China’s aid modalities of human resource development in Africa and an exploration in Tanzania: Differences and recognitions

This paper talks about the modalities of Chinese human resource development (HRD) support to Africa, and the case of Tanzania. Since the hold of FOCAC from the new century, China has engaged a lot in the field of student scholarship, short term training, school building, Confucius Institute and university cooperation in Africa. The fieldwork in Tanzania also found the practice evidence of most of these approaches. The practice featured in some ways which are quite different from the Western aid modalities- it is not professional aid; it is not keen on direct budget; and there is a trend of one-to-one institutional cooperation. Although Tanzanian people in the field interviews are not quite interested in talking and comparing about those differences, they did show a willing to know and experience China’s education and training based on their different feeling towards China. It is hard to put this Chinese aid into any emerged aid model, which may motivate people to think wider about the meaning of education in the current global political economy