Vice President Inonge Wina says the Zambian government is worried that the announced budget cuts in foreign aid and funding to United Nations agencies will have devastating effects on the country’s health sector.
A White House budget blue print is calling for a 28 percent cut in State Department funding, meaning drastic reductions in foreign aid.
Questioned about US aid cuts during a recent trip to Australia, Vice-President Inonge Wina said a range of health programs in Zambia country would be impacted.
“It is a pity that the new administration of the United States and President Donald Trump is considering cutting aid to many countries, especially in the health sector,” she said.
“We have received quite a substantial amount of support from the US government through USAID in the promotion of health, especially in the fights against HIV and AIDS, in the area of maternal health and in malaria eradication.”
According to USAID, three out of four Zambians live in extreme poverty, and the country faces major challenges including high unemployment, low agricultural productivity, inadequate road and energy infrastructure, poor education outcomes and health crises caused by HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Annually, Zambia receives $US300 million under USAID.
The nation is a major beneficiary of a range of programs including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the President’s Malaria Initiative (PIM), Feed the Future, the President’s Global Climate Change Initiative, and the President’s Power Africa and Trade Africa programs.
The US budget blueprint provides ongoing support for PEPFAR, which channels nearly $US7 billion a year into HIV/AIDS programs around the globe.
And Mrs Wina says government is looking at alternative funding avenues to maintain existing health programs in the face of the US budget cuts.
“Some of the support we [have been] receiving from the US will not be there, so we’ll have to find ways of supplementing what we will [be] receiving so that our programs do not stall,” Mrs Wina said.
“We have not yet been informed about the changes that will come from the US government regarding their support to Africa, so when that is known, then you will know what figures you will be working with in that area.
“As a country we are preparing ourselves for any eventualities.”
Mrs Wina expressed concern about the impact of US foreign aid cuts on Africa more broadly.
The Trump budget eliminates funding for the Global Climate Change Initiative and would stop payments to UN programs on climate change.
“Africa has been hit by many calamities including natural ones,” Mrs Wina said.
“For example, we have issues that have impacted our people due to climate change conditions; we have had droughts and we have had flash floods.
“All this means that sometimes our governments are not ready for these disasters and additional support is sought from other countries.
“But if that support will not be forthcoming because of new government policies in other countries where we make multi-national agreements, then definitely some programs will be affected by these decisions.”
Well done Trump. The money PF has wasted for a blotted cabinet, overseas trips etc should have been used for health
Madam Wina, we know that your real worry is about less money in your pockets. I support Trump for cutting more dead foreign aid!!
Madam release another K2million to consult Zambians whether they still need donor aid and loans from China, Europe and America, we this is possible if you managed to find a K2million to make consultations on ICC withdraw.
My biggest worry is the life prolonging HIV drugs. If they too are affected, then we will die in masses. One in 4 people ban the ages of 25 and 50 is HIV positive in Zambia.
Its a good move by Trump.There is too much stealing and corruption in Zambia under the regime of Kamwendo Kadansa Chakolwa Rungu…
What a disgrace of a Veep. Aid given is used by yourselves to travel around the world and used to treat yourselves in overseas hospitals and most of it stolen and fatten your necks . Money earned is best utilized than money given as gift. We misuse the money given as aid that is why we are relaxed and poor. Time to focus on ourselves. 13million population is 100times less than China yet in China there is no hunger. We should not be crying hunger in Zambia when we have water and land. Until we start using this aid money constructively, there will never be hunger in Zambia. E.g I send money as gift to Zambia and nothing positive has ever come out of it, but drunkenness only
Reading the article, i thought veep was thinking of you poverty stricken bloggers but you are busy insulting her. Bamumbwe mwebo
Are you a Zambian?Your comments do not match your citizenship as you have no mercy.
She is just worried about the dollars for trips around the world and not the impact on poor Zambians’.I heard somewhere that she wishes to see the Eiffel Tower once before she kicks the bucket
@Coneilo mwaiche walitumpa. If you insult Inonge, then I wonder how you treat you mother.
Today, do something for your parents, send them £500.
Afterlow She has lived a better life unlike you thats why you wish her dead but you never know who dies first as God has a plan for everyone even tomorrow yourself can die as you are already sick just from your comments.
Agogo dont worry with drunkard global trotter
Time to stop running around the world vp with your tin cup in hand stay home and save money for Zambians . Why are you in Australia? LT never told us
Well done Trump, time for countries like Zambia under selfish leaders to think twice. Didn’t Frank Bwalya say we don’t need USAID at some point?
Our young lady Dambiso told them about dead aid; Kangame listened but our visionless Zambian leaders never listened; perhaps zambians will wake up to remove people from power once many of their relatives start to die in great numbers; and where is Frank Bwalya who said that the USA has done nothing in Zambia?
Madame Wina is worrying about cuts in American Aid. Why worry about things u have no control over? With increased human rights violations in Zambia ,Madam Wina should be worried that even borrowing from the likes of IMF will not be possible.Lungu is busy trashing the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Good Governance in Zambia. Lungu is blocking the Petition Hearing Process and so will remain illegitimate. No International Financial Institutions will give Financial assistance to an illegitimate Lungu govt which is planning to leave ICC for that matter. No Petition Hearing. No Legitimacy and No Financial Assistance. Period.
Madam its high time that Zambia is looking after itself and not depending on foreign aid all the time!53 years independence for what?
Trump the working president. How many trips so far? NONE. Then MuLungu Trips 100s, every other day. Congratulations MuLungu and PF, now let’s seriously ? do proper national governance and support our health service. Maybe it’s time we spent another K2,000,000/= on consultation about how much we will sell Zambia to the Chinese
Madam Inonge we elected you into office so that you and your team can turn around the economy of Zambia. We did not expect you to be the Chief Lobbyist of begging for our struggling economy. During campaigns you clearly stated that you will turn around the economy of Zambia – Did that mean you will be going round the world begging for money.
Please set your priorities right; Improve the economy – you have Economists in the country so try to heed by their advice and develop this nation. You can not back your survival on begging mealmeal, salt and relish from your neighbor. TIME WILL COME WHEN YOUR NEIGHBOUR WILL HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER; AND AT THAT TIME YOU WIIL FOLD YOUR ARMS AND PERISH. I LIKE THE CHINESE SAYING THAT “IF YOU GIVE FISH TO A MAN HE WILL FEED FOR ONE DAY; BUT IF YOU TEAM A…
Bana Wina: For how long are you going to be a beggar. Ngabena ifyo bakwawata fyafumyakwi? These guys they are hard workers. Why do we fail work hard ourselves. God has given us every thing we need in Zambia and in Africa as a whole, but leadership qualities matters most. Tell Zambian what God Almighty has not given us? We have Doctors why cant they research. We have all sort of UNZA & ZBU Engineers why cant they research? Unless a white man tells us what to do. Look at the Roads in Kitwe and we are waiting for Chines. Council Roads Engineers fast a sleep. If we cant use what God has given us then we should suffer. They have oil, we have copper and Mukula Trees but we are sleeping. Cant our Educated Zambians make research of want Mukula Trees can be used for? Zambia is a very rich country…
The life of an illegal begging government kiki lazy lungu and friends think that they are owed kaloba. You f00ls. You will learn the hard way.
Time to start taking care of ourselves and fund our own health..or stop bonking each other carelessly
We keep telling the kaponyas who are clapping and dancing when lungu has paranoid schizophrenic fits and starts harassing the opposition that, you are a begging GRZ , don’t think you can claim to be democratic and harrasse the opposition and beg at the same time….
She is also a panyo plus like lungu
welcome to the world of big data.
you who like harlots and flirting with men and women in the name of girlfriend, sugar dad, sugar mami, sweetbabe whatever you call it, HIV/aids will finish you! no more ARVS. time to start fearing sin has come. you can choose to indulge yourself in Prostitution or in God fearing and stay hearth.
even my brothers and sister who are on ARVS treatment are affected that i know, time to wake up and come back to GOD.
usual holier than thou ignorant Zambian with access to the internet.
Trump is 100% right because too much stealing. At one point trump said Africans they’re so poor yet there leaders are busy banking overseas while on the other hand they want donors buy them needle and razars. Hopeless leaders . Worried of what is not yours yet copper is going out freely
It is in our culture embarrassing to beg around.Why should it be embraced as normal and what are you teaching generations ahead of you?That it is okey to be always looking outwards for solutions?If you offered to be leaders sorting national problems,my advise would be that you show courage in the face of adversity.Give hope in the face of hopelessness.By making a statement like that whether just another media fabrication,you admit unfitness for the office.Zambia at the moment needs a mental revolution.A paradigm shift in reasoning and you leaders should be at the center of it.Skills training will lead to in-dependence for the youth.Implement dont just delve in rhetoric and theories .Set priorities right.Instead of 2M on consultations invest it in an immediate pressing need for youth…
just come back and get married to Sikota wina..Trump is right..PF is very wasteful
These misfits have no shame at all. Imagine they are spending K2miilion of consultation to leave the ICC? This money could have been channeled towards procuring medicines for our hospitals. But it is business as usual for this visionless lot stinking of corruption. Trump will sort you out since you have become dictators hell bent on inflicting pain and poverty on the masses.
Whatever happened to the HIV aid money that was stolen by a director married to ex- sec to cabinet? What about the tender by the goons at health? Or what about the tractors distributed to relatives and friends? And you want who to not cut aid?
Zambia after 50 years of independence should be able to stand on its own. But when leaders like yourself cry when a foreign country cuts aid to Zambia then you are wasting our time by staying in power.
The truth is Zambia is a poor Country that depends on the West to drive its economy, one would wonder why some bloggers here will try to pretend when it comes to aid. The truth is a bitter pill to swallow sometimes, stop being proud and accept it. Africa will not develop with this kind of mindset, it takes a humble person who accepts where they are to then move forward and experience change. Change will only come if one accepts that they have a problem period.
Are we serious madame Wina is in Australia to open Commonwealth Law Conference. Then she talks about how poor we are and will be in problems when trumps cuts take place. For Goodness sake it is a LAW conference.
You would expect the Minister fir Justice to be the speaker on behalf of Zambia. Her law degree is from which university and the Ministers law degree is from
53 years of Independence even vegetables and other crops – fruit, legumes and tubers are still imported to Zambia. Is this not shameful to the world at large? Just imagine why is this government want to kill me over my own maize from the farm I used my power and no loan from PF government then deny me to sale in Congo when Dora and her counterparts are buffering the maize which if you did a research you wont find where they cultivated.
Wina GG and her likes are the greediest and most cunning people of Zambia. I have worked personally for her and there is no other better Satanist than her. This family has grabbed prime land in Lusaka and has also grabbed a big motel from a white man named Wella. She has expanded her property, had done nepotism by giving a cushy job at the ministry of foreign affairs to her worthless son in law (he was just a drunkard). All these money and power have come from the stolen money from foreign aids. That’s why she is crying now because the source is drying up.
She cares a hoot for Zambia.
So
GOOD MOVE BY DONALD J TRUMP, FOR HOW LONG WILL YOU BEG BELOVED ZAMBIA?
But why should Agog cry for reduction in aid? Do you cry for more salt/sugar/tu-boom from your neighbor when he has said he cant give you more? No Agog, you should know better that you cut your costs! Just free advise as you fly back home, look within yourselves and you will see so many areas where you can save and you would not crying for money which is not yours. Forexample; Ba Lungu doesnt travel in the next 3 months at the rate of 3 trips per month and spending an average of USD300,000.00 per trip you would save USD2.7m. Trump wants to look after his own and he is leading by example. Since his coming into power close to 3 months he has never traveled out of the US. He is implementing the promises he gave during the campaigns. As to whether his executioning is working or not is another…
It’s best not to depend on aid. Citizens in Zambia have for years worried about our Aid dependent economy. It’s often hard to understand where billions of aid disappear to. It’s time to be more creative in finding own solutions to our economy. Zambia practically gives away its natural wealth in resources to get back almost nothing as in the Mines.
It’s sad times ahead, but provides an opportunity to tighten up borrowing at large interest rates.
Why being worried? Instead let us work hard and start borrowing other countries.
On cutting aid to Africa Trump must be given a thumbs up for the dependency syndrome has made African leaders stupid and incapable of governing their nations! African leaders have become so selfish with no remorse for misapplication of aid and nothing to show for it! Those aged 55 years plus will surely recall that things were much better as colonialists tried to replicate within allowable African settings that which existed in their countries of origin to better living standards! Not ruling out misapplication and corruption at least accountability was manifest in services availed. Simple example in Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) to uphold cleanliness, garbage was being collected in townships same as it still exists in Europe and other western countries. Health management met the basic life…
contd…. sustaining levels without people rushing overseas for treatment, of course expatriates had their own benefits with their countries but at least efforts were afoot to bring services closer! Many more examples can be cited but where the colonialists left instead of building upon what was in place African leadership led to erosion. What is development if not moving forward with improvements? How long has aid been poured into Africa without anything tangible to show for it? The adage to cut your dress according to cloth available is a well known one but Africans continue to demand for more cloth before making good of the one at hand! Cutting off aid may push African governments to be more prudent with resources and probably develop acumen for intelligent negotiating to benefit their…
contd…. their nationals! Crying for withdrawn aid which in the first place is only a gesture of kindness should be no cause for hopelessness but be seen as opportunity to remove oneself from shackles of the dependency syndrome! In Zambia and much to my ire from childhood growing up in Wusakile families shared an ablution block which to date over 50 years after independence is still a normal! Instead of health facilities politicians get evacuated abroad for being brought closer for everyones benefit the trend is being upscaled for only the privileged few! Thus who cares if Trump cuts off aid? Its non other than those already benefitting from that which all nationals should partake of through improved services being denied! Bravo Trump!
Wina is no mama any more. Greedy, cunning and always grabbing property. She is now worried because she is trying to settle her useless daughter and a drunkard son in law into something. People like the Winas are the biggest thieves from the Zambian people. In these bad poor days, she is roaming the world with public money. With the money that she is spending in her foreign tours, thousands of poor Zambian can eat for several days. And why does she need to go abroad to beg. No one will listen to her. Zambia does not figure anywhere in the world of economy. We are only takers, we dont give anything to the world. This has to change. And cunning foxes like Wina cannot do it. No one knows her. No one recognises her and her lecture at any world forum has no value. So why spend so much money to…