ABIDJAN – The United States and Ivory Coast signed a health deal Tuesday requiring the U.S. to commit $480 million to the West African nation’s health sector as part of “America First” global health funding pacts that mirror the Trump administration’s foreign policy.
The signing in Ivory Coast’s capital of Abidjan covers areas such as HIV, malaria, maternal and child health, and global health security. It is the latest agreement the U.S. has entered with more than a dozen African countries, most of them hit by U.S. aid cuts, including Ivory Coast.
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U.S. aid cuts have crippled health systems across the developing world, including in Africa, where many countries relied on the funding for crucial programs, including those responding to outbreaks of disease.
The new health pact is based on the principle of shared responsibility with Ivory Coast committing to provide up to 163 billion CFA francs ($292 million) by 2030, representing 60% of the overall commitment, according to Ivorian Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé.
U.S. Ambassador to Ivory Coast Jessica Davis Ba said the U.S. government is moving “beyond the traditional aid approach toward a model focused on trade, innovation, and shared prosperity.”
“Today, our bilateral cooperation is entering a new phase. We are implementing the America First global health strategy,” the ambassador said.
The Trump administration says the new “America First” global health funding agreements are meant to increase self-sufficiency and eliminate what it says are ideology and waste from international assistance. The deals replace a patchwork of previous health agreements under the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development.
In Ivory Coast, USAID had invested $115 million to support sectors such as health, education and aid for refugees mostly fleeing violence in neighboring Sahel states.
Analysts say the new approach to global health aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s pattern of dealing with other nations transactionally, using direct talks with foreign governments to promote his agenda abroad.