‘They demand sex in exchange for fish’: Women abandoned by USAID cuts at risk of exploitation in Zambia
In remote fishing villages in Zambia hit by poverty and drought, women and girls are falling victim to exploitative practices where fishermen pressure them into sex in exchange for fish.
“They don’t ask for money,” said Martha*, a fish trader in Zambia who experienced this first-hand: “They demand sex.”
Since 2023, international charity ActionAid has run a program to target these exploitative practices in the Western Provinces of Zambia and further afield.
But the Trump administration’s blanket cut of US foreign aid programs has crippled projects like this one worldwide, which were providing vital protection for women and girls suffering gender-based violence.
In December, the program – entitled Resilient Inclusive Sustainable Environment (RISE) – received $400,000 in funding from USAID via the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to extend the project for another two years and expand it in remote villages across Zambia.
But when US President Donald Trump entered office in January and froze global aid, on-the-ground projects went into panic.
The RISE program, which protected women and girls through preventative and direct measures, was shut down immediately.
The loss of the program highlights just one way in which women and girls worldwide will suffer from the sudden cuts to global aid; with millions already losing access to contraception, HIV care and midwives.
Faides TembaTemba, the country director for Action Aid Zambia, warns that the sudden halt of operations has damaged trust and hindered the charity’s ability to implement new programs in the future.
“For us this was a very unique project, and we hoped we were going to make a lot of positive change. Especially since some of these areas are so difficult to penetrate,” Ms TembaTemba tells The Independent.
Families in this village in the Western Province of Zambia, kept anonymous for the women’s safety, rely on fish as the primary source of income and food security in the area.
Environmental crises such as the extreme recent droughts have made farming unsustainable; meaning that the fish trade becomes all the more essential to survive.
All the while, the ongoing droughts have made fish more scarce.
“Women don’t have enough purchasing power; and for those that refuse sex, their business in the fish trade is restricted,” explains Ms TembaTemba.
