Zambia is set to become the latest African country to sign a health assistance agreement with the United States after Washington agreed to remove controversial clauses linking aid to minerals.
The breakthrough was reached on the sidelines of last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to reports monitored on Tuesday.
Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Chris Kulukundis agreed to sign a revised health aid deal.
The revised deal removes provisions that linked health assistance to access to Zambian health data and preferential access for American firms in Zambia’s copper and critical minerals sectors.
“I believe that it has now been agreed that those provisions be replaced completely,” Haimbe told local media.
“The linking, the coupling of the critical minerals agreement with the health assistance… has also been set aside.”
The revised agreement has been finalised and cleared for signing, paving the way for more than US$1 billion in direct US funding for Zambia’s health sector.
The funding is expected to support frontline health centres, maternal health services and infectious disease programmes.
The agreement follows months of negotiations after Lusaka rejected an initial five-year US$2 billion proposal from Washington earlier this year.
The initial proposal would have granted US authorities broad access to Zambia’s pathogen-tracking and public health data, while also linking assistance to preferential access for American companies in Zambia’s copper and critical minerals industries.
The proposal sparked debate over sovereignty, data privacy and competition among major powers for access to Africa’s mineral resources, critical to global energy transition technologies and advanced manufacturing.
Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, has sought to position itself as an open investment destination while resisting pressure to align exclusively with either Western countries or China, both of which have significant interests in its mining sector.
AP
