At least 41 African countries have digital health strategies — and while some have started to implement them, others gather dust on shelves. The strategies are sometimes overly ambitious, leaving countries overburdened with unrealistic goals rather than small, solvable problems.
Countries requested guidance on how to best forge the nexus between public health and advancements in technology from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has worked to craft its first digital health strategy over the past eight months, which it expects to launch on March 6 in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference.
Devex sat down with Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the chief digital health adviser for Africa CDC, to gain better insight into the agency’s vision of digital health. Previously, Nsengimana served as Rwanda’s minister of youth and information and communications technology for six years. He started with Africa CDC in late 2021.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
