The United States Department of State is on a tour of African countries where its teams are negotiating bilateral health agreements — and local faith-based organizations are being brought in for consultations.
This isn’t surprising, given the State Department’s new ‘America First’ global health strategy, which outlines its intention to leverage faith-based organizations.
But given that the memorandums of understanding are signed directly with governments, it leaves questions on a country-by-country basis of what role local faith-based communities will ultimately play when the new bilateral agreements are rolled out. Some country governments have directly engaged faith-based actors, while others haven’t. But the State Department is calling the African faith community in for meetings to consult on the ongoing negotiations.