As USAID pulls back, the stage is set for a high-stakes debate at the Human Rights Festival. What does the USAID withdrawal mean for young Africans? Could Africa's greatest opportunity come from a funding crisis?
00:00Is Africa really so desperate that for years it has continued to outsource its most important services,
00:07including health, education, and even security?
00:11Well, this is the tough reality that African leaders are having to confront after America,
00:16the biggest aid donor, by far decided to cut back on development aid.
00:20What does this mean for Africa, and what does it mean for young people, particularly here in South Africa?
00:25So I'd like to start with Ibanomonde.
00:27I'm living with HIV, and as of yet, I still have access to treatment, but we don't know for how long that's going to be.
00:37Initially, when the news came that USAID will be rolling back, what was your initial feeling?
00:42I was shocked because I never thought we would have to be at a place again where we wonder about HIV funding programs.
00:52So those words echoed in my mind the morning I saw the news and the articles, it was all over the internet,
00:59and it was just echoing in my head because I don't know what's going on, and it's making me nervous.
01:04So let me ask Fanyana here, because you're also working in the health space.
01:09How have people been affected?
01:10Well, coming from the research perspective, a lot of trials, especially in VESA-RHI, have been started by being halted,
01:20because before their funds would stop completely.
01:24And I can tell you that participants are wondering, some are confused,
01:29because when you're a part of a clinical trial, you're also going to receive your HIV medication.
01:34So right now, it's a lot of chaos, it's a lot of mess, and reassuring participants that this is just not the research site's fault.
01:44I want to come to Simon here, who is a co-founder of a pan-African publication, The Continent.
01:48How did Africa get to a point where we are depending on another government's decisions for survival?
01:54In 2015, African leaders said, we do not want the aid system.
01:58Please scrap aid entirely. It's not working for our countries.
02:01In return, what you guys can do is fix the tax loopholes that are allowing for illicit financial flows from this continent.
02:08Do you know what happened next?
02:09The United States and the United Kingdom, which at the time was representing the European Union,
02:15wouldn't even allow that question onto the agenda.
02:18They did not want to have that discussion because the aid system worked for them.
02:22Let me ask Karabo, who is a development expert,
02:24is it not possible to have both get access to life-saving treatment or in any other sector and still sustain development within the local population?
02:35Okay, so I have an entirely different narrative in this conversation.
02:39Let me start off by acknowledging that, you know, the losses that obviously we've incurred as a result of the withdrawal are unfortunate.
02:47However, I believe it's necessary.
02:48In this case, short-term losses could be lives.
02:52Absolutely.
02:53But the enemy here is our own governments.
02:55What are they doing to respond to this viscous gap that has been created?
03:00There's a power that we have on this continent and our leaders are not assertive enough.
03:05Let me ask Ibanomonde, how do you feel about this?
03:07Because it's easy to conceptualize these ideas and make it sound really nice and intellectual.
03:12But the reality is you still need access to medication.
03:15I think my take really is that healthcare is a global responsibility.
03:22We're even at a point where the HIV statistics have kind of decreased from what it used to be.
03:29And it didn't just happen miraculously.
03:32Countries came together and they said,
03:33let us collaborate in making sure that this HIV epidemic is fought.
03:40Okay, let me Karabo.
03:42Yeah, I mean, I 100% agree health is a global responsibility.
03:47The geopolitics are changing.
03:49We're seeing a rise of nationalist politics.
03:52And we need to wake up as an African continent and start realizing it's survival of the fittest.
03:58Africa is on its own.
04:00We will continue being the extractive place where they'll extract a lot of our resources.
04:04We'll continue being, you can only have aid if you give us something.
04:08You can, you only get our money if you give us something.
04:11So that's a wake up course.
04:12I really love the passion.
04:14And actually somebody who might have an answer for you is Minya,
04:17who is part of an African potential group.
04:20We have a lot of resources and we have the youngest population.
04:25A population that's literally going to hold the global power in its hand.
04:29We need to have a response from governments.
04:32And we do, we are lacking it.
04:34How in any universe is it ethical just to pull the plug and create so much chaos?
04:40So, Karabo, why aid and not investments?
04:43Why aren't African governments saying, bring your money, yes, but to help develop us?
04:47I think we need to interrogate ownership and a lot of the resources on the continent.
04:53I think it's important, and perhaps I'm a radicalist, but I do think we need to take back ownership of the things that belong to us.
05:00What things are these?
05:02Our mineral resources, the private sector being able to do what they want, as they want within the government.
05:12I do think that we need to take it all back and make them realize that the power sits with us.
05:18If you want to actually engage, it's our resources.
05:22You need to come and invest in us.
05:24Otherwise, we're always going to sit at the begging table.
05:27All right.
05:27I personally don't think South Africa is at the point where you can just say, cut all aid, let them go and let us do our thing.
05:34I don't feel like we are there yet.
05:36Let's hear from the gentleman here.
05:38A lot of people have lost their jobs.
05:40A lot of people are now unemployed.
05:43What does this then do?
05:45It increases our unemployment rate from the large number that it was at to another larger number.
05:52This is the catalyst that we've always been looking for.
05:54We are at the point where now we need to stop being codependent on other people and start being independent for ourselves so that we can move on forward to having a better tomorrow.
06:06Okay.
06:06Then let me ask, Minya, how easy is it to do that?
06:09Because we're speaking about the possibilities of Africa extricating itself from this infrastructure of aid.
06:16But how realistic is it?
06:17I think it is realistic.
06:19But look, if everything was easy, it would have been done long ago.
06:22I want to take us somewhere.
06:24I think we look at aid, and the first thing I want to say is I think we need to change the discourse around aid.
06:30Stop thinking of it as a charity to Africa.
06:33It was never charity.
06:34It was soft power.
06:36It was diplomacy.
06:38Okay.
06:38And we need to stop receiving it as charity.
06:40Let's look at aid, whatever aid is left to flow into South Africa and the African continent, as a catalyst that we can use to implement the changes, to grow the industries and the economy within.
06:55You had something to say, Nyakalo?
06:58If you look at the U.S. Embassy and its response, it did say, as per violation of human rights in South Africa, we do want to take the stand of pausing or stopping aid in South Africa.
07:10So that definitely has political implications.
07:12But we are looking at certain donor countries currently that want to bully Africans.
07:18And if we don't unify, we really are in siege.
07:22Okay.
07:22So we want to hear from the youth, and that's why we're here.
07:25So because of time, let's hear some solutions.
07:28What do you think should happen so that we are not in the same situation 20, 30 years from now?
07:32Okay.
07:33So I think the first thing is we need a narrative shift.
07:35So we need to start understanding that Uncle Trump, Global North are not our friends.
07:40Let's start there.
07:41Uncle Trump.
07:42Uncle Trump.
07:43And then number two, regional cooperation.
07:46While we are diverse, because of colonialism, we are better together.
07:50And number three, can the old mamas and fathers in government step aside?
07:56We are ready to take over.
07:59We opened this debate with Ibanomonde.
08:01I'd like to conclude with you.
08:03Having listened to everything that everybody has to say, do you believe that the South Africa, and indeed the Africa of the next 10 years,
08:11will be better and more trustworthy than the governments we have now?
08:15Yes.
08:15I do believe that Africa needs to be self-reliant.
08:20I do really, really believe in that.
08:22But this is where we're at currently, and we cannot neglect that.
08:25It is important that we are self-reliant.
08:27But we're here now, and we need the government to step up.
08:30And when it comes to the HIV response, they cannot continue having conversations about HIV,
08:35people living with HIV, young people, without them in the room.
08:39Because I don't think, frankly, they know the challenges that we're facing currently.
08:42I love that young Africans here have said that they do have their answers.
08:47Is it going to be easy?
08:48Absolutely not.
08:49But like Kendrick Lamar said, Africans, we gon' be your...
