Inspiring future female digital health leaders in Ghana
By: Laura Kallen, Gracey Vaughn, Gideon Nyamekye, Kenzie Tynuv, and Tori Matus
Monica Amposah (GIZ, Ghana) presents Rebecca Yennumi Kombian (participant) with a scholarship to attend the Global Digital Health Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, later this year. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ
On September 17 and 18, 2024, Digital Square at PATH, the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) hosted a Ghana Women in Digital Health event in Accra, Ghana, as part of the Digital Innovation in Pandemic Control (DIPC) project. The event convened 95 female participants—the majority of whom were students or young professionals—to learn about digital health and the diverse roles that make up this field, hear stories and advice from women leaders in digital health on how to overcome commonly faced challenges, and connect with local digital health stakeholders. Participants also engaged in hands-on learning through interactive workshops to equip them with practical skills and actionable insights to help inform and inspire their career paths. By engaging these enthusiastic participants, the event catalyzed connections and disseminated knowledge to help foster a local and more gender-equitable digital health workforce in Ghana.
Helping participants answer the question, “What is digital health?”
In collaboration with GIZ and GHS, Digital Square tailored the agenda to provide an in-depth introduction to digital health, recognizing that participants were mostly students and young professionals. The first day started with a “Role Round-up” session, where representatives introduced participants to common roles in digital health: business analyst, project manager, product manager, software developer, and software tester. The representatives outlined the responsibilities associated with each role, which were further built upon during a participative workshop on Day 2. This workshop was a pivotal component of the event that engaged participants in hands-on learning, equipped them with the essential knowledge needed to understand the roles and processes involved in developing digital health information systems, and informed their potential career paths. Participants valued these workshops, as reflected by participant Persis Yonnison:
“It was so exciting, because every single person wanted to contribute, and what whatever they were contributing, was so real, was so practical, like, you really got to appreciate what was happening on the ground. They punched holes into people, into the characters that were not performing their roles. […] And it was just beautiful appreciating other people's perspectives on the same issue. It just created a good picture of what the entire digital system was about, and even the role of women in digital health.”
Caption: Luciana Rajula, Senior Program Officer at Digital Square, informs participants of the key responsibilities of a business analyst during the Role Round-up participatory workshop. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ
Highlighting the importance of including women in digital health
Fatou Fall, Africa Regional Director of Digital Health, PATH, shares her career journey with participants. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ
Along with the educational workshops about digital health concepts and roles, participants heard from female leaders and local entrepreneurs in Ghana who shared their stories and career advice tailored for women in digital health. Fatou Fall, Africa Regional Director of Digital Health at PATH, kicked off the event with her storytelling session on her inspiring journey into the field of digital health. She highlighted the challenges she has faced along the way and emphasized the importance of determination and resilience when breaking into the male-dominated field. In her session, Fatou also acknowledged the importance of bridging the gap between technology and health care.
In one session titled “Calling all advocates: How to be a digital health champion no matter your role”, Dr. Baaba da Costa Vroom, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, built upon Fatou’s message and encouraged participants to continue to learn and leverage the internet and smartphones to expand their knowledge and skills. Dr. Baaba da Costa Vroom (University of Ghana), Victoria Sackey (Medtrack), and Maud Ashong Elliot (University of Professional Studies) concluded their panel by leaving participants with 15 key points to remember as they start their digital health journeys. Their advice included guidance on how to find a mentor in the field, encouraged participants to collaborate with other women throughout their careers, and reminded participants to eliminate the habit of comparison and self-doubt to thrive in the field.
Participants also engaged in a short exercise where they were presented with a case study involving a hypothetical community health worker and mother navigating the immunization journey for the mother’s baby. Using a version of the Wheel of Power and Privilege adapted to the Ghanaian context, participants were encouraged to reflect on the different individuals involved in the immunization journey and the factors and perspectives that influence their decisions. They were also encouraged to use the Wheel to reflect on their lives and how they can use their power, privilege, and agency to become effective advocates for digital health.
Participant Eunice Owusu-Quaning reflected on the collaborative nature of the field and the need to be an effective digital health advocate in a LinkedIn post about the event:
“The Digital Health space is not a restricted space but open to everyone from different backgrounds hoping to make a #difference in creating accessible healthcare for everyone and especially people from #marginalized communities. Digital health is not a competitive space but a collaborative one with effective and healthy relationships amongst various stakeholders to help people usually disconnected from urban areas. There is indeed a place for anyone who seeks to make a #difference in health care digitally as we continue to spread awareness about change in delivering healthcare in Ghana.”
Supporting the Ghana Health Service’s Policy and Strategy on Digital Health
Developed and implemented in partnership with the GHS, the event’s activities were directly aligned with many of the strategic objectives outlined in the Ghana Health Service’s Policy and Strategy on Digital Health 2023-2027. As part of Objective 2 of Ghana’s digital health strategy, which is to “Create an enabling environment for implementing digital health solutions,” GHS seeks to deploy a qualified workforce able to develop, implement, and maintain digital health platforms. By engaging students and young professionals and widening their knowledge of roles and opportunities in digital health, this event sought to inspire a wider pipeline of digital health workers in Ghana in support of this objective. On LinkedIn, participant Esther Agyeman reflected on the importance of a local digital health workforce:
“Digital Health is not only about coding or the developer; it starts from the project manager to the trainer of the end users of the digital health products. They left us with a question: what can you also do, digitally, to make people's lives better?”
Similarly, participant Rebecca Yennumi Kombian shared in an interview:
“It was an eye-opening program, because, as was said initially, when we hear digital health, I think of it as having to do with coding. I also saw digital health as just telemedicine, where it's like a doctor is in a remote place, a patient is in a remote place, and they communicate. But I got to realize that it's beyond just telemedicine. It involves the health systems, the systems that are the data management systems are used in the hospitals. And so coming there has expanded my mind that indeed, […] Ghana is actually taking steps to try and digitalize healthcare, because the future is, more or less, digital.”
Florence Haruna, a representative from Zipline Ghana connects with participants from her booth at the “Dive into Digital” networking hour. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ
One critical part of the event was the “Dig into Digital” demo and networking hour. Several public and private partners—including DHIS2/HISP Ghana, Erith Health Services Ltd., Medtrack, PATH, University of Ghana, and Zipline—were invited to set up booths to share their roles, innovations, and job opportunities. By collaborating with public and private organizations around a shared goal and mutually beneficial event, the event fostered dialogue and connections between the public and private sectors for digital health in Ghana, which is the focus of Objective 9 of the digital health strategy.
Encouraging women’s participation in digital health not only helps close the existing digital gender gap but also helps ensure digital health tools will better meet the needs of women, who represent 59 percent of health workers in the Ghana Ministry of Health. By engaging women specifically, the event aimed to help build a more gender-equitable digital health workforce.
Sharing resources for digital health learning
After the event, the organizers shared a list of resources with participants outlining online digital health training courses, networks, and upcoming conferences to encourage additional learning and engagement in digital health. These include the DIPC-developed courses Digital Health: End-User Support and Introduction to Systems Development, the Digital Square-certified global good Digital Health: Planning National Systems course, and other courses such as African Women and the Development Agenda – More than Catalysts for SDGs, Women in Tech, and Women Going Digital.
Participants were also encouraged to join existing networks such as the eHealth Professionals Knowledge Network (eHPKN), which also has a collection of different courses and resources, African Women in Digital Health, and the Global Digital Health Network, which is hosting its annual Global Digital Health Forum (GDHF) in Nairobi, Kenya, this December. As an added bonus, participants entered a raffle that awarded two winners with a trip to Nairobi to attend GDHF.
A participant raises her hand during a Q&A session of the Ghana Women in Digital Health event. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ
Future-proofing Ghana’s health system through country-led digital solutions and capacity strengthening
As an implementing partner of the DIPC project, Digital Square uses its expertise to create models for improved and more sustainable pandemic-prepared health systems with a focus on immunization workflows in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania. In alignment with GHS and the national digital health strategy, the DIPC project in Ghana has focused on gathering system and user requirements for digital immunization systems, enhancing the existing DHIS2 E-Tracker to meet those requirements, and strengthening local capacity to develop, operate, and sustain the systems.
By educating and inspiring students to pursue careers in digital health, sharing knowledge and resources, and promoting public-private collaboration, the Ghana Women in Digital Health event helped support Ghana’s national digital health strategy while also setting a foundation for future innovations and equity in digital health. The strong reception of the event and unanticipated demand for participation (i.e., more than 150 registrants signed up in the first 12 hours our page opened!) reflects the value and necessity of gender-focused workshops in our sector. We think Tessa Lennemann, GIZ Project Leader for DIPC, summed it up well:
“The Ghana Women in Digital Health event is a great example of how collective efforts can make an impact in fostering a more gender-equitable digital health workforce. Bringing together 95 female students and professionals to explore opportunities, gain hands-on skills, and learn from women leaders truly resonates with the core goals of the DIPC project—empowering individuals and strengthening pandemic-prepared health systems.This event not only aligned with Ghana’s National Digital Health Strategy but also set the stage for long-term connections and innovations in digital health.
A big thank you to everyone involved for their dedication and vision. Looking forward to seeing how these brilliant women lead the future of digital health in Ghana and beyond!”
All 95 participants and organizers at the Ghana Women in Digital Health event pose for a group photo. The event educated and encouraged students and young professionals in Ghana to pursue careers in digital health. Photo: Magadou Media/GIZ