Mozambique: Classes begin n Matola's Matlemele Primary School - report
AP (File photo)
With Africa currently the largest recipient of US aid and Mozambique the fourth largest beneficiary on the continent, the country may well be affected by the proposed reduction in US foreign aid.
The White House budget proposal of Thursday 16 March calls for large reductions in spending on foreign aid, provoking strong reactions both in the US and abroad. President Donald Trump wants to increase military and police spending by reducing foreign aid and contributions to international organizations such as the United Nations.
Although US foreign aid is only one percent of the total US budget, in absolute terms it is much more than that of any other nation.
In 2014, the US spent US$32.73 billion on foreign aid, or 24 percent of total aid worldwide, and by 2015, this had risen to US$49 billion. Africa has in fact been increasing its share of US aid. In 1995, the continent received only 11 percent of the total American aid, but in the space of 20 years the proportional volume tripled.
In 2015, an American Congress study showed that, with 32 percent of the total, Africa had become the largest recipient of American aid, just topping the 31 percent going to Middle Eastern countries. In the same year, Mozambique was the 13th largest recipient of US aid with a total of US$457 million. In Africa, only Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania received more.
Donald Trump’s budget proposal states that economic and development aid will be directed “to countries of greater strategic importance to the United States”, but does not specify regions or countries. The budget proposal does however ring-fence resources for programs to immunize children against tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/Aids, like the well-known Aids program, PEPFAR.
Budget director Mick Mulvaney said, however, that there would be reductions in foreign aid, noting that the president “has said hundreds of times during his campaign that we will spend less money on people overseas and more on people in our country”.
Humanitarian aid groups across the world say that reducing US foreign aid threatens the lives of the most vulnerable. Liz Schrayer of the US Global Leadership Coalition told VOA that the isolation of the developing world could affect America, noting that “in the last decade there has been a 70 percent increase in its share of economic development”.
“These countries are the very ones which may become more involved in the trade and export of American goods and services,” he said.
“It may be that the (American) coal miner doesn’t even think about what’s happening in Africa, but 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside America and that is where our exports and goods and services will help to invest in America,” Schrayer added.
President Trump’s budget also proposes reducing funds for the United Nations and multilateral organizations such as the World Bank. The US currently pays 22 percent of the UN budget, including 25 percent of the organization’s peacekeeping budget.
The budget proposal now goes to Congress, where changes are expected.
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