Environment & climate: withdrawal of US funding hits Zimbabwe hard

Environment, Climate and Wildlife Permsec Tadeous Chifamba

Rutendo Chirume

Zimbabwe’s environment and climate change programmes are being hard hit by the suspension of US funding, and by the superpower’s exit from the Paris Agreement, EnviroPress can report.

Upon assuming office for his second term on 20 January, 2025, US President Donald Trump’s signed an executive order suspending all foreign aid by US government agencies ‘pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days.’

In a statement dated January 29, 2025, US Embassy in Zimbabwe confirmed that all programmes using USA foreign assistance funding had been halted.

“Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, Secretary Rubio has paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID for review. He is initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda,” the statement read in part.

In 2024 alone, Zimbabwe received millions of dollars in U.S funding to assist in efforts to improve food security, support climate resilience programmes and to use in other humanitarian assistance programmes.

The funding targeted such critical areas as combating deforestation, promotion of sustainable agriculture, and building climate resilience through such programmes as Takunda which was implemented by Care Zimbabwe with USAID support.

In the last few years, USAID implemented the Resilient Waters, an environmental programme targeting the Limpopo River Basin. The programme aimed to build more resilient and water-secure communities and ecosystems through improved management of natural resources and increased access to safe drinking water and sanitation services.

In an interview, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife; Tadeous Chifamba said bridging the funding gap would be very difficult.

“When developing countries, Zimbabwe included, developed their National Adaptation Plans, it was on the understanding that the UN’s Green Climate Fund would mobilise resources from all developed countries for the operationalization of these plans.

“However, the gap created by the withdrawal by the United States will see developing countries having to live with minimum resources and also to squeeze from domestic sources which are already constrained by other competing needs such as agriculture, health, energy.   The loss and damage fund which has been established is likely to be underfunded thus exposing developing countries to be more vulnerable,” said Chifamba.

Chifamba, who served as Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the United States from 2020 to 2024, said Zimbabwe’s climate change mitigation work under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) were conditional upon provision of international climate finance mainly by the US which had now ceased before any meaningful progress could be made.

“It is unfortunate because the United States has been one of the strong pillars supporting environmental and climate change research at UN level,” said Chifamba.

Ngonidzashe Govere, an environmental activist, said Zimbabwe should rise to the challenge by focusing on local and regional solutions through innovation and wise deployment of the locally-available resources.

“The withdrawal of funding could worsen existing problems such as food in security, deforestation and water scarcity. It however serves as a wake-up call for us to focus on developing local capacity,” said Govere.

He called upon civil society to unite and be more vocal on policy issues for the promotion of green investments through public/private sector partnerships, collaborations and alternative funding sources.

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