Should Medical Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Activities Focus on Building Public Health Capacity in Africa to Better Influence Theater Security Cooperation Objective

摘要

The Department of Defense seeks to form the foundations of a peaceful and prosperous world through security cooperation. EUCOM's Theater Security Cooperation Plan (TSCP) seeks to ensure access, promote stability and security, and strengthen capabilities for self-defense and coalition operations through a number of various programs. The particular program that is the subject of this paper is Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA) and, more specifically, medical or health related HCA activities in Africa. Past and current medical HCA activities have not been focused on long-term public health capacity building despite the strong relationship between population health and security. Building public health capacity of developing African nations will improve their stability, thus improving the security environment. They will be better equipped to handle their own health issues without outside intervention and to assist in humanitarian crises in the region, thus reducing the workload on U.S. resources in the long-term.