The Covid 19 pandemic reminds us all how fast medical threats and indeed limitations in one part of the world, can be a challenge for the global community. Africa is home to the youngest population, and the world’s fastest growing economies. Yet the continent faces severe shortcomings in terms of providing for the medical and health needs of its population, which can pose major threats at home and abroad.
The freeze in US aid, which broadly covers the health and humanitarian sectors in some cases, once again highlights the need for sustainably responsive and effective health systems in Africa. According to the US Finance Development Corporation (US-FDC), Africa is home to over 16 percent of the world’s population and shoulders 23 percent of the global burden of disease, but accounts for just one percent of annual global health expenditures.
A 2023 report by Lancet suggest that only 17% of the population in the continent have access to health insurance, with less than 1% of the populations covered in some countries, such as Niger. The continent remains extremely vulnerable to pandemics, as demonstrated by the impact of HIV and Aids, as well the recent Covid 19 pandemic. More than 600 million people in Africa lack access to basic healthcare services, with rural areas comparatively worse than urban areas which usually have better medical infrastructure, professionals, and other medical provisions.
Many African countries such as Ethiopia, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria, DRC, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania amongst others rely on external funding to support social and health needs of their populations, including humanitarian emergencies. A mix of factors such as worsening poverty and inequality, limited health financing and spending, corruption, lack of medical of insurance and modern technologies, research and development, infrastructure, professionals, and poor working conditions have compounded challenges in the health sectors in the continent.
It is evident that Africa needs reliable partners for sustainable, trustworthy, and predictable cooperation in the health sector, to leverage on shared resources in building resilient and affordable health eco-systems. Could growing political and economic cooperation with China boost ties in the health sectors. What role is China playing in fostering health cooperation with the African continent.
China, the second largest economy in the world, has emerged as a global leader in health cooperation. For over 60 years evolving Africa-China ties and solidarity has defined growing health cooperation locating human dignity and development at the core of structural transformation.
While bilateral health aid to different African countries surged in the past decades, the holding of the Ministerial Forum of China-Africa Health Development in 2013 marked a great leap towards institutionalised cooperation targeted at the health sectors in Africa, including medium to long term measures addressing continental needs.
The Ministerial Forum of Health of China -Africa Health Development, which brought together senior government officials from the two sides and international organizations marked a high point in the advancement of mutually beneficial partnerships in the health sectors centred on sharing experiences, skills and resources and policy anchored on emerging norms that foster global justice, mutual respect amongst partners and inclusivity, emphasizing the need to ensure that no one is left behind. During the forum, national leaders and civil society actors negotiated and adopted the Beijing Declaration, which outlined the commitment and direction of future Africa-China cooperation in health.
The Beijing declaration rallied global leaders to focus on shared responsibility, global solidarity, and national ownership in addressing global health challenges by pushing for increased investment in health, and the need for national budgets to promote sustainable health development. The declaration also called the international community to actively support African countries towards the realisation of health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its focus on cooperation towards achieving, “sustainable, long-term health solutions,” marked a major step in institutionalising, expanding and deepening health cooperation laying a strong foundation for Africa-China bilateral and multilateral health cooperation.
Fast forward to the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2024, both sides adopted the Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027), which re-emphasised the importance of public health cooperation and commitment to building a global community of health for all as part of a vision to create a China-Africa community with a shared future.
The Beijing Action Plan proposed to deepen and expand health initiatives ranging from policy and technical dialogues and exchanges focussing on public health. The China-Africa Knowledge Exchange Center for Health Development Cooperation, and, Chinese and African think tanks on health cooperation will act as platforms for such inclusive dialogues to engender participatory and holistic cooperation informed by the needs of all concerned parties, while at bilateral and multilateral level, the parties will continue to mutually support the needs of their people.
Most significantly, China committed to encouraging its state-owned enterprises to invest in and promote health care in Africa. Chinese pharmaceutical giants play a significant role in the production of medical and pharmaceutical products used in the continent. Through new partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies in China, African countries could promote the home-grown development of pharmaceutical industries based on entrepreneurship, competitiveness, and production of affordable, quality medicines, while learning from Chinas experience in providing accessible health care for all.
In order to strengthen access to quality universal health provision and care for all segments of the population including women, the elderly, newborns, migrant workers and refugees, the two sides also committed to advancing cooperation mechanisms between paired-up Chinese and African hospitals, establish a China-Africa Hospital Alliance, and hold a conference on China-Africa hospital development to explore cooperation on remote medical service, smart medical service, and to continue to improve the services and management of Chinese and African medical institutions.
China’s effective response to pandemics offers good examples of how solid leadership and strategic mobilization of resources can have a game-changing impact in containing health emergencies. With firm support of its state leaders, China reigned-in what many were predicting would be an out-of-control AIDS epidemic and Covid 19 pandemic, using scientific and advanced methods to tackle these diseases in ways which protected wellbeing and socio- economic needs.
China played an important role in helping the African Union to build the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC has become an important platform to strengthen the capabilities of Africa's public health institutions to effectively coordinate disease prevention, surveillance, and control. The support rendered to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will strengthen public health capacity in all African countries through rapid continental management of epidemics, capacity building, development of adequate health infrastructure as well as the establishment of a continental drug control laboratory.
Furthermore, the sharing of clinical and disease prevention and control skills and technologies with African countries, as well as support towards key projects, will enable African countries’ fight against a range of diseases and infections such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, schistosomiasis, different types of cancers and cardiovascular conditions, and escalate the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rates, including child malnutrition.
Building on decades of promoting healthcare in Africa, training and providing medical practitioners, construction of health facilities, supplying medicines, equipment, new medical technologies and contributing to many public health initiatives, China closely worked with African governments, sharing various resources while providing technical and material support to combat the spread of Covid 19 pandemic. China donated 240 million doses of vaccines and other anti-COVID supplies to 53 African countries and the African Union (AU). Beijing also despatched medical expert teams to 17 African countries in response to the COVID pandemic demonstrating strong solidarity and mutual trust with Africa.
Probably at this juncture in global history, it is the evolving norms in Africa-China relations that will matter most. In the face of punitive isolationism and coercive diplomacy, the political will to invest in trust, mutual respect and inclusivity, the promotion of open, just, equitable, diverse, win-win global health outcomes based on mutual learning amongst societies will help Africa and the global south to realise their health and care goals, and the realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the AU Agenda 2063, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), by eradicating preventable diseases, by creating a continental, hence a global community that is safe from health threats for all.
Gideon H Chitanga is a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Africa China Studies, University of Johannesburg.
The Star