Canadian-Anglophone African Human Rights Engagement: A Critical Assessment of the Literature on Health Rights

Contrary to common expectations, the engagement between Canada and Anglophone African countries on the issue of health rights has not been a “one-way-street” whereby Canada is the “giver” and Anglophone African countries are the “takers” of health benefits. This article, which undertakes a preliminary and critical assessment of the literature documenting this engagement, finds that both Canada and Anglophone African countries have mutually benefitted from their engagement in the area of health rights. These benefits have taken the form of Canada’s financial and technical contributions to various initiatives that seek to improve the availability and accessibility of health-related goods and services in some Anglophone African countries. Canada has benefitted from the significant influx of highly skilled health workers from Anglophone African countries. However, by framing an agenda for research in this area, this article identifies the attainments, problems, and prospects of this engagement. This article further argues, amongst other things, for a recalibration of this engagement to ensure its sustainability, and to ensure that it advances the objectives of universal health coverage in the health systems amongst Canada and Anglophone African countries alike