Zambia: U.S. and Zambia Sign Global Health Partnership under the Trump Administration's America First Global Health Strategy

What the report says

The United States and Zambia signed a five-year bilateral Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding under the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy, according to a U.S. State Department release distributed by AllAfrica. The agreement is framed as a shift toward greater Zambian investment in health services, tighter accountability and a longer-term path to self-reliance.

The State Department said the partnership builds on more than 50 years of U.S. health assistance to Zambia. It puts the overall value of the arrangement at $2.49 billion, including $1.52 billion in planned U.S. health support and $975 million in new Zambian funding over five years. The release also said the U.S. plans more than $13 million in Global Health Security funding to help Zambia detect and respond to infectious disease threats.

According to the announcement, Zambia will gradually take on more responsibility for areas such as buying health commodities, moving U.S.-supported frontline workers into the civil service, and improving tracking systems for medicines and supplies. The U.S. said it will support upgrades to health infrastructure, including expanded electronic medical records and data systems for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and outbreak surveillance.

The State Department said the Zambia deal is one of 36 bilateral global health MOUs signed so far under the strategy. More broadly, it presented the program as a way to preserve gains against major infectious diseases while increasing local ownership of health systems across partner countries.