It could have passed for downplaying but where there is Ambassador Adonia Ayebare and Winnie Byanyima, something must give – even if at the cost of lives of millions of Ugandans.
The government on Thursday welcomes the Trump administration’s decision to terminate funding of the joint United Nations program on HIV/Aids, known as UNAIDS.
Ms Byanyima is the executive director of UNAIDS. She has lately had an enduring relationship with Amb Ayebare, Uganda’s permanent representative to the UN, with the two often caught up in social media barbs.
While the US decision certainly delivers another devastating blow to the global fight against HIV/Aids, particularly in developing countries like Amb Ayebare’s Uganda where millions of positive-living persons rely on the support, the envoy left little to hide.
“Thank you @POTUS @SecRubion,” Ayebare said, “the work of UNAIDS is not life saving, their work can be done by our health ministries and potentially Africa CDC.”
The envoy said the Byanyima-led UNAIDS has “become a conveyer belt for contested cultural issues”, adding that Pepfar “is the real deal”.
The US government’s termination of funding to UNAIDS is the latest move by the new Trump administration to end American involvement in life-saving health and anti-poverty programs around the world.
It was issued by Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist who is spearheading the evisceration of the US overseas aid program through USAID.
Writing to UNAIDS, Mr Marocco said its funding was being terminated “for the convenience of the US government” and the align agency priorities and national interest.
The Trump administration’s funding freeze on foreign assistance has already wreaked havoc on HIV treatment programs worldwide.
Several HIV-related agencies in Uganda have drastically downsized with layoffs and the government asking staff to “volunteer” or stay home.
While the job losses are just one thing, the expected shortage of valuable services such as HIV-testing, prevention methods like condoms and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), as well as anti-retroviral therapies will be the tragedy.
Before the funding freeze, the US government was responsible for two-thirds of all international financing for HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries.
Much of it came through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) – which was founded by George W Bush in 2003 and which has financed about 70% of the global Aids response.
Mr Bush was a republic president, and Mr Trump is largely perceived as targeting the works of Democrats under the Biden administration.
It could mean he will unlikely go after Pepfar, which Amb Ayebare has called the “real deal” – probably in hindsight to the political happenings at Capitol Hill.
The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation estimates that up to 500,000 people could die in South Africa over the next decade as a result of the US funding cuts.
South Africa is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV infection globally.
In Uganda, there are at least 1.2 million people aged between 15 and 64 living with HIV.
Following an onslaught by the Trump administration, there came some relief when Washington softened on February 1, announcing a waiver that allowed some life-saving care and services to prevent mother-to-child transmission to resume.
But with the latest funding cutting to the UNAIDS that operates in 70 countries, the signs look ominous for the next four years.
Ms Byanyima last week said her agency has received reports from 55 countries experiencing disruptions in their HIV responses due to the US foreign aid pause.
“Any reduction could severely disrupt lifesaving prevention programs, risking new infections and reversing progress to end Aids,” she said in a post on social media.
But with the government welcoming the US termination of the valuable service to vulnerable population, it remains to be seen how Africa CDC can step up to cover the gaps.
For Uganda that cannot even pay its own critical labour force, the writing appears to be on the wall, for now.
