Global Health Support Programme supports shared international development objectives
UK and China are working together to improve global health policy and outcomes for developing countries.
With the launch in Beijing of a new UK-China partnership on global health, the UK and Chinese Governments will collaborate under a new initiative, the Global Health Support Programme. The programme will build capacity for DFID and low income countries to learn lessons from China’s unparalleled success in reducing infant, child and maternal mortality rates, disease prevention and control, and China’s health development and health sector reform. The programme will also help to improve China’s capacity to contribute to global health. The programme will run until September 2017, with a UK investment of £12 million to provide a technical contribution and implementation support, and a Chinese contribution of health expertise and facilities. The Ministry of Health’s Centre for Project Supervision and Management will provide programme management.
The programme sits under the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2011 by the British and the Chinese Governments, which established a new partnership to work together on shared international development objectives to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. This is the third programme launched under the partnership.
The new programme will support pilot partnerships between the UK, China and developing countries. The pilots will seek to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes in developing countries. The programme will include a high-level annual dialogue between China and the UK to work collaboratively on issues of common interest in global health governance and architecture and international health priorities.
The programme was launched by Dr. Yin Li, Chinese Vice Minister of Health, Ms. Joy Hutcheon, Director General of the UK Department for International Development and Deputy Director General Sun Yuanjiang of the Ministry of Commerce. Around 120 people attended the launch.
Dr Yin Li, Chinese Vice Minister of Health, said:
With the progress of globalization, all the countries should work together to respond to global health security and development issues. The launch of China-UK Global Health Support Programme ushers the China-UK cooperation into a new stage and also provides a major opportunity for China to play a more significant role in global health affairs.
Ms Hutcheon said:
The Global Health Support Programme demonstrates the common interest of China and the UK in contributing to improved health outcomes for the poor, and provides a platform for our two countries to develop common solutions to global issues.
Health outcomes for poor people across the world are under pressure from the dual burden of communicable and non-communicable disease, demographic change, urbanisation and new infectious diseases. China is already an important contributor to global health efforts, and as a board member of the WHO and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. The launch of the Global Health Support Programme demonstrates China and the UK’s shared commitment to strengthen further global health through innovation and collaboration.