By Rebecca Chimjeka Matemba & Mercy Matonga
The Malawi Government has described as a “huge relief” the decision by United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio to issue a waiver for life-saving humanitarian assistance during a 90-day pause in foreign aid while Washington undertakes a review.
Last week, US president Donald Trump announced the pause to allow US authorities to review foreign aid contributions to gauge their alignment with Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy.
Among other things, the pause had put about 936,480 people living with HIV in Malawi at risk of losing access to life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
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The US provides such assistance through the Presidential Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar).
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In a memo released on Tuesday, Rubio defined life-saving humanitarian assistance as core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance, supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.
“This waiver does not apply to activities that involve abortions, family planning conferences, administrative costs… gender or DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) ideology programmes, transgender surgeries or other non-life saving assistance,” Rubio’s memo reads.
Reacting to the development Wednesday, both Malawi Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu and Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda expressed gratitude to the American government.
Kunkuyu said Malawi was making strides to stand on its own but that it was not there yet and that any assistance to help the people of Malawi was an investment.
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He said the waiver gave Malawi a breather as it worked on strategies to take care of the health of its own people.
“Natural disasters and pandemics have pushed us back in as far as public health is concerned. We are not there, [in terms of] standing on our own, yet. We still need development partners to help our health budget,” Kunkuyu said.
Commenting on the development, Kandodo Chiponda said Malawians should not despair as there were enough stocks of essential drugs such as ARVs, antimalarials and tuberculosis drugs.
She said “we are happy” with the waiver.
The Malawi Health Equity Network also welcomed the US government’s decision to grant a waiver on its 90-day freeze of foreign aid, allowing life-saving humanitarian assistance to continue.
Its executive director George Jobe said the decision was timely.
“This is a huge relief as the US government has listened to the pleas we have made over the past days that the 90-day freeze must spare critical areas in health,” Jobe said.
According to Jobe, any loss of life due to the freeze would have been irreversible, even if exemptions were granted later.
Jobe urged Washington to ensure continued support for vital interventions, including the supply of drugs and vaccines, even after the 90-day period expires.
“The US government has contributed significantly to Malawi’s health and livelihoods sectors, and we believe they would not want to compromise the huge gains already attained,” he said.
On Monday, the United States Agency for International Development (USaid) issued a stop-work order (SWO) and award suspension notice to its implementing partners in Malawi.
The directive requires implementing partners to cease activities under existing agreements and halt any expenditures related to ongoing projects.
Affected organisations were instructed to notify their sub awardees of the suspension and take measures to minimise costs already incurred.
