Zambia's government will sign an agreement allowing it to receive $1.5 billion in health funding from the United States after resolving concerns over Washington's request for medical data.
Zambia's government will sign an agreement allowing it to receive $1.5 billion in health funding from the United States after resolving concerns over Washington's request for medical data, its health minister said on Tuesday.
Earlier this year negotiations stalled over Zambia's concerns over data privacy and a US attempt to tie the funding to access to critical minerals.
"The government is pleased to announce that it will sign the agreement ... on Thursday," Chilengi said.
The minister added that the agreement would see the US provide $1.5 billion in health funding over five years, while Zambia would spend $2.1 billion.
Zambia says new deal not tied to critical minerals
Until recently, the US funded various health programmes in Zambia, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and public health.
Zambia and other African nations have had reservations over requests that they share sweeping medical data with the US as a condition to receive funds.
Chilengi said data-sharing would be limited to providing information required to monitor and evaluate US-funded health programmes. A clause had been removed that would have required Zambia to share patient medical specimens with the US if requested.
Whether the US funding was conditional on mining access, Chilengi said there was "no mention of critical minerals" in the revised health pact. The minister added that he was also not aware of a separate critical minerals agreement being negotiated with the US.
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Ghana and Zimbabwe rejected deals over data-sharing demands.
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