Original Research: Comparative study of the primary healthcare systems in China and Mali

Since the jointly hosted World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) conference on primary health care at Alma Ata in the USSR in 1978, both China and Mali have been engaged in implementation or reinforcement of their respective primary health systems. Primary health care is defined as “essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods of technology, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community. (This is achieved) through their full participation, and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination”.1