As the 2025–2027 FOCAC Action Plan moves into implementation, healthcare, development finance and human capacity are emerging as important pillars of Africa-China cooperation.
The relationship between China and Africa is entering a new phase—one increasingly focused not only on trade and infrastructure, but also on health, development finance and the ability of African countries to build their own capacity.
At the centre of this relationship is the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the principal platform through which China and African countries coordinate their development partnership.
At the 2024 FOCAC Beijing Summit, China and African countries adopted a 2025–2027 Beijing Action Plan, setting out a three-year programme of cooperation covering economic development, health, agriculture, education, infrastructure, investment, security and other areas.
The significance of the plan lies not simply in the commitments made, but in its implementation.
For Africa, the critical question is becoming:
Can China-Africa cooperation translate financial commitments into stronger African health systems, better infrastructure and sustainable development?
Health becomes a strategic priority
Healthcare occupies an important place in the FOCAC Action Plan.
China and African countries agreed to deepen cooperation in areas including medical services, disease prevention and control, public health, traditional medicine, medical training and health infrastructure.
The emphasis reflects lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed weaknesses in health systems across many developing countries.
Africa continues to face major challenges involving infectious diseases, maternal and child health, access to medicines, medical infrastructure, healthcare professionals and emergency preparedness.
China’s experience in building a large-scale healthcare system and rapidly expanding medical infrastructure gives it a significant pool of knowledge and technology that can potentially be shared with African countries.
The FOCAC framework therefore places greater emphasis on cooperation involving hospitals, medical personnel, disease control and public-health capacity.
From emergency assistance to health-system capacity
One of the most important questions for Africa is whether international health cooperation can move beyond emergency assistance.
During health crises, donations of medicines, equipment and protective supplies can save lives. But sustainable development requires something deeper:
trained doctors, nurses and technicians; functioning hospitals; laboratories; reliable supply chains; digital health systems; medical research; pharmaceutical production; and strong public-health institutions.
This is where the development component of FOCAC becomes particularly important.
Rather than viewing healthcare as an isolated sector, health can be connected to broader development finance.
A hospital requires electricity.
A pharmaceutical factory requires infrastructure.
A rural clinic requires roads and telecommunications.
A medical laboratory requires equipment, skilled personnel and reliable supply chains.
A health-information system requires digital infrastructure.
Consequently, health development is also infrastructure development, skills development and economic development.
The money behind the partnership
Development finance is one of the most powerful elements of the China-Africa relationship.
Under the 2024 FOCAC commitments, China announced RMB360 billion (approximately US$50 billion) in financial support for Africa over the three-year implementation period.
The package includes:
- RMB210 billion in credit lines
- RMB80 billion in assistance
- at least RMB70 billion in investment by Chinese companies
- additional financing through other channels.
This is significant because access to finance remains one of Africa’s major development constraints.
African countries need enormous amounts of capital to build hospitals, roads, electricity systems, water infrastructure, schools, digital networks and industrial facilities.
Domestic government budgets alone often cannot meet these requirements.
Development finance can therefore play an important role in closing the infrastructure gap.
Finance can transform healthcare
The connection between finance and healthcare deserves particular attention.
Consider a country seeking to expand healthcare services in rural communities.
It may need to finance:
Clinics → ambulances → roads → electricity → water → telecommunications → medical equipment → laboratories → trained personnel.
This is not simply a healthcare expenditure.
It is a development investment.
If financing is structured effectively, the resulting infrastructure can generate benefits for decades.
A new hospital can create employment.
A medical training centre can produce healthcare professionals.
A pharmaceutical facility can reduce dependence on imported medicines.
A digital health platform can connect rural patients with specialists.
A reliable electricity system can support both healthcare and local businesses.
This is why development finance has the potential to multiply the impact of health investments.
African capacity must remain at the centre
There is, however, another important dimension to the relationship.
Africa does not only need more hospitals or equipment.
It needs African expertise and institutions capable of maintaining and expanding those systems.
This makes education and skills development crucial.
The FOCAC framework includes cooperation in areas such as professional training, education and human-resource development.
For healthcare, this could mean expanding opportunities for:
doctors and nurses
laboratory scientists
pharmacists
biomedical engineers
health administrators
public-health specialists
medical researchers
digital-health professionals.
The long-term objective should be to create a situation where African countries increasingly have the human capacity to design, operate and expand their own health systems.
The pharmaceutical opportunity
One of the most important development opportunities lies beyond hospitals.
Africa remains heavily dependent on imported medicines and pharmaceutical products.
This creates vulnerabilities during international crises and increases pressure on national healthcare budgets.
China-Africa cooperation could potentially support greater African pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity through investment, technology transfer, training and industrial partnerships.
The strategic objective would be to move from:
Importing medicines
towards:
Producing more medicines in Africa.
That would have implications not only for health security but also for industrial development.
A pharmaceutical industry creates demand for scientists, engineers, packaging companies, logistics providers, laboratories and specialised manufacturing.
Healthcare can therefore become an engine of industrialisation.
Digital health and technology
Another area with enormous potential is digital healthcare.
Africa has some of the world’s fastest-growing mobile and digital markets.
China’s experience in digital infrastructure, telecommunications, artificial intelligence and electronic services creates opportunities for cooperation in areas such as:
electronic medical records
telemedicine
remote diagnosis
medical data systems
health monitoring
digital hospital management
disease surveillance
artificial intelligence applications.
For rural Africa, telemedicine could be particularly valuable.
A patient in a remote community does not necessarily need to travel hundreds of kilometres to access a specialist if digital infrastructure can connect a local clinic with a medical centre elsewhere.
The challenge is ensuring that technology is supported by reliable electricity, connectivity, trained personnel and appropriate data-protection systems.
Development finance and Africa’s broader transformation
The importance of FOCAC extends beyond the healthcare sector.
Africa’s development challenge is interconnected.
A country cannot build a modern healthcare system without reliable infrastructure.
It cannot build advanced industries without skilled workers.
It cannot create skilled workers without education.
It cannot sustain development without finance.
And it cannot achieve economic transformation without productive industries and trade.
This creates a development chain:
Finance
↓
Infrastructure
↓
Education & skills
↓
Healthcare
↓
Industrial capacity
↓
Employment
↓
Economic growth
This is why development finance may ultimately be one of the most consequential components of the China-Africa relationship.
The opportunity—and the responsibility
The scale of China’s financing commitments presents significant opportunities, but African countries must also ensure that development finance produces sustainable results.
Projects need to be economically viable.
Financing arrangements need to be transparent and carefully managed.
African institutions need the capacity to negotiate effectively.
Local workers and businesses should benefit where possible.
And projects should contribute to long-term development rather than creating permanent dependence.
The objective should be partnership rather than dependency.
Africa should use external finance to build productive capacity that allows it to generate more of its own resources in the future.
A healthier Africa can become a stronger Africa
The most powerful dimension of the China-Africa partnership may ultimately be its potential impact on ordinary people.
A new road means little to a family if the nearest hospital remains inaccessible.
A new industrial park means less if workers are not healthy and properly trained.