Michael Gwarisa
A United States official has clarified the nature of the health data Washington had requested from Zimbabwe during negotiations over a proposed US$367 million health cooperation deal that has since collapsed.
Two weeks ago, a leaked document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directing the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to discontinue negotiations under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Washington surfaced.
The negotiations reportedly broke down after Zimbabwean authorities raised concerns over several provisions in the draft agreement. Government officials cited objections to clauses they said would have granted the United States direct access to Zimbabwe’s health data over a defined period. Concerns were also raised over alleged linkages between the agreement and access to the country’s critical mineral resources.
However, a U.S. Embassy official privy to the discussions denied that Washington had requested access to Zimbabwe’s mineral resources, saying the data requested was neither unusual nor new.
“In other words, the same kind of data we’ve been sharing since PEPFAR began in 2006 is what we were discussing,” the official said.
The official explained that global health programmes typically rely on the collection and analysis of anonymous, aggregated health data. Such information, the official said, is essential for targeting assistance, measuring programme performance and ensuring timely and coordinated responses to disease outbreaks.
The United States has long supported Zimbabwe’s health sector through various initiatives, particularly the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has funded HIV treatment, prevention and surveillance programmes for nearly two decades.
According to the official, the proposed agreement was intended to strengthen health cooperation while gradually transitioning programme responsibility to the Zimbabwean government.
“The MOU focused solely on health cooperation and did not contain any provisions related to critical minerals, neither explicitly nor implicitly,” the official said.
“This MOU is, and has always been, about the health of the Zimbabwean people and gradually transitioning responsibility for that to the Zimbabwean government.”
The official also said negotiations ended abruptly despite weeks of technical engagement between officials from both sides.
“The Government of Zimbabwe engaged with the Harare Embassy at the technical level for weeks, and our teams made much progress on negotiations of this legally non-binding agreement,” the official said.
