U.K. Ends Aid to South Africa

It sounds like bad news, right?  But the British government explains its decision to stop sending aid to South Africa as a vote of confidence in the emerging African economy.  $29.5 million in planned financial support will not flow from the U.K. to South Africa in 2015, because, according to the British International Development Secretary, South Africa can afford to pay its own development bills.

In the country with the highest number of HIV-infected people in the world, the cost to the government of providing healthcare and other needed social services is high.  Though the British aid being terminated constitues only a small part of South Africa's annual budget, one wonders what the impact of decreasing financial resources might be on these individuals - many of whom are already living on the margins.

Is cutting aid to South Africa another route to empowering South Africans?  Or is it a dangerous decision that may jeopardize the tenuous progress being made there in the fight against HIV?​

To read more about the U.K.'s decision, click here.​