New era for development solutions

China's growing commitment to Africa is to be magnified with multiple public and private groups

China's new Africa policy paper illustrates the nation's firm support for strengthening the continent's public health system and capacity building by sharing its own experience in poverty alleviation, says Ayo Ajayi, Africa director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ajayi, a development expert from Nigeria, says the foundation welcomes China-Africa cooperation plans and commitments by President Xi Jinping, who pledged $60 billion of support from diverse investment sources during the second summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg on Dec 4 and 5. He says this kind of public-private partnership between China and Africa is key to generating sustainable solutions to many of the challenges facing developing countries.

"We saw great commitment to South-South cooperation from both the African and Chinese sides during this FOCAC summit. Both made full use of the excellent opportunity to build on previous progress and elevate the China-Africa relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership," he says.

"In addition to the opportunity to identify and discuss areas of cooperation, we are excited to see the adoption of the Johannesburg Declaration and the FOCAC Action Plan (2016-2018), as it will lay out a specific roadmap for future China-Africa collaboration."

Among the many areas of cooperation agreed during the summit, it was announced that the China-Africa Development Fund and the foundation plan to establish a partnership using investments from China to address disease, hunger and poverty.

"This represents an exciting next step in our efforts to leverage China's expertise in solving some of the greatest development challenges in Africa," Ajayi says.

China's experience, funding, and manufacturing and technology make it an ideal partner for developing countries, he says. The foundation sees great potential for Chinese supply to meet African demand, and provide long-term sustainable answers to Africa's challenges.

"We hope to contribute to the creation of an ecosystem that will foster greater investment in Africa by Chinese companies and thus facilitate this process. By filling the knowledge gap and using our strong capacity for forming public-private partnerships, we hope to connect Chinese enterprises with African markets," he adds.

Chinese innovation can also play a vital role in providing effective and affordable solutions to health issues affecting poor populations. The foundation is working to facilitate the entry of innovative Chinese products into African markets.

"We have already identified and supported a number of Chinese products that show great potential for tackling development challenges in certain countries in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, we have worked with one of China's largest refrigeration companies, to develop and manufacture a vaccine storage device called Arktek that can keep vaccines at appropriate temperatures for a month or more without propane, batteries, electricity, solar panels, or other power source at the point of use," he says.

"Another innovative Chinese health solution that the foundation is investing in is a male circumcision device called ShangRing, which could play a significant role in preventing HIV transmission. It is a minimally invasive, cost-efficient device that we hope will reach up to 20 million men across Africa."

Multilateral cooperation in Africa has the potential to benefit all parties involved, says Ajayi. Public-private partnerships are of great importance because the problems that they are trying to address are highly complex and require input from various actors with different resources, capacities and perspectives. To create the sustainable solutions that are necessary to promote development, private companies must be engaged to leverage their innovation and capital, as well as governments with the ability to facilitate and drive forward partnerships such as these, he says.

United Nations agencies and other nongovernmental organizations have been working to leverage resources in order to fill the space between the private sector and government. The contributions of all are needed to find effective, long-term solutions to some of the most challenging development problems, he says.

"The foundation is uniquely positioned to drive public-private partnerships because of its rich experience and extensive network," Ajayi says. The joint fund being established with the China-Africa Development Fund, for example, aims to promote sustainable businesses within the private sector. "But we still need government input in order to ensure that this is successful." Ajayi says. The foundation can draw in necessary players and help ensure investment takes place smoothly, he says.

The foundation also would focus on strengthening partnerships with government agencies and private companies in China to identify and address gaps in China-Africa development cooperation.

"Our goal is to fund and create a virtual bridge that can facilitate China's increasing contribution to Africa's development initiatives," he says. "We are working with Chinese partners to design joint funding mechanisms that can spur research, manufacturing, and delivery efforts."

Ajayi says the foundation has signed an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to carry out trial projects in Africa to address public health and agricultural problems. Agriculture is an area where innovative and appropriate Chinese products can help.

"For example, through collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences, we are investing in the development of small- to medium-scale machinery that can help family farmers who grow the grain teff, particularly women, with land preparation and with planting, harvesting, threshing, and cleaning the grain," he says.

Plans are to develop, test and demonstrate the machinery; train farmers and others how to use it; and work with local organizations to find ways to commercialize it.

lilianxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/11/2015 page29)