Abstract
Tracing the pathways of cooperation in health in sub-Saharan Africa from hesitant exchanges to institutionalized dimensions from the 1920s to the early 1960s, this article addresses regional dynamics in health diplomacy which have so far been under-researched. The evolution thereof from early beginnings with the League of Nations Health Organization to the Commission for Technical Assistance South of the Sahara and the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Africa, shows how bilateral dimensions were superseded by WHO's multilateral model of regional cooperation in health. Alignments, divergences, and outcomes are explored with respect to the strategies and policies pursued by colonial powers and independent African states regarding inter-regional relations, and their implications for public health and epidemiological interventions.
Highlights
Trilhando os caminhos da cooperação sanitária na África subsaariana, de intercâmbios incertos a dimensões institucionalizadas dos anos 1920 até início dos anos 1960, este artigo aborda a dinâmica regional na diplomacia sanitária que, até o momento, carece de pesquisas
Proposals were tabled for an African Office in meetings organized under the auspices of the League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO) with the task of collecting epidemiological information, similar to the Far Eastern Bureau (FEB) in Singapore created in 1924
The debates and outcomes of these meetings held between the 1920s and mid1950s illustrate a pattern of parallel diplomacy and selective engagement conducted by colonial powers based upon a model of interaction derived from the International Sanitary Conventions. This approach, which centered on the exchange of epidemiological data, contrasted with the multilateral framework for cooperation practiced by LNHO in the interwar years and expanded by World Health Organization (WHO)-AFRO after 1945 in which disease control was embedded in a broader developmental perspective
Summary
Trilhando os caminhos da cooperação sanitária na África subsaariana, de intercâmbios incertos a dimensões institucionalizadas dos anos 1920 até início dos anos 1960, este artigo aborda a dinâmica regional na diplomacia sanitária que, até o momento, carece de pesquisas. While the linking of primary care, disease control, and rural welfare found tacit support among most delegations at the Johannesburg meeting, the idea of regional cooperation in the sphere of rural public health and establishing a special committee only elicited favorable responses from South Africa and the territories under British rule (Bloore, 1937).
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