US seeks new aid model with health deals

Uganda and the US signed a $1.7 billion health financing deal, part of Washington’s new “America First” approach to foreign aid.

The strategy promotes US-made goods in foreign assistance programs, and the Trump administration has already reached similar agreements with Kenya and Rwanda. Uganda agreed to increase its own health spending by $500 million “to gradually assume greater financial responsibility,” Washington said.

US President Donald Trump is remaking aid in his own image, an expert wrote for Semafor: It has become “wholly transactional,” and recipient states must treat the US as a business partner. It’s an ambitious shift that relies on client governments doing hard policy work, which could be “visionary. Or delusional.”