A complex legacy: USAID, population control, and reproductive justice in Africa

TL;DR

This paper examines USAID's history in Africa, highlighting its positive health contributions while addressing its problematic past in population control.

Contribution

The paper calls for USAID to formally acknowledge and repair its historical population control policies in Africa.

Findings

USAID's early population control initiatives violated sexual and reproductive rights in Africa.

These policies were based on the flawed idea that population growth caused poverty, not structural inequalities.

The paper advocates for reparative actions and indigenous SRHR programming.

Abstract

USAID's interventions have contributed significantly to improving maternal and child health, preventing HIV, and combating child marriage and gender-based violence. However, the agency's dissolution has highlighted the urgent need to reckon with its population control history. USAID's covert population control initiatives in the Global South were predicated on the flawed premise that burgeoning populations, rather than structural inequalities, were the primary cause of poverty and underdevelopment in those territories. These population policies, advanced by USAID in the early years of its work, resulted in violations of sexual and reproductive rights and were designed to secure Western access to agricultural land and mineral wealth on the African continent. Given this troubling history, this article argues that USAID must formally confront its past through institutional acknowledgement, establishment of comprehensive reparative mechanisms, and prioritisation of indigenous sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programming alongside domestic resource mobilisation.