Shared cure

The SCO health cooperation model champions co-governance and capacity building to shape a stable, long-term global health solution

Over the past two decades, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has forged a distinctive model of health cooperation that delivers a scalable, replicable regional blueprint for fair and effective global health governance.

Requiring no political preconditions and rooted in equal-footed consultation, this framework allows every member to contribute according to its strengths, share benefits equitably and turn fragmented health projects into sustainable, systemic and long-term collaboration.

Above all, the model prioritizes local ownership and long-term capacity building — a choice that empowers communities and medical professionals within SCO countries to master the skills and capabilities needed to independently sustain and develop their own health services for generations.

In an increasingly interconnected world, public health security has become a borderless challenge. In 2025, over 610,000 cholera cases were reported in 33 countries. Antimicrobial resistance is rising 5 to 15 percent annually, with one in six bacterial infections now resistant to standard antibiotics. No nation can stand alone against these transboundary challenges, making inclusive, effective multilateral health cooperation not just a choice, but an urgent global imperative.

Against this backdrop, the SCO has carried out pioneering, practice-proven exploration in health cooperation. Since the first SCO Health Ministers' Meeting in 2010, members have built mechanisms that grow steadily in breadth and depth. The ninth meeting in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, in April proposed an SCO health management dialogue platform, a clear milestone signaling that cooperation has evolved into a mature, institutionalized system.

The SCO model operates on a simple but powerful principle: equality, multilateralism and no political preconditions. This is not symbolic partnership — it is real co-ownership. Partnerships are jointly initiated, shaped and led by multiple members.

Take ophthalmology as an example. The SCO National Ophthalmology Alliance was officially launched on Aug 21, 2025, in Tianjin, with 14 founding institutions from 10 countries. Its chair and vice-chairs are held collectively by experts from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The alliance's secretariat is based at the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, which undertakes the core organizational work of daily coordination and academic exchanges for the alliance, but all critical decisions are made through equal consultation, with no single state dominating.

This co-governance structure is not a ceremonial formality, as it is successfully replicated and institutionalized across other key fields. In September 2025, the SCO Forum on Traditional Medicine in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, drew about 200 delegates from 13 countries and launched a trilingual information exchange platform. In October, a five-year training program for traditional medicine practitioners began in Tianjin, already supporting exchanges of over 100 specialists from various SCO countries. China and other SCO countries have also co-established nine traditional medicine centers in different countries.

Every initiative springs from genuine demand and voluntary contribution. This voluntary, demand-driven approach ensures that cooperation addresses real, on-the-ground needs rather than externally imposed priorities.

Flowing naturally from this co-governance principle, the SCO model prioritizes local ownership and capacity building in favor of sustainable self-sufficiency, rejecting short-term, one-way donations. The evidence of this focus is clear and compelling across multiple sectors.

In emergency medicine, capacity building takes the form of training and equipment designed for local self-sufficiency. A bronchoscopy training base set up in Beijing last year has begun training SCO member clinicians on ventilator use and field rescue airway management, with plans to donate equipment — but crucially, the donation is paired with intensive hands-on instruction, so that local teams can fully operate and maintain the gear long after the external trainers leave.

Ophthalmology offers another direct measure of both local ownership and capacity building, through immersive hands-on training, direct surgical skill transfer to local professionals, and the establishment of health centers now fully operated and managed by local staff.

By the end of August last year, Chinese medical teams from various hospitals such as Tianjin Medical University General Hospital had traveled to SCO countries to conduct more than 2,300 free cataract surgeries, exceeding the three-year pledge of 2,000 surgeries for SCO citizens.

Crucially, these missions are paired with local training: Uzbek surgeons worked side by side with visiting teams, learning by doing and mastering techniques in real clinical settings.

Hands-on training has also taken the form of fellowships. As a first step, in December 2025, two Tajik ophthalmologists completed a fellowship at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital under the SCO National Ophthalmology Alliance arrangement, focusing on complicated cataracts and glaucoma. The hospital designed a systematic training program covering the entire process of preoperative assessment, surgical techniques and postoperative management, guaranteeing that the visiting doctors could independently perform complex surgeries upon returning to their home countries.

Other than skills transfer, local ownership also extends to facility management. Under the SCO collaboration, blindness prevention centers established in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are now managed by local staff members — not by expatriates. Similar collaborative efforts have also taken place in Tajikistan.

These tangible achievements prove that the SCO model delivers large-scale, life-changing outcomes while systematically transferring professional skills and management ownership to local personnel.

The SCO’s broader health infrastructure reinforces this approach.

The SCO hospital cooperation alliance, founded in 2018, now includes 134 hospitals across SCO countries. The China-SCO emergency medicine cooperation center has been established as the first professional platform under the SCO framework dedicated to emergency rescue. In February, the China-SCO cooperation center for metabolic disease pledged to train 2,000 metabolic disease experts within three years.

In the field of ophthalmology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital has also taken the lead in establishing an online academic exchange platform for the SCO, integrating surgical mentoring, fellowship training, and localized management of blindness prevention centers into a fully scalable capacity-building model.

This is the defining essence of the SCO model: training local professionals to independently sustain and expand health services, and building lasting self-sufficiency rather than permanent reliance on external teams.

Of course, challenges remain.

Divergent medical regulations and approval procedures hinder cross-border drug and device flows. Language and diagnostic standards limit telemedicine and academic exchanges. Long-term funding is not yet fully secured. These pressing issues are high on the agenda of health ministers’ meetings, with members committed to pursuing systemic, cooperative solutions.

Looking ahead, SCO health cooperation will deepen further: A unified online platform for academic and technical cooperation, mutual recognition of medical qualifications, and a decisive shift from project-based cooperation to institution-driven cooperation could emerge. Institutionalizing these mechanisms is the strongest sign that SCO health cooperation has fully matured beyond its early experimental phase into a stable, long-term governance framework.

The SCO model is pragmatic and a work in progress. But judged by its concrete, life-improving outcomes — thousands of medical professionals in training pipelines, and multilateral platforms spanning ophthalmology to metabolic diseases — the evidence is unambiguous: This approach delivers real results while respecting every member and building lasting local capacity.

The SCO health cooperation is a truly inclusive multilateral endeavor where all parties participate, contribute and benefit equally. Rooted in the region yet open to the world, it can grow from a successful regional practice into a valuable, actionable reference for global health governance — and a solid contribution to building a global community of health for all.

The author is the chairman of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization National Ophthalmology Alliance.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.