Zambia has inked a five‑year health partnership with the United States, agreeing to receive about $1.5bn in aid and sharing limited health data under a revised memorandum of understanding signed in Lusaka on Thursday.
The deal follows months of debate over a leaked draft that civil society organisations accused of allowing too‑wide data sharing and linking medical funding to preferential access for U.S. mining companies. Health Minister Roma Chilengi confirmed that the revised text removes clauses that would have required Zambia to send biological specimens abroad and restricts data exchange to information necessary for monitoring and evaluating U.S.‑funded programmes.
The agreement represents a shift from the former USAID‑driven model toward a shared‑responsibility framework, with U.S. funding expected to decline over the five years as Zambia boosts domestic spending on HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, disease surveillance, and community health worker recruitment.
Critics say the U.S. withdrawal of the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year curbed rapid response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Washington maintains that its new approach is more aligned and effective, citing $270m already donated toward the epidemic.
