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.