German-African Health Relations and the Need for Change

This research paper examines the historical and contemporary health cooperation between Germany and African nations, arguing that these relations remain unequal and lack reciprocity. The author contends that while Germany promotes multilateralism and health security, its actions often prioritize economic interests and security over the public health needs and autonomy of African partners, calling for a decolonial shift toward health and climate justice.

• German-African health cooperation is heavily influenced by a colonial legacy, with contemporary technical and scientific cooperation still concentrated in regions Germany formally colonized until World War I. This legacy is evident in the origins of tropical medicine institutes like the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine.
• During the Cold War, health cooperation was split by ideology: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) focused on capacity building and technical assistance via faith-based institutes and NGOs in former colonies, while the German Democratic Republic (GDR) framed its cooperation as 'solidarity' with socialist partner countries, providing medical scholarships to states such as Guinea, Mali, and Mozambique.
• Since the 1990s, cooperation has become institutionalized through the GIZ, focusing on health system policy, the 'BACKUP health initiative' for the Global Fund, and maternal and child health. More recently, the 'Providing for Health (P4H) initiative' has targeted universal health coverage in countries including Cameroon, Malawi, and Nigeria.
• There is a strategic divergence between the European Union's 'One Health' approach, which emphasizes biomedical cooperation and public-private partnerships, and the 'African New Public Health Order,' which prioritizes the development of strong African public health institutions and workforce leadership.
• The author identifies a tension between economic interests and public health equity, citing the 'Triple-Win' programme's recruitment of nurses from countries like Nigeria and Tunisia, and the BioNTech mRNA vaccine plant in Rwanda. The latter is criticized for being a bilateral partnership rather than part of the WHO-governed international mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa.
• The paper argues that contemporary German-African health relations have shifted toward 'global health remediation,' where ethical and development goals are subjugated to state security, trade, and economic interests. This is exemplified by the defense of intellectual property rights over vaccine equity for Sub-Saharan Africa.

APA

van de Pas, R. (2023). German-African Health Relations and the Need for Change. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/german-african-health-relations-and-the-need-for-change

Chicago

van de Pas, Remco. German-African Health Relations and the Need for Change. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2023. https://afripoli.org/german-african-health-relations-and-the-need-for-change.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=van de Pas |first1=Remco |title=German-African Health Relations and the Need for Change |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=26 May 2023 |url=https://afripoli.org/german-african-health-relations-and-the-need-for-change |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vandepas2023germanafrican, author = {van de Pas, Remco}, title = {{German-African Health Relations and the Need for Change}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://afripoli.org/german-african-health-relations-and-the-need-for-change}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }