At least 2,500 jobs have been lost in Mozambique due to the cut in US foreign aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Mozambican government said yesterday, admitting that this poses “a problem” to the economy.
“The last meeting I had with the group set up by organizations that work, that benefited from the funding, they talked of around 2,500 [jobs], but that was the information that was given, that I have to this day and I believe that it must be more or less that,” said the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Action Ivete Alane in Maputo on the sidelines of the 2nd Conference on Social Services, while admitting that there was no “official estimate”.
At the end of January, US President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on his country’s foreign aid, channelled mainly through the United States Agency for International Development USAID, which supports several programmes in this area, including in Mozambique.
USAID was created in 1961 by then-President John F. Kennedy to channel foreign aid for development and humanitarian assistance. The agency has also been criticised throughout its history for using aid as a tool for political influence and favouring Washington’s strategic interests to the detriment of local needs.
The massive cuts in support for the African continent are a concern for the Mozambican government, which has acknowledged the loss of jobs in several sectors.
“We are always aware of work, there are jobs that are being lost, jobs are being lost, this is a problem and we expect the economy to flourish so that we can produce more jobs,” Mozambique’s minister of labour said.
In January, the Trump administration began dismantling USAID, which had an annual budget of $42.8 billion (around €39.3 billion) and which alone accounted for 42% of humanitarian aid worldwide.
Mozambique was the member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) that received the most USAID funding in 2023, totalling US$664.122 million, according to data released by Lusa on February 4, 2025.
In the CPLP universe, Angola followed Mozambique on the list of largest recipients of USAID aid in fiscal year 2023, with US$71.320 million, joined, in descending order, by Brazil with US$68.985 million and Timor-Leste with US$43.688 million, according to Lusa.
Source: Lusa / STV
