USAID has had a rough time handling its contractors lately. And it appears it has gone from bad to worse. We bring you the latest in a workforce dispute that just gets twistier.
Also in today’s edition: We profile Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Plus, we look at why the European Commission’s funding for Ebola in Uganda is controversial.
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The global health staff in the U.S. Agency for International Development pulled a group sickie last week in protest at a workforce dispute that prompted human resources to issue a stern warning to staff: Any organized strikes or work stoppages will not go down well with management.
You’ll recall that contractors were angered by changes in their benefits and job conditions as USAID sought to transfer them from one employer to another. In a series of emails last week, seen by my colleague Michael Igoe, USAID’s lawyers and leadership flip-flopped from stick-wielding threats of disciplinary action to carrots of understanding over the saga.
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In an act of defiance, some Bureau for Global Health staffers organized a “sickout” last week, posting automatic out-of-office email replies claiming they were too stressed to work because of the employment transition, a source tells Michael.
Days later, the entire bureau received an email from HR chief Nicholas Gottlieb. The subject line read “Action Required: Cease and Desist Order,” and the contents warned sickout participants that they are “the subject of allegations of misconduct.” They were urged to stop.
Perhaps someone above Gottlieb thought better of the email because 14 minutes later, another arrived. This time the tone was a little more carrot than stick; he told the workforce how valued and instrumental it is. That was closely followed by yet another mail, this time from Chief of Staff Dennis Vega walking things back even further and saying how “valued” everyone is.
The potential crackdown comes with an ironic twist. Just last week USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke in support of labor rights and organizing when she helped launch the Biden administration’s new labor empowerment initiative.
Read more: USAID warns against striking as labor dispute roils health bureau
ICYMI: Contractors say USAID forcing them into new jobs with fewer benefits
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Dr. Ouma: The airline’s loss
Ahmed Ogwell Ouma never let his humble roots hold him back. Raised in “as close as it gets” to an informal settlement in Mombasa, Kenya, he helped his father weigh and sell charcoal while poring over his school books and dreaming of becoming a pilot.
Chronic sickness forced him out of school for a year. But his frustration led to new dreams when his mother urged him to pursue a career that would prevent other children from getting sick. Now he is Dr. Ouma, acting director of Africa CDC.
Ouma, who replaced Africa CDC founder Dr. John Nkengasong in May, tells my colleague Sara Jerving of his devotion to ensuring African nations control their populations’ health — in many ways shaking up the status quo.
“I've been told I'm a pan-Africanist. I don't mind that,” he says. “What I know is I’m a strong believer that it's only Africa that is going to solve its own problems.”
Profile: Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma's path to Africa CDC
The wish list
Macky Sall, Senegal’s president and the African Union chair, came to Washington with a list of priorities and wasn’t shy to share them at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit this week. Neither was he shy to call out the United States during the leaders' discussion, my colleague Adva Saldinger tells me.
Speaking on behalf of African nations, he outlined a slew of priorities, among them: support for countering terrorism, “sustained” infrastructure investment, debt relief measures — including through the International Monetary Fund — “vigorous action” on agriculture and food security, and representation on the United Nations Security Council.
The U.S. has already said it would support Africa having a permanent seat at the Security Council, and yesterday, President Joe Biden said he would back the continent being a permanent member of the Group of 20 major industrial and emerging economies. Biden also announced that he would visit Africa next year.
Also, we have a slight clarification. For those excited by the scale of the $350 billion digital initiative that Biden announced earlier this week, temper your expectations. It turns out the president misspoke during his address. It’s actually $350 million, the White House clarified.
Ebola’s corruption challenge
Ebola is killing people in Uganda, and it needs urgent support to fight the latest outbreak. But any lifesaving money often ends up getting siphoned off by corrupt officials, so the outbreak drags on and more people die.
That’s a risk the European Commission seems willing to take, even while the U.S. advises against direct contributions.
The EC is planning to send €7 million ($7.4 million) to Uganda’s finance ministry, a commission spokesperson tells my colleague Vince Chadwick. Meanwhile, the U.S. maintains that the risk of corruption in Uganda is too high to channel money through the government.
Just last month, U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown said that donor funds deviating from their intended targets due to corruption is “a very real and serious challenge.”
The urgency is clear: An outbreak of the virus in September has already caused 55 deaths in the east-central African nation, plus another 22 probable cases of deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
About €1 million of the EC money will go to “strengthening the government’s public financial management system,” and “technical assistance” to ensure delivery and oversight, the spokesperson says. “This would help the government ensure that the resources allocated to the Ministry of Health in response to the outbreak are properly allocated and accounted for.”
Watch this space.
Read more: EU breaks with US to plan budget support to Uganda for Ebola response
This isn’t working
No. 8 in Devex Global Voices of 2022: The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools — and at the same time, the numbers of children put to work increased by more than 8.4 million from 2016 numbers. Rainforest Alliance’s Kunera Moore lays out a road map for ending the practice.
Grant wishes
Melinda French Gates, MacKenzie Scott, and Tsitsi Masiyiwa have thrown their collective clout behind Co-Impact, a philanthropy collaborative founded in 2017 that will provide more than $161 million in grants to health, education, and gender equality-focused organizations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Most of the grants will go to women-led, local organizations to “make systems more just and inclusive whilst advancing gender equality and women’s leadership,” Co-Impact said.
Read: Melinda French Gates-backed Co-Impact gives $161M in new grants
In other news
USAID has announced $2 billion in new humanitarian funding for people affected by crises in Africa. [USAID]
An Irish peacekeeper died in a gun attack in Lebanon Wednesday, a day before the U.N. launched an initiative to hold accountable the perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers. [BBC and UN News]
As China loosens restrictions on wildlife farming, experts warn of the dangers it poses to global health and biodiversity. [The Guardian]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
