PATH Digital Square Announces New Global Goods to Advance Climate and Health Data Integration
As health impacts of climate change intensify, PATH Digital Square is expanding the digital toolbox available to countries by sharing newly approved Global Goods designed to integrate climate and health data.
PATH Digital Square is supporting the development of Digital Public Infrastructure and digital public goods aimed at enhancing climate- and health-informed data systems. Following a competitive open call and rigorous peer review guided by an updated Maturity Model inclusive of Climate and Health categories, three software platforms are now formally recognized as Global Goods for Climate and Health:
- EWARS-csd: Supports climate-informed early warning systems for climate-sensitive disease outbreaks.
- DHIS2: Now enhanced with new climate data integration capabilities, builds on its widely deployed health information management platform.
- GeoPrism Registry: Offers robust geospatial registries that link climate and health data for informed decision-making.
In addition, HARMONY has been approved as a Global Good for Health. While it has not yet reached the implementation scale required for Climate and Health designation, its development signals strong potential for future contributions in this space.
Emerging Innovations
Beyond these new approvals, the review process surfaced several promising digital public goods (DPGs) that are actively advancing climate and health data integration. While not yet meeting the global scale criteria as defined by the Maturity Model for formal approval, they reflect the growing momentum and innovation in this nascent, yet critically important, field and include, but are not limited to:
- GHR Tool Suite: A powerful suite of open-source R packages enabling the harmonization, exploration, modeling, and prediction of climate-health datasets. The tools include data4health, clim4health, GHRExplore, GHRModel, and GHRPredict.
- OpenHIM with Climate Mediator: Extending an established interoperability platform to support climate data integration, with initial deployment planned in Mozambique.
- IDS-DRR Open Source Flood Risk Analysis Platform for Disaster Preparedness: Aggregates diverse datasets related to disaster risk (e.g., flood hazards, rainfall, river levels, elevation, soil, and more) to inform climate-informed disaster response. Currently piloted in parts of India.
- Speedy Mesh: Supports data integration across climate, human health, and animal health sectors. The tool has demonstrated national use (e.g., Cameroon) as well as regional applicability through platforms like the African Union Digital One Health Platform and Intergovernmental Authority on Development initiatives.
These developments reflect growing international momentum to equip health system leaders with locally adaptable, user-informed digital tools that support climate and health systems to better withstand climate shocks, improve preparedness, and safeguard vulnerable populations. PATH Digital Square remains committed to advancing this rapidly evolving space by facilitating collaboration, promoting open standards, and supporting digital public goods that strengthen climate-resilient health systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
“As climate change impacts health systems, digital tools that integrate climate and health data are more vital than ever. Approved Global Goods and new innovations show growing commitment to building climate-resilient health systems.”— Linda Taylor, Technical Program Manager at PATH
Stay tuned as we launch the Global Goods Guidebook, Climate Services for Health Annex: Harnessing digital solutions for climate-resilient communities this quarter.