Population and health data governance in the era of digital technology in Africa

Background: This paper explores the evolving digital landscape in Africa, focusing on its challenges and opportunities for promoting data governance and sharing in Africa. As the region integrates digital technology into health systems and adopts artificial intelligence (AI), the need for collaborative data sharing becomes crucial. The African Union has established cybersecurity policies and data protection measures but progress to their implementation has been slow, with only a fraction of countries ratifying the Malabo Convention of 2014 as of March 2023. To contribute to these efforts, the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) organized a data governance policy dialogue in September 2023, in Naivasha, Kenya, involving diverse stakeholders to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the African data ecosystem.

Methods: Participants were drawn from the national data protection office, ministry of health, national statistics bureau, population and health researchers, data producers, demographic surveillance systems, data managers and data scientists. Sessions included technical presentations, round table and panel discussions.

Findings and Conclusions: We found that key gaps to data sharing in African included lack of standardized data management and sharing principles, administrative and bureaucratic barriers, mistrust resulting from fear of data misrepresentation, misuse and breach of privacy, and data systems that are not interoperable. To navigate this, the academia has a crucial role to play. First, in strengthening capacity and creating awareness about data privacy and protection, and second, in contributing to research on best practices. This includes working with research community to develop training curricula on data governance and sharing. Further, there was emphasis on development of comprehensive data governance frameworks at institutional, national and regional levels. The data governance framework should be tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities in Africa, and leverage the power of AI in its implementation and research.