Studies On British Health Diplomacy

As a pioneer in public health and the second largest contributing country in global health today,the UK has been a neglected single state actor in the field of health diplomacy.Based on this trend,this article takes British health diplomacy as the research object,first it defines the origin and connotation of health diplomacy,secondly it traces the historical evolution of British health diplomacy and the main models of British health diplomacy at various stages,thirdly it analyzes the characteristics and motivation of British health diplomacy model evolution since 1997,backed up by a typical case,that is,China-UK Global Health Support Programme(GHSP).Finally,it summarizes the core content of this article,then puts forward some lessons learned from British health diplomacy model evolution since 1997.This article argues that the UK has roughly experienced three stages in the field of health diplomacy,viz.,“initial participation”,“steady promotion”,“in-depth development”,and adopted different health diplomacy models at each stage since it attended the first International Health Assembly in 1851.In 1997,the establishment of new DFID and the publication of a new international development white paper after25 years marks the beginning of a truly mature period for British health diplomacy.In particular,HM government issued a Global Health Strategy in 2008,which unprecedentedly increases the status of health affairs in its national strategy arrangement and “Heath in All Polices” has also become the most important guideline for British health diplomacy since then.This article also claims that the model evolution of British health diplomacy since 1997 has two distinctive features:(1)development policies replace aid policies;(2)development policies replace poverty-reduction policies.The drivers behind this trend include: external factors threatening global public health security,such as cross-border infectious diseases and bioterrorism;external factors that challenge Britain’s dominance in the global development system as a traditional donor,such as the emerging powers(which rise at a rapid speed)and the private sector(which are more professional and open);Incentives for Britain to actively change their healthdiplomacy model,such as taking development assistance as a tool to promote trade and investment and enhance UK’s international influence as well as its soft power;internal resources that can support UK to actively change their health diplomacy model,such as its advantages of capital,technology and discourse power in global health.The conclusions all above are well manifested by Global Health Support Programme,a typical triangular health development cooperation programme(interaction among UK,China,low-income countries in Asia and Africa,for example,Myanmar,Tanzania,Sierra Leone,Ethiopia,and so forth).