In order to foster a team of consultants in the field of health development assistance for the future, China National Health Development Research Center (CNHDRC), National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) successfully organized the Consultant Training on Development Assistance for Health in Beijing from 5^th to 9^th Dec. 2016. As one of the key activities of the China-UK Global Health Support Programme (GHSP) Output 2 sub-project (GHSP-CS-OP2-03), the essential parts of UK Health Development Assistance Flagship Training Course were absorbed and experts were invited including Prof. Richard Manning, the former chief director of DFID and OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Prof. Martin Greeley from UK Institute of Development studies (IDS), and senior professors and experts from Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), World Bank, WHO China Office, DFID, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of MOFCOM (CAITEC), Guangzhou Chinese Medicine University and other domestic and foreign specialists engaged in health development assistance. After selection, 30 formal participants from the Institute of Western Asian and African Studies of the CASS, CAITEC, National and local CDCs, scientific research institutions, international organizations and NGOs participated in the 5-day training. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Dai Bing, the deputy director of the Department of African Affairs of MoFA, Mr. Zhang Zhaoyang, the director of Center for Project Supervision and Management of NHFPC, and Ms. Fu Wei, the director of NHDRC, delivered speeches and announced the opening of the training respectively.

The training course focused on the theme of "Global Health Diplomacy, International Health Development Assistance Theory and Practice, Consultant Expert Capacity Building". The training materials covered the international health development assistance theory system, major actors, development trends and management evaluation system. It also included the strategy, status, role and future outlook of providing foreign health assistance, the core skills of consulting work, the management processes as well as monitoring and evaluation methods of major international bilateral and multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, OECD and UK International Development Agency. During the training, the participants listened carefully to the presentations of the experts and actively explored the effectiveness of health development assistance and the current challenges. They discussed with the experts in depth on how to establish the monitoring and evaluation system of health development assistance, how to improve China's health and diplomatic influence, and how to improve the expertise and ability of China's health aid team. In addition to the centralized lectures, panel discussion and case study were organized every day. The cases were all real consulting practices in World Bank and DFID. All the participants were divided into groups for presentations, and were evaluated by the teachers based on their understanding, capability of project design, evaluation and communication, and contract negotiation.

The training was highly praised by the participants and received positive feedback. It was said that the training not only deepend their understanding of the international health development assistance system and effective models, but also established an overall awareness of global health and health diplomacy. It was expected to continue cultivating and making good use of this consultants group for the health development assistance in the future.

(By Programme Implementing Agency OP203: China National Health Development Research Center, NHFPC)