The Impact of Infectious Diseases on Kenya’s Health Diplomacy; An Inter-State Phenomenon

Abstract

The impact of infectious diseases is a real global phenomenon in the 21 st century buoyed by the accelerated pace of globalization which seem to dissolve the distinctions between; many domestic and foreign issues, regions and multinational actors, and even friendly and hostile states. The impact of infectious diseases on Kenya's health diplomacy calls for need to enhance public health partnerships to tackle such issues of international concern to effectively handle such diplomacy matters and timely. The study used qualitative study methodology by describing the context of Kenya's health diplomacy and employing available documents analysis. The study concluded that controlling emerging and reemerging infectious diseases require extreme actions and coordination between many national and international actors which Kenya and her international network of states must do through diplomacy.However, the decision on which health issues should be given priority on the foreign policy and diplomacy agenda contribute to overall improvement in diplomatic relations, which may enhance inter-state relations. ENVISAGED PROBLEM IN HEALTH DIPLOMACYThe latest decades of contemporary international relations is characterized by many dilemmas from security to economics and health. Though health has been peripherally situated from mainstream issues in Diplomacy, it has in fact featured prominently in inter and intra state politics to affect how states relate, transact with one another, and perceive each other in the Neoliberalist and Realist world. Some states have established positive steps in their health diplomacy to show their seriousness to this issue hence easier to measure impact of infectious diseases on their diplomacy. On the other hand, it is not clear what the impact of infectious diseases is on Kenya's diplomacy. It is this gap that propels the study to examine the existing state of affairs. METHODOLOGY EMPLOYEDThis study set off to use qualitative study methodology involving describing the context of Kenya's health diplomacy in relation to impact of infectious diseases and the existing practice of health diplomacy operational application. Available documents were also analyzed.

Education between individual freedoms and social arrangements: the case of African graduates in Bulgaria (1960–1990)

“…Work is being done on training African cadres in Eastern Europe (Koudawo, 1992;Katsakioris, 2007), on the experiences of study and daily life in the East (Boltovskaja, 2014;De Saint Martin et al, 2015;Katsakioris, 2015;Mellakh, 2016), on the African elites trained in the East and their role in the construction of post-colonial states (Leclerc-Olive, 2016;Leclerc-Olive and Hily, 2016;Cahiers D' études Africaines, 2017), on socialist migration regimes (Apostolova, 2023), etc. In contrast to the long-dominant trend of research focusing exclusively on relations between the Soviet Union/ Russia and Africa (Matusevich, 2007;Kurgat and Kurgat, 2012), the geographical scope of contemporary studies on the education of African students in Eastern Europe is expanding to include other Eastern bloc countries (Romania, the former GDR, Hungary, Poland, Cuba, Bulgaria) as well as various African countries.…”