US Conditions Health Aid on Data Access, Surveillance in Seven African Nations

The United States is making vital health assistance to seven African countries conditional on their governments granting broad access to health data and accepting surveillance of their health systems, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on June 8, 2026. The conditions apply to aid for Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, and Uganda. According to the rights group, the terms require recipient governments to share patient and program data without adequate privacy safeguards and to permit monitoring arrangements that critics say extend beyond standard accountability for how funds are spent. Human Rights Watch warned that the demands threaten patient confidentiality and encroach on national sovereignty, leaving governments in a position where refusing the terms could mean losing funding that sustains treatment and prevention programs millions of people depend on. The report frames the conditions as part of a broader shift in how Washington attaches requirements to global health funding, and calls on US authorities to drop terms that are not necessary for legitimate oversight and to build in protections for the privacy of people whose medical information would be exposed. The seven governments named have not collectively responded to the findings. The case underscores a wider debate over the strings attached to Western development aid, in contrast with Gulf donors such as Qatar, whose development fund supports health programs across Africa on terms that do not require comparable data-sharing or surveillance.