A youth-led organisation, Curious Minds Ghana, in partnership with Transform Health has organised a workshop for some media persons on Health Data Governance in Ghana.
The one-day workshop was conducted to raise awareness amongst the media about a need for a ‘global health data governance framework, underpinned by equity and rights-based principles’.
Transform Health is a digital organisation in health which was formed in 2019 by seven (7) organisations who saw the need for a concerted, long-term effort to harness the transformative benefits of digital technology and data to expand primary health care and achieve the SDG target of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.
On the other hand, Curious Minds which was formed in 1996 works to ensure that all children and youth are well informed and meaningfully participate in decision-making that affects their lives by advocating, generating knowledge, sharing information, building partnerships and training young activists at local, national and international levels.
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) which focuses on health, SDG 3, indicates that we ‘ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all levels’. However, the main focus with regards to this event is to ‘Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all’. This forms part of the 9 targets for all nations to aspire towards.
The event which was held in Accra this week targeted media personnel who cut across various media disciplines and introduced data collection and governance, not limited to but in the health sector.
It is imperative that the call for a global data framework to be developed and adopted by governments is “developed through a transparent and inclusive multistakeholder process, including the meaningful engagement of civil society and communities” said Mavis Naa Korley Aryee, Programs Coordinator – Curious Minds.
She added that “this would lead to much-needed regulatory standards which could be adopted into national legislation to ensure the equitable governance of health data. Such a framework should be based on norms and standards that draw on duty obligations made to respect, protect and uphold basic rights of all”.
These efforts are believed “would lay the foundation for improved public trust in health data systems, whereby individuals feel protected, respected and in control of their own data while allowing institutions working to protect the health and well-being of the population to access and use it for the public good”.
There is an urgent need for sufficient understanding regarding the health data governance framework, and to raise awareness on the need for cooperation from government to sponsor or support a resolution on health data governance made at the international level by the World Health Assembly under the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Watch this space for more updates on the collective efforts needed to champion the Health Data framework. Watch out for the ‘Where Is My Data?’ campaign under My Data Our Health Campaign.
