title: China's health assistance to Africa: opportunism or altruism?
abstract: China has made substantial health commitments to Africa in the past several decades. However, while much has been written regarding China-Africa aid overall, relatively little attention has been given to China's health aid. To better understand these investments, we provide an overview of the current framework and characteristics of China's health aid to Africa. China's health assistance has been perceived by some as opportunistic, largely as a demonstration of China's engagement in "soft power" and an attempt to enhance its access to natural resources and political favors by African countries. Others have attributed altruistic intent, aiming to support the advancement of the health of populations in the African continent with a "no strings attached" approach. Our overview demonstrated that despite the magnitude of China's health assistance, many questions remain regarding the scope of this aid, its effectiveness and the governance mechanisms that guide the conceptualization and implementation of such efforts. We also identified the need for a systematic and rigorous evaluation of the various elements of China's health assistance to African countries in order to gain a deeper understanding of how priorities and allocations for health aid are determined, how such aid fits within the specific African country's health strategies and to assess the effectiveness of such aid. Insights garnered through such an assessment could help determine future priorities for investment as well as inform efforts to optimize the value of China's aid for the populations of the recipient countries.
authors.affiliation: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Liangmin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|Schwarzman Scholars Program, Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, New York, USA.|Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA. wme1@columbia.edu.|ICAP at Columbia University, New York, USA. wme1@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Wafaa M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: El-Sadr
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000533:Altruism; D002681:China; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007449:Investments
keywords: China-Africa health aid; Development aid; Foreign assistance; Health diplomacy; Public health