KalahariLog

The US Embassy is closing the USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa which was based in Gaborone, Botswana. The United States Agency for International Development (or USAID) deals with most non-military foreign aid and is an independent agency associated with the US Department of State. Although the agency was created to help with the European recovery after WWII, their main efforts these days are in the developing world. Sub-Saharan Africa was a region that received a great deal of attention. A lot has changed since the cold war ended as the US seemingly lost interest in the whole continent. More changes have occurred after Bush came into power with many financial cuts, especially to NGO's that try to fight the spread of HIV-AIDS in Africa.

From the news that I have read, it seems that the regional USAID office is going to be moved to South Africa and likely cut in size in order to further reduce costs. The regional center was created in 1995 and employed over 100 people and had a budget of around $20 million. This particular center covered missions in 10 nearby countries: Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. I've always found it strange that the USAID offices are called "USAID Missions".

Many countries have complained that USAID often employs CIA people and is used to provide cover for spying; however, losing a fairly big US presence in Botswana is unlikely to be seen as a good fortune, regardless of whether people like the current US foreign policies or the current US government. At least, the loss of the center is probably not as serious a financial blow as the loss of the Hyundai assembly plant a few years ago.

The US currently ranks last (23rd out of 23) among the world's wealthiest countries, when it comes to foreign aid, with a rate of 0.1% of GNP. Even in absolute amounts, the United States is behind Japan and UK. These numbers are, of course, debatable.