By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The Africa Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called on African Member States
to rapidly strengthen national capacity for health data stewardship and adopt
interoperable digital standards to safeguard health systems in an increasingly
digital age.
Africa CDC said it is
supporting Member States to establish sustainable, secure and accountable
health data governance systems that enable the responsible collection,
management, sharing and use of health data while preserving national ownership
and sovereignty.
The agency made the call
during a Member State consultative session convened in partnership with
TransformHealth at the Africa HealthTech Summit in Kigali.
The discussions focused on
the need to strengthen health data governance across the continent and
confirmed that Africa is ready for what Africa CDC described as a health data
governance transformation.
Africa CDC said effective
health data governance will be critical to ensuring that health data is managed
and used responsibly while maintaining national ownership and sovereignty.
The organisation said its
work with Member States is aimed at building sustainable systems that support
secure and accountable approaches to the collection, management, sharing and
use of health data.
