Digital Innovations in Health Financing: Experiences from sub-Saharan Africa

Scientific Workshop at the European Public Health Conference

Digital health financing panel discussion

Location: European Public Health Conference, hub27, Beta 6
Time: Friday, 11 November, 04:40 PM - 05:40 PM CET
Organizers: The DigitalUHC consortium with funding from GLOHRA

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is key for reaching Sustainable Development Goal 3. Digital technologies for health financing (DTHF) may help countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) make progress towards achieving UHC. DTHF are increasingly used to strengthen health financing systems across their three key functions, (1) raising revenues, (2) pooling resources, and (3) purchasing services. The goal of this session is to provide an overview of the potential role of DTHF, discuss country case-studies of DTHF, explore possible risks and challenges, and outline a future research agenda. Together with the participants, the organizers intend to discuss policy options to enable maximising the benefits, while mitigating the risks and challenges. The session will (1) identify potential benefits as well as risks and challenges of DTHF; (2) highlight the importance of politics and policies for reaping the benefits and minimizing their risks; and (3) establish the building blocks of a future research agenda on digital health financing technologies.

Chairs: 
PD Dr. Wilm Quentin, Technische Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr. Manuela Di Allegri, University of Heidelberg

Speakers:
Dr. Inke Mathauer, WHO, Geneva
Dr. Eric Nsiah-Boateng, Ministry of Health, Ghana
Dr. Daniel Opoku, TU Berlin & Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Dr. Diana Ratsiambakaina, Ministry of Health, Madagascar
Dr. Abdhalah Ziraba, African Population and Health Research Center, Kenya

View the EPH program