Zimbabwe ends $367 million health funding talks with US over ‘sensitive data’ sharing concerns

By Chris Takudzwa Muronzi

HARARE, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has pulled out of talks on a $367 million bilateral health agreement with the United States due to concerns over the sharing of sensitive health data in return for U.S. financial support, with a government spokesman suggesting on Wednesday that the offer represented an “unequal exchange”.

“At its core, the arrangement was asymmetrical. Zimbabwe was being asked to share its biological resources and data over an extended period, with no corresponding guarantee of access to any medical innovations — such as vaccines, diagnostics, or treatments — that might result from that shared data,” government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said in a statement.

Mangwana said the U.S. was not offering reciprocal sharing of its own epidemiological data.

The U.S. embassy in Harare said Washington’s health assistance in the southern African country would now be wound down.

The two countries had been discussing a proposed bilateral health Memorandum of Understanding that would have provided $367 million to Zimbabwe over five years for initiatives such as HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and disease outbreak preparedness.

“We will now turn to the difficult and regrettable task of winding down our health assistance in Zimbabwe,” U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Pamela Tremont said.

Mangwana said the U.S. offer of financial support came with too many strings attached.

“When financial assistance is contingent upon concessions that touch upon national security, data sovereignty, or access to strategic resources, it fundamentally alters the nature of the relationship from one of partnership to one of unequal exchange. This we cannot accept.”

He did not specify the strategic resources in question.

Zimbabwe, a producer of minerals including gold, platinum and lithium, also said on Wednesday that it was suspending exports of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates with immediate effect.

Late last year, a Kenyan court suspended a health funding agreement worth more than $1.6 billion that the government signed with the United States, pending the hearing of a case filed by a consumer protection group citing concerns over the safety of citizens’ health data.

“This growing continental reflection should not be misconstrued as anti-American sentiment,” Mangwana said. “On the contrary, it is a sign of Africa’s maturation as a geopolitical actor, one that seeks partnerships based on equality rather than patronage.”

(Reporting by Chris Takudzwa Muronzi; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Hugh Lawson)