THE APPARENT END OF USAID IN AFRICA
A former African Union (AU) diplomat explains why certain African leaders are not sad to see the apparent "demise" of the influence-peddling tool, often mischaracterized as "donor aid"
Readers of this Substack blog already know that I have a very negative opinion of “donor aid”—a powerful tool used by external actors to meddle in the domestic affairs of recipient states. As part of this write-up, I have posted a number of short video clips of a retired African Union diplomat discussing the apparent “exit” of USAID and its “donor aid” from the African continent.
Zimbabwean-born medical doctor, Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, is a former Permanent Representative (Ambassador) of the African Union to the United States. Recently, she was interviewed for 24 minutes by American journalist Steve Clemons— a former RAND Corporation think-tanker, former editor of the neoconservative/neoliberal Atlantic magazine, and currently a prominent news anchor of Aljazeera TV Network.
Although Steve was accepting of the fact that many Africans welcome Trump’s aid freeze, he could not resist prefacing the interview with a monologue about the “waves of humanitarian tragedy” that might come after the “exit” of USAID from Africa.
It is true that USAID does engage in genuine humanitarian projects, but those constitute a fraction of the work of this GONGO-style “independent agency”, which specializes in subverting the local cultures and domestic politics of countries across the world to serve the malevolent geopolitical designs of the United States. This subversion takes the form of bribing local politicians and funding the creation of astroturfed non-governmental organizations that can be used to incite civil unrest. The corrupt Euro-American corporate media propagandists are usually on standby to label such manufactured social unrest as “pro-democracy (colour) revolution.”
Nevertheless, it would be remiss of me not to mention one genuine humanitarian project— the famous PEPFAR programme that President George W. Bush instructed USAID to implement on the African continent back in 2003. Western critics of President Donald Trump say that his Executive Order 14169 freezing “donor aid”—combined with Elon Musk’s “wrecking” of USAID— has put the 22-year-old PEPFAR in jeopardy. Those critics have also voiced fears that HIV clinics across Africa would be forced to shut down due to lack of USAID funding.
My response to that criticism is that African governments should be responsible for the welfare of their people. I am heartened to see that many Africa countries are already stepping up to pick up the slack. For example, the Nigerian federal legislature has approved an additional $200 million for the health sector as part of the national budget for this year.
On this Substack post, I am only going to show five short video clips of this wide-ranging interview. The rest of the interview is available on Youtube.
I. First Video Clip:
Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao states that USAID is a “wolf in sheep clothing” and majority of African leaders are glad to see the apparent “end” of this organisation.
II. Second Video Clip:
She explains that “donor aid” is peanuts compared to revenue that African countries are able to generate from their own natural resources.
III. Third Video Clip:
Steve Clemons tells his interviewee that Donald Trump did not take on USAID because he likes Africa. In fact, the US President dislikes Africa. Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao responds that African countries would be fine without USA.
IV. Fourth Video Clip:
Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao explains that exit of the United States from from global institutions (e.g. WHO) and Trump’s quasi-nationalist mantra “America First” are signals for African countries to strike out on their own.
V. Fifth Video Clip:
As soon as the interview with the former AU Ambassador was over, the RAND corporation impulses of Steven Clemons kicked in. He calmly delivered a second monologue to articulate that he isn’t “fully convinced” that the absence of USAID presents a golden opportunity for the African continent to be free of external meddling, although he was careful to concede the possibility that the African viewpoint on “donor aid” might be correct.
Steve did not mention the disliked Orange Strongman by name. Nevertheless, he declared his sympathy for the recent lamentations of Sir Alex Younger (former British Intelligence Chief) about the wheeling-and-dealing ways of the transactional strongman in the White House, the possible castration of NATO, and the wrecking of American soft power in the world.
Conclusion:
Overall, the Aljazeera interview with Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quaoit was interesting. If you would like to watch the full length of the interview, then click this link. There are a few things she says in the extended version of the interview that I don't necessarily agree with. Nevertheless, her commentary is mostly representative of what many Africans across the continent think of “donor aid”.
Just for the record, I don’t agree that USAID is actually dead or has exited the African continent entirely. The organization is currently in hibernation mode as it undergoes downsizing and refitting for a different mission.
Whenever it debuts, I expect the new version of USAID to have a smaller staff with a narrowly focussed mission. It would be nothing like its former self—a gigantic octopus with tentacles reaching all corners of the world. The budget of the new version of USAID would be a fraction of that of the old USAID.
The Trump Administration plans to reduce the number of USAID employees from 10,000 scattered all over the world to just 290. Internecine court battles between American employees of USAID and the US federal government to save their precious jobs will likely fail. Nothing will stop the downsizing and refitting of the organization.
Unless it can secure an alternative means of finance, the other notorious organization, the CIA-created National Endowment for Democracy (NED)— staffed by Trump’s neoconservative enemies— is unlikely to survive Elon Musk’s termination of its Treasury Department funding.
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I've long admired Al Jazeera, but it worrries me that they seem more pro-USA of late, especially regarding the proxy war in Ukraine. Not overtly pro, but they've softened their criticism. I worry that it's part of a lot of deals being made in the Middle East.
As Europe is being weakened by the USA, made to pick up slack, so its stepping more into South Africa. Germany, especially, has a long history here. I wonder if real power, which seeks to shape the world, is simply reorganising financing flows (i.e., Public funds).