The recent US investment in African healthcare hasn’t gone unnoticed, but what does it really mean for the continent and the people who live there? Questions like this can leave you looking in a variety of different areas, making a value judgement hard to come by. To help with this mission, we’ve taken a global overview and followed the current events to produce predictions for the future. Only by fully diving into the intentions, motivations and likely outcomes can we then reassemble the puzzle at the end and see what it really means.
The first thing to say here is that due to the increasingly advanced state of African healthcare, these types of investments are now seen as distinct from international aid. Whereas the latter is all about reducing the catastrophic impact of sudden emergencies, investment is more long-term and is often geared with a partial incentive to make a return. Now, it would be wrong to picture this as a purely cynical moneymaking move, but the need to highlight it exists if you want to understand the transition from being a recipient of aid to a position of receiving outside investment.
An investment is a strategic action designed to elevate the technical and logistical abilities of a particular industry in the hope that a financial return will be possible in the future. This means that the injection of capital does more than just plug funding gaps. The idea is actually to create a self-sustaining model that will eventually be capable of innovating independently. While this may seem like a long way off at present, particularly in comparison to more developed industries and countries, the ambition is surely a positive one across the board.
External US investment, as well as the belt and road initiative from China, is being done, partially, so that it drives innovation in the region. By being able to create a self-sustaining industry that not only meets the basic needs of patients, but gradually expands to meet a wider spectrum of needs, this investment is a clear win for all those involved. Local communities receive gradually improving healthcare and the quality of life that comes with it, governments become better resourced and able to cope, and the US investors build a network of regional partners.
Whether this be through vaccine rollouts, particularly malaria and Covid-19 at present, cold storage solutions for antibiotics, or a greater ability to improve the health of pregnant women, everyone across society will ultimately benefit from the positive changes. The interesting question to then ask is how these types of advances will filter down into other industries.
The beauty of innovation is that it opens up all sorts of new avenues no one can imagine when they first set out. The need to better distribute data in particle physics experiments led to the internet. The desire to make horse transport safer and more reliable led to the automobile. And now the two can come together and anyone can sit back and relax in an air-conditioned vehicle, reach for their phone and watch a movie or play free online casino games with ease.
With better healthcare we can expect a rise in more competitive white-collar jobs on the African continent. Workers would be able to enjoy better healthcare benefits, absenteeism would decrease, and businesses would become more competitive. This would also have the effect of making the region more attractive for outside investment as it seeks to take on the Indian subcontinent in terms of technical outsourcing.
We may also see a larger number of women able to reenter the workforce quickly, and with better levels of physical and mental health, after delivering their children. Not only would this boost the numbers of workers available, but it would also empower women and further drive advances in innovation and equality. History in other parts of the world has shown that the simple act of having a more diverse workforce with more varied life experiences can drive new advances in unexpected ways.
Put all of this together and you’re left with a bright and vibrant picture that becomes so much more empowering when you understand the difference between healthcare aid and investment in healthcare systems.
