The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a two-day continental workshop aimed at validating a framework that will guide the digitization of primary health care systems across Africa, a move officials say could transform health service delivery for more than 1.4 billion people.

The Primary Health Care Digitalization Framework Validation Workshop, held at the organization’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, brought together health ministers, technical experts, development partners, and representatives from global health organizations to shape a unified digital health blueprint for the continent.

Opening the meeting, Director General Jean Kaseya described the process as a historic responsibility that will help define the digital future of Africa’s health systems. According to Kaseya, the initiative forms part of the continent’s broader public health transformation agenda aimed at strengthening health security and self-reliance in national health systems.

“Digital transformation is not a luxury,” Kaseya said. “It is the critical enabler of the primary health care systems we need today to achieve universal health coverage across Africa.”

He noted that the continent aims to digitize at least 90 percent of public health entities under primary health care systems by 2035. The effort is expected to strengthen disease surveillance, improve service delivery, and enable governments to better manage health data through nationally owned digital platforms.

Kaseya emphasized that fragmented digital tools—often introduced through isolated donor-funded projects—have hindered efficiency across many African health systems. In several countries, multiple digital platforms operate simultaneously but fail to communicate with each other.

“A minister once told me he had 28 partners deploying different digital tools with no interoperability,” Kaseya said. “This framework will help Africa move away from fragmentation toward a unified and coordinated digital health architecture.”

Development partners welcomed the initiative as an important step toward stronger digital health governance across the continent. Speaking on behalf of UNICEF, Chief of Digital Health Sean Blaschke said the framework provides African governments with guidance to build sustainable and integrated digital health systems.

“For too long, digital health initiatives have developed in silos—one pilot here, another project there,” Blaschke said. “This framework creates the standards and guidance needed to ensure investments build coherent systems that support frontline health workers.”

Similarly, Adelaide Onyango of the World Health Organization emphasized the importance of scalable digital solutions to strengthen maternal and child health services, immunization programs, and disease prevention across Africa.

The workshop was officially opened by Ethiopia’s Minister of Health Mekdes Daba, who described digital innovation as a key driver of universal health coverage.

“When primary health care meets digital innovation, access becomes universal and care becomes smarter,” she said.

Participants are expected to review and refine the proposed framework before it is adopted by member states of the African Union and translated into national digital health strategies across the continent.