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 provisions linking the aid package to access to Zambian health data and preferential access for American firms in the country’s copper and critical minerals sectors.
According to reports monitored here on Tuesday, the breakthrough was reached on the sidelines of last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York when Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Chris Kulukundis agreed to sign a revised health aid deal.
Haimbe told local media that the disputed clauses had been removed and the health assistance package had been fully separated from negotiations over critical minerals.
“I believe that it has now been agreed that those provisions be replaced completely,” Haimbe said.
“The linking, the coupling of the critical minerals agreement with the health assistance … has also been set aside.”
The revised agreement has now 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 money 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.
At the centre of the dispute were provisions that would have granted US authorities broad access to Zambia’s pathogen-tracking and public health data, while also linking the assistance package to preferential access for American companies seeking opportunities in Zambia’s copper and critical minerals industries.
The proposal sparked debate over sovereignty, data privacy and the growing competition among major powers for access to Africa’s mineral resources, which are increasingly viewed as 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 the country’s mining sector.
JN/APA