Resources

Assessing Country Priorities for Digital Technology in Community HealthIn 2020, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) launched the Digital Community Health Initiative (DCHI) to strengthen community-level health care in partner countries by scaling up digitally enabled platforms. Led by USAID with the CDC, DCHI aims to improve data collection and use, strengthen implementation, and expand the role of digital tools in health.To support this vision, PMI partnered with Digital Square at PATH to conduct a malaria and digital community health assessment and define country-specific priorities. The work is carried out in three phases:Phase 1: Identify – Rapid ecosystem assessments, including desk reviews (600+ documents), surveys, and 300+ stakeholder interviews across 27 countries.Phase 2: Prioritize – Workshops with 500+ stakeholders (ministries of health, malaria programs, CHWs, and partners) to validate findings and identify needs, opportunities, and priorities. Results were summarized in a cross-country report and 27 country profiles.Phase 3: Implement – Country-specific activities aligned with national malaria strategies, such as tool piloting, systems development, governance strengthening, and CHW capacity-building. Sample activities included:Burkina Faso: Support CHWs with digital tools (CommCare, RapidPro, DHIS2) and strengthen the enabling environment.Burma: Build national capacity and support digital health architecture analysis.Mozambique: Develop a community health information sub-system plan with the MOH.Nigeria: Strengthen governance structures, train CHWs, and pilot updated digital data collection tools.Tanzania: Expand OpenSRP for HIV and malaria interventions on the Mainland, and integrate vulnerable children’s data into national systems in Zanzibar.

South Africa has the highest number of people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the world and the highest number of people enrolled in antiretroviral (ART) therapy. While significant progress has been made since ART was introduced in 2004, there is a need to reduce new infections further and to increase ART initiation and retention.Digital health interventions can strengthen the health system, but success relies on an effective digital health ecosystem.The Gates Foundation tasked Digital Square with conducting an HIV digital health landscape assessment in South Africa’s two most populous provinces to understand the prevalence and barriers to treatment of HIV. Digital Square also investigated how the digital health ecosystem is affecting progress toward local HIV targets and the Sustainable Development Goals in the public health sector.The report, Digital Health to Support HIV Care: A landscape assessment of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa (2022), provides an overview of HIV and its associated digital health ecosystem. Promising practices, gaps, challenges, and recommendations identified through the assessment can assist provincial health leaders, donors, and other partners with strengthening the digital health ecosystem in the public health sector to support HIV and other health programs.In addition to the list of systems, tools, and applications described in the report, the table, Digital health systems, applications and tools identified by the Map & Match and Vital Wave projects, can assist with future landscape assessments.The Provincial Data Governance Framework, developed during the project, can support provinces in implementing and ultimately complying with the Draft National Data and Cloud Policy.

Youth Ownership of Digital Health (YO.DH) is a volunteer-led community for digital health professionals aged 35 and under, created to build leadership capacity, foster peer networks, and create a platform for knowledge exchange. The initiative rests on three key pillars: community engagement, capacity-building, and networking, aimed at nurturing young, well-informed, and responsible digital health leaders.YO.DH was launched in July 2023, with support from the Gates Foundation, and in partnership with International Innovation Corps, Digital Square, and WomenLift Health. Since then, YO.DH has grown into a thriving, self-sustaining community of over 1,000 members, representing 44 countries and 170 cities.The community prides itself on its gender-inclusive approach, with women constituting 51% of its membership. Members hail from diverse sectors, including civil society organizations, consulting firms, start-ups, non-profits, and government bodies. The community operates based on the principles of Communities of Practice, fostering collaboration, shared learning, and ownership among its members. Its democratic structure ensures broad participation and leadership development, facilitated by a Secretariat, a 19-member core committee comprising members from India and Africa, and rolling cohorts of ambassadors or volunteers serving as champions for youth engagement in digital health.YO.DH reflects a bold shift toward decentralized, peer-driven leadership that values equity, collaboration, and shared ownership. Looking ahead, YO.DH envisions itself as the go-to global platform for young digital health professionals—connecting, creating, and collaborating across borders.Find out more about the project here: https://www.yodh.info/

Effective cold chain equipment (CCE) is the backbone of successful vaccine delivery, but its seamless operation relies on a complex web of “behind-the-scenes” activities. This graphic, produced in collaboration between PATH, JSI, and Village Reach, highlights several crucial activities that are currently being implemented to contribute to robust CCE maintenance systems in multiple countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. While not exhaustive, the activities presented here aim to inspire and inform other countries as we collectively strive to strengthen CCE maintenance globally, ultimately ensuring that lifesaving vaccines reach every person in need.

Regional manufacturing for timely, affordable, and quality-assured diagnostics across the continentAfrica carries nearly a quarter of the global disease burden yet, remains overwhelmingly dependent on imports for essential health products. Today, 95 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients, 70 percent of medicines, and almost all diagnostics are sourced outside the continent. This dependency drives up costs, slows access, and leaves countries at risk of global supply chain disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses in Africa’s health supply chains.The gap is especially acute in diagnostics. Despite Africa accounting for the highest burden of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, most diagnostic tools used to detect these conditions are produced elsewhere. Limited regional manufacturing undermines timely access and constrains Africa’s ability to control and ultimately eliminate these diseases.PATH, supported by Unitaid and a coalition of African and global partners, has launched the Manufacturing to Accelerate Diagnostic Excellence (MADE) in Africa project to address this imbalance. Over the next four years, MADE will work to strengthen and expand Africa’s diagnostic manufacturing ecosystem by:Providing technical expertise to align production with international quality standards.Developing analyses and strategies for climate friendly diagnostics production.Increasing access to financing and investment for African manufacturers.Supporting an existing R&D ecosystem in Africa for diagnostics that will thrive long after the MADE project ends.Driving market-shaping strategies to secure sustainable demand and scale production.By embedding high-quality, affordable diagnostics into regional supply chains, MADE will help meet everyday health needs, strengthen health systems, and build a resilient manufacturing base that can rapidly pivot to produce critical tools during future health emergencies.Ultimately, MADE is about ensuring Africa can rely on its own innovation and capacity to protect the health of its people, independently, affordably, and sustainably.