South African Provincial Data Governance Framework

This Draft Provincial Data Governance Framework developed during the project can support provinces with implementation of and ultimately compliance to the Draft National Data and Cloud Policy.

South Africa has the highest number of people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV in the world and the highest number of people enrolled in antiretroviral (ART) therapy. While significant progress has been made since ART was introduced in 2004, there is a need to reduce new infections further and to increase ART initiation and retention. Digital health interventions can strengthen the health system, but success relies on an effective digital health ecosystem.

Digital Square was tasked by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct an HIV digital health landscape assessment in South Africa’s two most populous provinces, to understand the prevalence and barriers to treatment of HIV and how the digital health ecosystem is affecting progress toward local HIV targets and the Sustainable Development Goals in the public health sector.

The report Digital Health to Support HIV Care: A landscape assessment of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal Gauteng provinces in South Africa (2022) provides an overview of HIV and its associated digital health ecosystem. Promising practices, gaps, challenges, and recommendations identified through the assessment can assist provincial health leaders, donors, and other partners with strengthening the digital health ecosystem in the public health sector to support HIV and other health programs.

In addition to the list of systems, tools, and applications described in the report, the table: Digital health systems, applications and tools identified by the Map & Match and Vital Wave projects is shared to assist with future landscape assessments.

This Provincial Data Governance Framework developed during the project can support provinces with implementation of and ultimately compliance to the Draft National Data and Cloud Policy.