China, Africa, and US academia join hands to advance global health.

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Healthy China 2030 plan—an ambitious agenda to promote health across China and to strengthen South–South cooperation, including the China–Africa Public Health cooperation plan. In 2005, African heads of state championed the Agenda Africa 2063, which had a similar emphasis on population health. Ongoing health reforms across both Africa and China offer immense potential for mutual learning.3, 4 China's success in the provision of preventive and primary care has the potential to inform health care in Africa, which faces similar challenges today as China did more than three decades ago; however, Chinese academic health experts have been unable to translate Chinese experiences to the African context, and suggest academic institutions in both countries need more capacity building to foster sustainable changes to the local health systems. Academic partners in developed countries could have an important role in the mutual learning process between the two regions by providing support in evidence generation and translation into policy.

Since 1979, the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) has held partnerships with the Chinese government and important Chinese academic institutions, and has had similar ties with African governments and academic institutions. In April, 2016, under the leadership of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, ten Chinese universities joined leading African universities from the Africa Research Implementation Science and Education (ARISE) Network, and HSPH, to establish the China Harvard Africa Network (CHAN). This tripartite network examines the current knowledge on health-care systems for information that could be used to strengthen the health-care systems in Africa and China; CHAN also seeks to build capacity and produce pragmatic solutions for the advancement of health in both regions and beyond.

Throughout the past few decades, the Chinese Government has made remarkable progress in the improvement of the country's health, especially in reproductive, maternal and child health, and infectious diseases. Innovations coming out of African health-system reforms also provide answers to some of China's health-care problems; for example, the establishment of public–private partnerships and effective insurance schemes. Current challenges of communicable and non-communicable diseases can be surmounted through collective learning and action. The value of global partnership has been shown in situations of infectious disease prevention and management. The Ebola virus outbreak in west Africa in 2014 highlights the importance of strong health systems capable of timely and integrated responses. China faced similar challenges in 2003, with the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus. Researchers at HSPH and other US institutions have shown that pandemic control, in the context of the SARS and Ebola virus outbreaks, requires comprehensive and coordinated actions—eg, reduction of transmission through public health measures to increase public awareness and identification of vaccines. The continued engagement of academia will bolster the newly established Africa Centers for Disease Control—an initiative also supported by the China Centers for Disease Control and US Centers for Disease Control.

The sustainable development agenda calls for inclusive “North–South, South–South and triangular regional and international” partnerships that promote and enhance the capacity building of countries with low incomes and middle incomes. CHAN is an example of the multifaceted cooperation required to push global health development forward in the 21st century.