Publication: ICTs for Health in Africa
Loading...
Published
2014
ISSN
Date
2014-07-23
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Countries in Africa spend significant amounts of their GDP on delivering health services through systems that are often inefficient, costly and lacking in transparency. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to transform the delivery of health services across the continent in ways that not only increase efficiency but also improve accountability (World Bank, 2004). ICTs present a large, unexploited potential for transforming governance and transparency in the health sector in Africa to achieve 'more health for money spent' and thereby improve the efficiency of health spending, both domestic- and donor-financed. ICTs present a large, unexploited potential for transforming governance and transparency in the health sector in Africa to achieve 'more health for money spent' and thereby improve the efficiency of health spending, both domestic, and donor-financed.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Shekar, Meera; Otto, Kate. 2014. ICTs for Health in Africa. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19020 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Information and Communication Technologies for Health Systems Strengthening(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-01)Information and communication technologies (ICT) for health or eHealth solutions hold great potential for generating systemic efficiencies by strengthening five critical pillars of a health system: human resources for health, supply chain management, health care financing, governance and service delivery, and infrastructure. This report describes the changing landscape of eHealth initiatives through these five pillars, with a geographic focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. This report further details seven criteria, or prerequisites, that must be considered and addressed in order to effectively establish and scale up ICT-based solutions in the health sector. These criteria include infrastructure, data and interoperability standards, local capacity, policy and regulatory environments, an appropriate business model, alignment of partnerships and priorities, and monitoring and evaluation. In order to bring specific examples of these criteria to light, this report concludes with 12 specific case studies of potentially scalable ICT-based health care solutions currently being implemented across the globe at community, national, and regional levels. This report is intended to be used by development practitioners, including task team leaders at the World Bank, to strengthen their understanding of the use of ICT to support health systems strengthening (HSS) efforts as well as to highlight critical prerequisites needed to optimize the benefits of ICT for health.Publication Supporting Womens Agro-Enterprises in Africa with ICT(Washington, DC, 2015-02)A new generation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is finding a small foothold among poor, small-scale farmers in developing countries. Even so, many barriers still prevent poor rural people from accessing, using, and benefiting from new ICT tools and platforms, and those barriers are arguably higher for rural women. The relationship between gender and agriculture has been studied intensively over the years, and many agricultural interventions now include gender as a crosscutting issue or mainstream gender throughout their operations. Studies of the relationship between gender and the use of ICTs in agriculture have started to appear only quite recently, however. The Africa Region of the World Bank views ICTs as potentially transformative technology for rural development and seeks to incorporate the use of ICTs throughout its portfolio of projects. The present study was designed to examine the feasibility of integrating ICTs into two large investment programs: the Irrigation Development and Support Project (IDSP) in Zambia and the Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project (KAPAP). The specifi c goal was to examine how ICT-based interventions might be designed to strengthen women s participation in commodity value chains under the two projects.Publication Applications of Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Electricity Distribution(Washington, DC, 2011)In the second half of the 1980s, several electricity companies in developed countries incorporated the automation of the reads of the consumption meters installed in their customers' premises. Adoption of that approach was driven in all the cases by the need to lower the significant costs of in-site reading, reflecting high labor costs in rich countries. There are several AMI options potentially viable for each of the automated meter reading (AMI) applications, covering a wide range in terms of technical and functional specifications of hardware and software. However, the technical and economic feasibility of a specific option crucially depends on the current operational and financial performance of the involved utilities, as well as on other key characteristics (institutional, regulatory, development of communications infrastructure) of the environment in which they operate. It is very clear that, in AMI, one size does not fit all. The applicability and options for applying AMI or smart meters technology to a variety of customer management issues commonly found in public service utilities, in particular in electricity distribution companies, are described and analyzed in this report.Publication IT Based Innovation in Rural and Urban WSS : Sanitation Hackathon, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2012(Washington, DC, 2014-05-26)The need for innovative solutions to the chronic lack of sanitation worldwide is immense. Of those people who lack access to improved sanitation. 1.1 billion have no facilities at all and defecate in the open. These sanitation shortages account for thousands of deaths daily, especially among children. Additionally, poor sanitation costs billions of dollars in economic losses annually, as high as 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP in some countries. 'That's billions of dollars that could educate poor children or help build infrastructure - like schools and roads,' said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Conversely, more than 6 billion people worldwide have access to a mobile phone, including in rural and urban areas in developing countries. The surge in mobile phones in Africa, some 94 percent of urban Africans, for example, are near a GSM signal, is transforming the way people complete daily tasks, from knowing when to sell farm commodities, to finding easier ways to pay bills or send money to family and friends. With ever increasing mobile penetration and falling prices of smart phones, mobile applications provide a platform to address myriad critical issues and an opportunity to solve problems in the developing world.Publication The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, and African Development Bank, Tunis, 2012-09)This new flagship report for the eTransform Africa Project, produced by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, with the support of the African Union, identifies best practice in the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in key sectors of the African economy. Under the theme transformation-ready, the growing contribution of ICTs to agriculture, climate change adaptation, education, financial services, government services, and health is explored. In addition, the report highlights the role of ICTs in enhancing African regional trade and integration as well as the need to build a competitive ICT industry to boost innovation, job creation, and the export potential of African companies.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Urban and Rural Municipal Solid Waste in China and the Circular Economy(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-04)This paper lists several opportunities for China to advance MSW policies and practices. In addition to building on lessons learned from countries with decades of experience in implementing separation at source programs, including lessons on dealing with the informal sector, China’s extended responsibility systems (EPR) for different waste streams including packaging waste could be tested locally and if successful, could then be prioritized. EPR schemes could be used to introduce incentives for eco-design, create a sustainable production and consumption pattern, reduce landfilling and develop recycling and recovery channels. China could also more comprehensively test the regional approach for service delivery especially for underserved county and rural areas. There is an opportunity to deepen urban-rural integration enhance economies of scale, and improve efficiency through regional integration in waste service provision. This would not only improve the quality of service provision but support financial sustainability and help offset some of the increased financial costs for circularity. Ensuring sustainable operational financing is important to provide for public-private partnerships, a stated priority of the government; sustain earlier and current investments; and permit future development of facilities.Publication Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers : Principles and Practice(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007)The design of intergovernmental fiscal transfers has a strong bearing on efficiency and equity of public service provision and accountable local governance. This book provides a comprehensive one-stop window/source of materials to guide practitioners and scholars on design and worldwide practices in intergovernmental fiscal transfers and their implications for efficiency, and equity in public services provision as well as accountable governance.Publication Implementation Know-how Briefs to Support Countries to Prioritize, Connect and Scale for a Digital-in-Health Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-18)Technology and data are integral to daily life. As health systems face increasing demands to deliver new, more, better, and seamless services affordable to all people, data and technology are essential. With the potential and perils of innovations like artificial intelligence the future of health care is expected to be technology-embedded and data-linked. This shift involves expanding the focus from digitization of health data to integrating digital and health as one: Digital-in-Health. The World Bank’s report, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone, calls for a new digital-in-health approach where digital technology and data are infused into every aspect of health systems management and health service delivery for better health outcomes. The report proposes ten recommendations across three priority areas for governments to invest in: prioritize, connect and scale. The Implementation Know-How Briefs serve as practical guides for countries as they implement the ten recommendations. Every Implementation Know-How Brief provides practical information to start planning and implementing how to implement the recommendations. It also contains key terminologies for those not familiar with a particular topic, provides key questions to ask, and a general orientation as to typical issues in these sectors. Topics covered are: 1.) Digital health assessments; 2.) Telemedicine and virtual health care; 3.) Private sector involvement in digital health; 4.) Interoperability in health sector; 5.) Data governance for health data; 6.) Cybersecurity for health sector; 7.) Digital health records; 8.) Determining value of digital technology in health; 9.) Certification and regulatory sandboxes for digital technologies in health; 10.) Workflow mapping for digital technology (re)design in health systems.Publication Tracking Global Social Protection Responses to Inflation(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-06-30)Between December 2022 and May 2023, the number of social protection and other related measures announced or implemented in response to inflation rose by about 31%. The latest tally includes 1,333 responses across 178 economies. Overall, subsidies claim 33% of such measures and take four main forms (fuel, food, fertilizers, and various fee subsidies). Social assistance accounts for 31% of responses, 77% of which is provided in the form of cash transfers. Tax measures represent 19% of the global responses, and trade, active labor market policies and social insurance claim a share of 6% each. Based on planned coverage data from 116 economies, social protection programs intend to cover 1.94 billion people or about 25% of the world’s population. But so far, actual coverage shows that 303.5 million individuals, or about 4% of the global population, were reached (based on data from 36 economies). Next, based on expenditure data from 561 programs across 143 economies, a total of $1.01 trillion is being invested in social protection responses. This involves an average country spending of 1.06% of GDP. The average size of both social assistance and subsidy transfers represents slightly over a quarter (i.e., 27%) of the daily median income, while their average initial duration is 7.3 months. Almost one-fifth of the responses to inflation have been extended, and the average duration of such extensions is 8.5 months. Over half of social assistance transfers are new (56%) and are provided on a one-off basis (47%).Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.