Good afternoon. Mozambique continues to reel from the damaging effects of cuts to the United States’ foreign aid budget. The latest cut that has been announced (but only on social media, from the X account of Elon Musk's non- department Department of Government Efficiency) is the cancellation of a $10m male circumcision programme (see below). Circumcision is a cheap and effective way of improving sexual hygiene and reducing sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
That cancellation, if confirmed, would come on top of the impact of freezing aid for preventing and treating HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through the suspension of some funding via the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and from The Global Fund, a healthcare fund to which the US is the biggest donor. Some of that aid is meant to have been unfrozen for now, but it is not clear if it can be administered given that the United States Agency for International Development has suspended all activity.
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The South African government has played down the effect of US funding cuts on its HIV and AIDS treatment programmes, but Mozambique is not in a position to do the same. There are already not enough healthcare workers per head of population, and if PEPFAR is cancelled, it will pull funding for over 2,700 nurses.
