On 24 November 2023, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., the Sub-Saharan African Studies Research Group of the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) of Tsinghua University hosted the second lecture of the Fall Semester 20223-2024 on "An Explorative Study of Primary Health Care Interventions in East Africa". The lecture was delivered by Dr. Kun Tang, Associate Professor, Vanguard School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, and moderated by Dr. Gao Liangmin, Assistant Professor, Institute of International and Area Studies, Tsinghua University. The lecture was attended by nearly 60 IIAS faculty members and PhD students, scholars and students from home and abroad, and other interested parties.
At the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Tang introduced the background information of the project, the subjects, the objectives of the project and the results of the survey, starting with China's public health assistance project to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which he and his team conducted before Covid 19. Dr. Tang analysed the high maternal and neonatal mortality rates and their causes in the DRC by combining the epidemiological survey data, including prenatal checkups, factors affecting children's health outcomes (e.g. war, self-perception of safety, socio-economic inequalities, maternal services and level of maternal exposure to mass media, etc.), factors affecting individual health-seeking behaviour, women's empowerment and child immunisation vaccines, etc. The results highlighted the problems of maternal and child health in the DRC and the shortcomings of the international health aid system, and reflected on possible solutions at national and international levels.
At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Tang introduced the background information of the project, the subjects, the project objectives and the results of the survey, starting from the China's public health assistance project to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that he and his team carried out before the Covid 19. Dr. Tang analyzed the high maternal and neonatal mortality rates and their causes in the DRC, combining the epidemiological survey data, including the prenatal checkups, factors affecting children's health outcomes (e.g., war, self-perception of safety, socio-economic inequalities, maternal services, and level of maternal exposure to the mass media, etc.), factors affecting individual health-seeking behaviors, female empowerment, and child immunization vaccines, etc. The findings exposed the problems of maternal and child health in the DRC and the shortcomings of the international health assistance system, reflecting on possible solutions at the national and international levels.
In the second part of the lecture, Dr. Tang introduced the Global Health Research Project of Tsinghua Vanguard School of Public Health from four aspects: project outcomes, field research, project progress and plans for the next phase, and shared with the audience his team's experience in community health practice and research in Kenya, Uganda and other East African regions.
Finally, during the Q&A session at the end of the lecture, Dr. Tang and the IIAS faculty and students, as well as other online and offline participants, engaged in a lively discussion on the sustainability of China's public health assistance to Africa, the importance of global health research, the research model of Chinese scientific research institutes in Africa, the dialogue between Chinese medicine and traditional medicine in Africa, the similarities and differences between regional health systems in East and Southeast Asia, and the drawbacks of Western assistance to Africa.
Dr. Kun Tang is an Associate Professor at Vanguard School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, he was awarded the “Youth Top Talent Support Program” by the Ministry of Organization of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Dr. Tang has been working on research and practice related to global health governance and global maternal and child health, covering global health policy, health development assistance, and maternal and child health. He currently serves as a member of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Global Indicators for Child Health, a member of the Social Science Group of the WHO COVID-19 Research Roadmap, a member of the Women and Youth Committee of the Central Committee of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (DRC), and a vice-chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the DRC for Education, Culture, Health and Sports. He has served as a member of the Executive Council of the China Family Planning Association and the Central Council of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and as a member of the delegation of the National Health Commission to the 68th and 70th World Health Assembly and the 140th Executive Committee. He has conducted global health research programs in Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Myanmar, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea and other countries. He received a bachelor's degree in medicine from Peking University, a master's degree in global health and demography from Harvard University and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Oxford.
