'If you don't measure something, you won't even know that it's a problem. So, unfortunately, to date a lot of it has been anecdotal stuff.' Key populations guesstimates During our webinar Rees agreed. She said the lack of reliable data had forced guesswork. But from the data that is coming in, Rees is seeing 'key metrics rapidly deteriorate' — viral loads, CD4 counts, tests for young babies — when compared to last year. Viral loads and CD4 counts tell doctors how well HIV treatment works. 'We're seeing about a 30% decrease in people (in the City of Johannesburg) starting on antiretroviral therapy. We hope that that is mostly due to incomplete data capturing. The records are not being updated, but we don't know, and so it becomes incredibly difficult to monitor the programme.' Rees is also concerned that current government indicators don't adequately track groups of people with a higher chance of getting HIV — called key populations — such as sex workers, gay and bisexual men, people who inject drugs and transgender people. For the past 10 years, nearly half of new infections globally have happened in these groups. Every year, the UNAids Global Aids update shows why it's so important to put money into services for key populations. When new infections in those groups are reduced, it also slows down the spread of the virus in the general population. That's what is giving Kholi Buthelezi, national coordinator of the sex work movement Sisonke, sleepless nights. Pepfar funded 12 specialised clinics across the country. Now that those are gone, sex workers are being referred to state clinics where they face discrimination, making them reluctant to go there. Because of that, some have stopped taking anti-HIV pills that can stop infection or ARV treatments. But, she said during our webinar, without data there is no knowing the scale of the problem. The detail in the data The deputy director-general for National Health Insurance, Nicholas Crisp, says he isn't too worried about the missing numbers, and that the data tracking gap might be a blessing in disguise, a chance to create one system for the different ways in which donors require organisations to report it. But he warns things could worsen if CDC-funded data capturers also lose their jobs in September. 'I've got no doubt that there are going to be dents in the impact of what we're able to collect and report on, but exactly what and where and how, I can't really say. I think we would need to ask the people on the ground about that.' Fezile Mgxagxama had been working on the ground as a data capturer in Hillbrow for six years, when he too, lost his job overnight. He was one of eight data capturers Anova deployed to the fast-paced Esselen Street Clinic to support the government service to 20,000 people in the area. Just three state-employed data capturers remain. 'As it is, when we were together, the government capturers used to do about 20% of what we did per day,' says Mgxagxama. 'We used to pass our Pepfar training on to them to improve their productivity. Now, we have heard they are falling more behind, day by day.' To get reliable data for real-time decision making, Pepfar funded highly detailed data collection. This sort of expertise, from running programmes to managing the data, has taken decades to build, and experts say they aren't convinced the R2.82-billion to fill the funding gap left by Pepfar is going to cover the catch-up time that's going to be needed. When are you guys coming back? It was data that helped South Africa turn HIV dissidence on its head. In 2001, South Africa had little data on the proportion of people with HIV, and people were refused free treatment due to government denialism. But the Human Sciences Research Council's first national survey in 2002 was a turning point: it revealed that more than 11% of participants were HIV positive, showing the scale of the crisis and prompting action, as the Bhekisisa data team reported in December. Data has been quickly disappearing around the world as the Trump administration strips scientific data from US websites, including global Pepfar data, which means another reference point, historical data, has been lost to HIV disease trackers who figure out trends. Not having the Pepfar data reminds Mitchell Warren, the executive director of the New York-based HIV prevention organisation, Avac, of what Trump argued during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic: 'If we stopped testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any.' Warren says this makes no sense. 'Pepfar's systems weren't perfect, but they were consistent and used to guide real-time decisions. Now, we're flying blind. So here's the choice: guess, spend money and hope. Or use data to drive smart, targeted decisions.' The data vacuum is what was worrying delegates in the corridors of last week's Interest conference in Windhoek. Researchers and HIV specialists at the Africa-focused HIV gathering were fearful that this would be the last time they saw the kind of detailed insight that has been generated by Pepfar-supported projects in the past, hindering their ability to guide the HIV response. But right now, say researchers like Bekker, the need to get into a room to set priorities and keep the hard-fought momentum going is what's urgent. 'We saw amazing leadership during Covid, right? And then private funding kind of followed in its wake. We're not hearing that this time around. And my concern is because it doesn't feel like anyone's in charge.' Mashupye and his patients are worried, too. He says patients are calling him on his personal cellphone every day and asking him: 'When are you guys coming back? Is there any feedback from Trump? Because we need you.' DM
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine counts the cost as military aid is cut back
As the bloody battle against Vladimir Putin's troops stretches into its fourth year, the toll on Ukraine is mounting. Hundreds of billions of pounds have been spent on fighting the Russian invaders, and at least 46,000 soldiers have died. Hopes that Donald Trump would bring a prompt end to the war have all but vanished. Instead, his constant flip-flopping has made many fear that the leader of the free world has abandoned Ukraine. For the war-torn country, this means crucial flows of US aid and weaponry could reduce to a trickle or cease completely. 'It is absolutely a risk. Ukraine is nervous about that. The strategy is to draw down as much as they can now, stockpile it for that time. There's not a lot of trust there,' says Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at Chatham House. 'It will make the fight more difficult, but they can still continue. They can sustain the war for at least six months to a year. The war grinds on without some peace process.' For Kyiv, the uncertainty over funding means every dollar must stretch as far as possible. 'If the enemy's unmanned aerial vehicle [like a military drone] costs $50,000 [£37,000], and you hit it with a rocket that costs $1m, that's not cost-effective,' says Oleksandr Barabash, a software developer who has turned into a defence entrepreneur as a result of the war. 'You need to hit it with something cheaper, like we do with radio-controlled drones. 'The prices really make a difference, because all devices are being destroyed on a daily basis. You cannot spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on something that will be destroyed in a week or maybe in days.' The company Barabash co-founded with other volunteers, called Falcons, is just one example of Ukraine's rapidly growing and sprawling defence sector. The industry can now produce many essential types of military equipment for far less than European and American firms. The push to find ways to make the war less costly – both in terms of human and financial losses – is more acute than ever. 'We have enough commitments till the end of this year, mostly from the EU. But there is significant uncertainty for the next year,' says Yurii Haidai, a senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy in Kyiv. 'There are still no commitments that would ensure we can make it through the next year.' The threat to financing does not just come from the White House. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has several times tried to block support for Ukraine. He may well try again this summer, says Ash. Ukraine is well financed for now – thanks in part to the Biden administration rushing through £22.5bn in the final months of last year. But Kyiv cannot rely on a similar windfall arriving after that runs out. 'There is an austerity approach visible,' says Haidai. 'The ministry of finance is very conservative now, focusing on financial resources to be used as wisely as possible to make them stretch as far as possible this year and probably into next year.' Volodymyr Zelensky's government funds half of the Ukrainian budget from taxpayer revenues, with the remainder coming from foreign grants and loans. Most of the funding is spent on the war effort. This comes in the form of manufacturing weapons and artillery shells, paying the salaries of 1m soldiers and compensating the families of those killed in battle. 'They are taking measures to collect as much as is feasible from the war-impacted economy,' Haidai says. 'So tax revenues in real terms are growing despite limitations like [the fact] that there are 5m people who fled the war and electricity is limited.' This means Ukraine's workers and private sector businesses must still keep paying the taxman while living under air raids, daily blackouts and inflation. 'Business and people of Ukraine pay their fair share to support this war effort and the defence. We would very much expect that the West would step in with their share,' Haidai says. Boosting the domestic defence industry, which dates back to Soviet times, is crucial to making the money and military aid stretch further. 'After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was left with a big chunk of the Soviet arms industry. But back then maintaining the arms industry was not a priority given that it was just after the Cold War. So there was a decline,' says Lorenzo Scarazzato, of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and then the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have sparked a revival. Ukraine's defence industry now supplies around 30pc of the munitions for the war and has been fuelled by start-ups and entrepreneurs like Barabash. 'After the full scale invasion, I tried to be drafted,' he says. 'But they never called me back, and I had no previous experience with combat. So I started to look how can I help. We connected with other volunteers and started to develop things that soldiers require on battlefield.' His company specialises in sensors that can transmit from the battlefield despite Putin's forces scrambling GPS signals, making it possible to quickly identity and take out incoming threats. 'We lack everything. So we were asked: can you produce this, because the cheapest one costs more than $100,000 a device? We came up with this first device with a sensor that cost 10 times less than the cheapest solution [on the] Ukrainian market, and 1,000 times less than any device from European on US market,' Barabash says. Such ingenuity has not been driven only by Russian aggression. Ukraine has also learnt from delays in the international response, says Serhii Kuzan, a former adviser to Ukraine's ministry of defence. 'The several-month delay in the decision to provide American assistance and the EU's delays in the second half of 2022 after the successful counteroffensive by the defence forces in Kharkiv and Kherson regions, and a nine-month delay in aid in late 2023 early 2024, cost Ukraine dearly,' Kuzan says, who is now the chairman of Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre. 'These delays not only hampered the Ukrainian Defence Forces' capabilities, but also gave Russia a chance to recover from its defeats and mobilise its own armed forces. Therefore, Ukraine has prioritised the development of the defence industry.' Even still, there is only so much Ukraine can do. Experts warn there are some types of equipment the country could not replace if going at alone without US backing, such as some fighter jets. Losing equipment like this is a greater worry than running out of money. Kyiv's best hope may be to convince European leaders that investing in Ukraine is not just throwing money into a never-ending conflict: it is an investment in the future of the Continent's treatment efforts. 'The main obstacle is the lack of funding,' says Kuzan. 'Overcoming fear and making a decision to direct these funds to Ukrainian weapons production will allow Europe to both gain time and receive very specific dividends for itself – cheap and effective weapons for itself in the future.' It is an attractive proposition. But there is no guarantee leaders will buy in. For now, Kyiv is left to make every cent stretch as far as it can as Russia's assault on Ukraine grinds on. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Mail & Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
A letter to the African Union and the continent's governments
Foreign aid has been the backbone of Africa's HIV/Aids response but now the continent must take control of its health future. Dear African Union leadership and African governments, I am writing not just as a young person from Namibia living with HIV, but as one of the 26 million Africans who depend on lifesaving medication to survive. Over the years, international aid has played a critical role in funding treatment, prevention and awareness programmes, saving millions of lives, including my own. But the recent decision by international donors, including USAid and Pepfar, to reduce funding for HIV/Aids programmes, among others, fills me with deep fear and uncertainty. Beyond this fear, I am left with an even greater question: where are we headed, and are we doing enough for ourselves as a continent? For decades, Africa has been at the centre of the global HIV/Aids crisis, carrying the highest burden of infections and deaths. In 2023, an estimated Young women and adolescent girls are disproportionately affected, with infection rates significantly higher than their male counterparts. In 2023, women and girls (all ages) accounted for 62% of all new HIV infections in the region. Every week, Structural barriers, including gender inequalities, discrimination, stigma, and poverty, continue to drive new infections in Africa. Many countries still struggle with healthcare infrastructure issues, social stigma and mental health that prevents people from seeking support and healthcare. For years, foreign aid has been the backbone of Africa's HIV/Aids response, and the progress Africa has made in tackling HIV/Aids is undeniable. Progress has been made in eliminating mother-to-child transmission, expanding access to antiretroviral treatment, addressing HIV stigma and discrimination, and a reduction in annual new HIV infections. There is a lot to celebrate and be proud of. The recent decision to shift HIV/Aids funding has led to the closure of Ethiopia is on track to reach the global 95-95-95 targets, with 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 94% receiving antiretroviral treatment, and 96% achieving viral suppression. This pause means that And If we do not take control of our healthcare response, who will fund our hospitals, clinics and community outreach programmes? How many lives will be lost before we realise that Africa must take responsibility for its health crisis? We must take full ownership of our HIV/Aids response. Africa must look inward and implement bold frameworks and policies that prioritise domestic resource mobilisation and allocate greater resources to healthcare, in line with the We need to invest in local pharmaceutical manufacturing to expand local drug production, ensure affordability, and reduce dependency on imports. Africa must build strategic, localised, global and public-private partnerships to strengthen healthcare independence. Strengthening health sector governance across African countries is essential to support the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's push for universal health coverage. Achieving this goal will require harmonised systems across the continent, along with targeted support for countries that need it, particularly in areas such as procurement, administration and budgeting to ensure effective and equitable implementation. Our continent is home to brilliant and innovative minds. Let us invest in research and development, lead vaccine innovation and advance treatment and prevention strategies tailored to Africa's needs. Additionally, addressing poverty and inequality, investing in education and scaling up prevention programmes are now more critical than ever. This roadmap will not only reinforce African ownership of the Aids response but will also accelerate the goal of ending HIV as a public health threat by 2035 and contribute to broader economic growth. Tuwilika Elias is a public policy analyst and an advocate of advancing health equity.
