Investing in Digital Health

Digital health funding is a catalytic investment to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage. However, current investments are falling short to deliver the long-term and sustainable changes needed to build effective, equitable, stronger, and more resilient health systems and improved health access and outcomes.

To optimise the opportunity of digital health to accelerate UHC progress, there is a need for increased, more effective and accountable digital health investment. This funding must be part of wider health system investment, planning, and budgeting to ensure it reinforces the UHC agenda.

Challenges in the current
funding landscape

CHALLENGES

Gaps in domestic and external funding for digital health, particularly for low and lower-middle income countries

Uncoordinated, misaligned, and poorly prioritised investment

Lack of publicly available information on current funding levels due to digital health investment not being measured or tracked routinely or in a standard way

BARRIERS TO MOBILISING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR DIGITAL HEALTH

Reduced effectiveness in coordination efforts

Inability to align efforts with country priorities and needs

Difficulty ensuring funding prioritises the needs of end-users and under-served populations

Challenges in directing funding to the right areas for an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable digital health transformation

What we're calling for

Increase domestic and external investment, moving beyond short term, fragmented investments, towards more transformative, sustainable, long-term financing.

Coordinate investment to ensure scarce funding is not fragmented or duplicative.

Align investment to national priorities and the needs of end users and under-served populations.

Prioritise investment towards a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable digital health transformation, including investing in the enablers and systems change, rather than pilot projects and vertical priorities.

Improve tracking and transparency of investment (routinely and in a standard way), to improve coordination, prioritisation and accountability of investment.

What we're doing

We are advocating and making the case for investment

Furthering analysis and strengthening the case for investment, including through our report, ‘Closing the digital divide: More and better funding for the digital transformation of health’, which sets out a conceptual framework to guide investment and action to support equitable, inclusive, and sustainable digital health transformation.
Engaging in global, regional and national meetings and processes to ensure digital health investment is prioritised on political agendas, to build political will and action, and to further our calls and work.
Advocating with and supporting national and sub-national  governments to increase and better prioritise resources for digital health, including engaging in budget processes and supporting the development of costed Digital Health Transformation Roadmaps.

We are developing tools and resources to improve investment

A Digital Health Investment Checklist to guide better investment in digital health transformation. It sets out strategic considerations (part A) and priority investment areas (part B) to consider when designing and making investment decisions, to help ensure investments are equitable, sustainable, and support the goal of universal health coverage.
Co-developing a Digital Health Investment Taxonomy to help establish a common language and framework to standardise what and how digital health investment areas are defined and tracked, to support better transparency and accountability of investment.

We are convening stakeholders

Coordinating the Investing Smarter in Digital Health Transformation working group to support implementation of the recommendations in our Closing the Digital Divide report, and drive coordinated action on digital health.
Convening meetings and events to build political will for improved investment, consult stakeholders, forge collaboration, and further concrete action.
Facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations to ensure that the perspectives of different groups were reflected in the development of the Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) and its resource portal (working closely with the GIDH and Indian presidency of the G20), as well as the development of tools and resources.