30th June, 2021(Mombasa, Kenya): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) this morning closed ceremony for resource mobilization workshop for IGAD Health Digitalization Initiative held in Mombasa, Kenya from 28th to 30th June 2021.
This 3-days workshop reviewed success stories and major achievement made by IGAD Regional Action through Data (RAD) in last 5 years as well as outlined focus areas for the coming 5-years. In this regard, the next five years the programme plans to:
- Expand and upscale the journey solution to include other communicable diseases and cover 50 sites by June 2022
- Establish a regional disease surveillance platform to monitor disease outbreaks.
- Establish a regional (IGAD) data Warehouse
- Establish and equip a regional Health Information unit
- Set up a regional health policy implementation task team
In attendance was the Executive secretary and during his closing remarks, H. E IGAD Executive Secretary, Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu PhD underlined linkages between reliable data sharing and regional integration. He pointed out that data sharing through digitalization process is a major vehicle for regional integration. The Executive Secretary stated that RAD initiative is a catalyst in achieving sustainable digitalization for regional health care and data sharing.
Finally, H.E quoted a clear strategy to implement data sharing and protection policy for the member states under the leadership of IGAD. This policy will help Member state governments to adequately
prepare for disease surveillance and response timely for future pandemics and endemics in the region.
