Healthcare Diplomacy

This chapter presents a historical summary of international development aid in developing Africa as a form of diplomacy. Most of these developmental projects started in the 1960s after independence and have been used as a tool for diplomacy. Healthcare for example has been a major tool for diplomacy by the United States of American (USA) and now China (PRC). During this era, the USA was the leader of soft power diplomacy and PRC was still a poor country trying to survive by making new friends in Africa. China's engagement in African health projects has differed from aid provided by traditional Western donors. The PRC builds on its own prior experiences of building its health system as a developing country and in the manner in which it places special emphasis on the issue of the national sovereignty of recipient countries.