Ghana has declined a proposed bilateral health agreement with the United States, a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters, marking another setback to the Trump administration’s push to reshape foreign aid. According to the source, President John Dramani Mahama’s government objected to provisions requiring the sharing of sensitive health data.
Similar concerns derailed talks with Zimbabwe earlier this year and led a Kenyan court to suspend implementation of that country’s deal following a case filed by a consumer protection group. Spokespersons for Ghana’s Foreign Ministry and government did not respond to requests for comment, while the U.S. State Department said it does not disclose details of bilateral negotiations. “We continue to look for ways to strengthen the bilateral partnership between our two countries,” a spokesperson noted.
The Trump administration in September unveiled its “America First Global Health Strategy,” which calls on developing nations to take greater responsibility in combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and polio, with the long-term goal of transitioning from aid dependence to self-reliance. Earlier this year, the U.S. Agency for International Development was dismantled as part of the restructuring.
INTENSE U.S. ‘PRESSURE’ TO SIGN DEAL, SOURCE SAYS
The U.S. has disbursed $219 million in foreign assistance to Ghana, including $96 million specifically for health, for 2024, the year before the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid, according to government foreign assistance data. The deal that the two sides started negotiating last November would have called for $109 million in U.S. assistance for health over five years, the source said. It was unclear how much Ghana would have been expected to pay.
“They were pretty normal dealings and negotiations in the beginning, and then increasingly there was a lot more pressure, especially at the end,” the source said. Washington then set April 24 as the deadline to conclude the negotiations, and Accra decided it could not agree to what was being proposed, the source said.
Ghana has communicated its position to the Trump administration, the source said. As of Monday, the State Department had signed 32 deals under the “America First Global Health Strategy” representing $20.6 billion in funding, made up of $12.8 billion from the U.S. and $7.8 billion in “co-investment from recipient countries”, the State Department spokesperson said. Washington expects additional memorandums of understanding to be signed in the near future, the spokesperson said.
Source: Reuters
