The Tonse Alliance’s job creation agenda is facing its toughest test yet, as jobs for about 5,000 jobs risk being lost in Malawi if United States (US) President Donald Trump proceeds with his decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USaid).
The agency distributes billions of US dollars in aid around the world.
Fears have grown after Elon Musk, who is a close adviser to the US President, has twitted thus: “USaid is a criminal organisation. Time for it to die.’ Donald Trump,
As of Tuesday, USaid was supporting $284.7 million (about K498.5 billion) worth of programmes in almost all sectors of the economy in Malawi.
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The Daily Times has established that, so far, Malawi has 35 USaid-funded initiatives.
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On Monday, Trump alleged, during a meeting with reporters at the White House, that USaid was managed by “radical left lunatics”, adding that it was getting away with “tremendous fraud”.
He did not provide names or details.
USaid was established in 1961 by President John F Kennedy and has around 10,000 employees and a budget of nearly $40 billion, out of a total of $68 billion in US government foreign aid spending.
The Trump administration reportedly intends to merge the US government’s main overseas aid agency with the State Department, as workers were asked to stay out of its Washington headquarters.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in El Salvador that he was now the acting head of USaid.
Calling USaid “a completely unresponsive agency”, Rubio said a lot of functions of the organisation “are going to continue”.
On Monday, Director of HIV, STI and Viral Hepatitis in the Ministry of Health, Linley Chewere, said the ministry had redeployed staff for HIV testing, ART dispensing and targeting viral load monitoring to fill gaps left by USaid (Presidential Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) Pepfar-funded personnel.
In a circular, Chiwere said the measures should be implemented without delay as they are part of the contingency plan to respond to the temporary suspension of support by Pepfar and its implementing partners.
Economic commentator Velli Nyirongo Tuesday said the aid cutback represented funding that would otherwise have been covered by Malawian taxpayers.
“However, with USaid financing these essential programmes, American taxpayers had been shouldering the cost.
“The sudden loss of financial support is expected to disrupt development planning and force the government to seek alternative sources of funding,” Nyirongo said.
Since 2006, Malawi has received approximately $2 billion in US development support, averaging $110 million annually.
The suspension of aid puts at risk various projects, including food security initiatives, health interventions and economic development programmes.
In response to the funding gap, the US government recently committed $40 million, through USaid, for the Growth Poles Project, a five-year initiative aimed at expanding economic opportunities for smallholder farmers, youth and women.
The programme is expected to benefit about 500,000 Malawians.
Last week, Malawi Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu said developed countries such as the US knew and appreciated that Malawi was one country that had invested heavily in efforts to eradicate poverty, disease and other socio-economic ills but that being a repetitive victim of natural disasters and global economic woes, it was clear that Malawi still needed a hand from the donor community “while we enhance our economic recovery endeavours”.
According to Kunkuyu, the recent resumption of direct budgetary support from some donors was a clear indication that helping Malawi through various programme was not akin to helping a consuming Malawi but, rather, helping Malawi to stand on her feet.
“It is therefore in the interest of Malawi for rich countries to continue developing suitable partnering arrangements with countries like Malawi as reliable partners in the global development agenda,” Kunkuyu said.
