Lesotho laments USAID 90-day pause
’MANTŠANG KHUTLISI
MASERU – ‘Worst thing to have happened to Lesotho’.
That is how Basotho National Party (BNP) leader, Machesetsa Mofomobe, describes the 90-day pause of United States Agency International for Development – USAID at apress briefing at the BNP Centre. In Maseru, on Tuesday.
Mofomobe lamented the fact that ‘the government is quiet about the situation while jobs are certain to be lost.’
Mofomobe said countries such as Botswana, eSwatini and South Africa have addressed their nations about the USAID pause and have allocated funds on how they plan to conquer the looming crisis in the next 90 days.
He pleaded with Prime Minister Ntsokoane Matekane to lead the nation through the crisis.
The unprecedented decision to halt USAID by US president Donald Trump’s executive order as he assumed office late last month has put many lives on hold.
Vast US funded projects are said to have stopped operating and employees put on special leave as the audit is being conducted in the US on how the funding should continue going forward.
Local NGOs Mosepele, Mothers to Mothers as well as Jhpiego have since ceased operation – to name but a few affected by the Trump administration’s decision.
Reflecting on the hardship looming for employees of US funded programmes in Lesotho, Mofomobe was quick to unveil his recommendations to the government which include the government helping such employees with interest waivers on their loans with local banks and a three-month stipend for 90 days.
Trump suspended USAID funds across the world a few days after his inauguration as new US president.
His incoming administration announced that there will be audit on USAID all across the world and all funds as well as donations will be put on hold for a period of 90 days which is approximately three (3) months.
While Trump’s 90-pause on USAID came as a shock to everyone, one Ugandan woman appears to agree with Trump’s idea on a large scale.
Talking on these developments on social media platforms Janice Nkajja said it is wrong for Africa to have depended on US donations till day with no plan for alternative survival.
“We have depended on USAID for over 60 years, and the moment the owners of the money say, ‘Let’s take a 90-day pause so that I audit where my money is going,’ suddenly the whole country goes into a frenzy,” Nkajja was quoted on Malawi Voice social media platform as saying.
She said this should rather be a moment of reflection for the African continent in general adding “We have been asking for a very long time to be liberated from colonialism, neo-colonialism, and now that the opportunity presents itself, for some reason we are complaining.”
“This is just a 90-day pause. What would happen if the United States just said, ‘We’re not giving you money anymore?”
Nkajja said Africans should actually start looking for systems that are sustainable which would make life easier without foreign aid. What this woman said is in no uncertain terms a wakeup call to our leaders in Africa and Lesotho in this particular.
The aid pause – which surely caught our leaders napping – is definite to paralyze health systems and health efficiency services across the breath of Lesotho in the next few weeks.
