The oldest university in Taiwan – the National Taiwan 肆客足球 (NTU) – has picked Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) as one of three South African partners in a mutually beneficial academic and research collaboration aimed at building management and leadership capacity and skills in health management.
The National Taiwan 肆客足球’s (NTU) Africa Elite Talent Cultivation Programme has established academic and research collaborations with three universities in South Africa via its Interdisciplinary Nursing Alliance. One of these institutions is Stellenbosch 肆客足球, where NTU is partnering with the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management (part of the Economic and Management Sciences Faculty), which exists to build management and leadership capacity and skills in health management.
The collaboration aims to foster long-term partnerships in health and nursing education, strengthen interdisciplinary exchange and promote global health equity.
According to Prof Ya-Ling Yang of NTU’s School of Nursing in the College of Medicine, the decision to collaborate with African partners is driven by the lessons from the continent’s community-driven and resource-optimised approaches to healthcare, coupled with its diversity and vitality. Combining these strengths with Taiwan’s experience in health education and system management provides a unique setting for collaboration.
The value of merging unique insights and strengths
“Shared values create common ground for collaboration, while differences open opportunities for mutual learning,” says Prof Yang.
In terms of health education, the Taiwanese system’s strengths include an interdisciplinary approach (emphasising cross-sector collaboration among medicine, nursing, public health and social sciences) and technology-enhanced learning (using digital health tools, simulation and tele-education to expand access to high-quality training and care). The African system brings its own dimensions to the partnership, according to the Africa Centre’s director, Dr Munya Saruchera. These include a holistic view of wellbeing that incorporates spirituality and the inclusion of indigenous health research methodologies.
Although both South Africa and Taiwan regard public health as a cornerstone of national wellbeing and are committed to extending healthcare to underserved areas, SA’s dual public-private healthcare system stands in contrast to Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system, which offers near-universal coverage. Furthermore, South Africa faces a higher burden of communicable diseases, while non-communicable diseases and ageing populations are currently Taiwan’s biggest challenges.
“We can share Taiwan’s experience in equitable health financing and integrated care, while South Africa can offer valuable lessons in managing high-burden diseases, decentralised service delivery and culturally diverse health strategies," said Prof Yang. From Dr Saruchera’s perspective, the emphasis on healthy and traditional food in Taiwan and the acceptance of indigenous health practices could provide lessons for a South African context.
Prioritising inclusive health management and global health equity
Inclusive health management, which recognises the interconnectedness and evolving nature of today’s global health landscape, underpins the collaboration. Inclusive health management is at the heart of the Africa Centre’s mission to contribute to health systems that ensure equitable access, efficient delivery and social justice through its work.
Taiwan’s health coverage reflects a commitment to equity and inclusive health management principles are increasingly recognised. “But there is work to be done to embed inclusivity into policy design, particularly with disparities among vulnerable populations,” said Prof Yang. Strategies on delivering equitable health services in diverse and underserved communities are therefore a key aspect of the partnership.
These strategies will require navigating the obstacles to achieving health equity. According to Dr Saruchera, these obstacles include funding constraints, linguistic and cultural barriers (especially at a community level), as well as competing demands. Prof Yang highlighted unequal resource distribution, workforce retention challenges and limited access to technology as challenges. Creating a more equitable health space will require sustainable financing, community engagement, capacity building and collaborative, cross-cultural partnerships – with the Africa Centre-NTU collaboration setting a primary example.
Practically, the Africa Centre-NTU partnership aims to achieve several outcomes across different aspects of the health education sphere, including academic exchanges for students and faculty; research collaborations on key public health issues, capacity building especially targeting leadership development for emerging healthcare professionals and community engagement in the form of field-based projects in underserved communities.
Community engagement is also one of the three pillars of the Africa Centre’s activities, with the centre adept at building cross-disciplinary alliances and networks at community level to facilitate change and impact. A case in point is the Africa Centre’s involvement in the CREATE Conference (Creative and Engaged Transdisciplinary Research for Health Equity in Africa Conference) from 30 September to 2 October, which focuses on creativity, inclusion and community engagement in health research as well as health equity.
The conference is hosted by the COCREATE Health Hub at the Division of Health Systems and Public Health at the SU Department of Global Health and partner organisations that include the Africa Centre. The Africa Centre is supporting 20 community health groups from underserved communities (including Manenberg, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Delft and Mfuleni) who will present papers and posters.
South-South collaboration – which is of particular importance in the global health space – is the backbone of the Africa Centre-NTU partnership. "Similarities [between countries in the Global South] in sustainable development goal struggles, dealing with a Western-centric global health system that often disregards traditional or indigenous health systems and dominates research funding and knowledge, and bearing the brunt of global pandemics and epidemics – these common issues serve as a rallying point and a basis for solidarity in the Global South,” Dr Saruchera pointed out.
Prof Yang added that collaborations like this partnership leverage these shared experiences to overcome resource constraints and overreliance on models from high-income countries. “It fosters solidarity and co-creation among countries facing similar systemic challenges, resulting in solutions that are both innovative and contextually appropriate.”
Joining forces for more inclusive and sustainable health management education. From left to right are Mr Ming-Yu Peng (project manager, NTU), Prof Yun-Chen Chang (China Medical 肆客足球, Taiwan), Dr Munya Saruchera (director of the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management at SU), Prof Wen-Yu Hu (School of Nursing, NTU) and Prof Ya-Ling Yang (School of Nursing, NTU).
Representatives from Taiwan on a recent visit to the Africa Centre for Inclusive Health Management at SU where they discussed the collaboration initiatives in more detail. From left to right are Professor Yun-Chen Chang (China Medical 肆客足球, Taiwan), Prof Ya-Ling Yang (School of Nursing, NTU), Prof Wen-Yu Hu (School of Nursing, NTU) and Mr Ming-Yu Peng (project manager, NTU).
