Reported by Simon yusuph,| Journalist at wengglobal
Across Africa and the wider global community, governments are accelerating investments in digital health technologies to improve healthcare delivery, expand access to medical services, and strengthen health systems. From telemedicine platforms and electronic medical records to artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics and mobile health applications, digital innovation is increasingly viewed as a cornerstone of modern healthcare.
Yet beneath this rapid transformation lies a fundamental question that policymakers, technology developers, and healthcare providers cannot afford to ignore: Who are these digital health solutions truly designed for?
Health experts and gender advocates argue that many digital health initiatives fail to adequately consider the realities faced by women—particularly those living in rural communities, low-income households, conflict-affected regions, and other underserved populations. Without intentional efforts to make digital healthcare inclusive, they warn, technology risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than eliminating them.
For Africa, where women play central roles in families, agriculture, entrepreneurship, and community development while often facing significant barriers to healthcare access, designing equitable digital health systems is emerging as both a public health necessity and a development priority.
Digital Health Is Transforming Healthcare Worldwide
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital health solutions across the globe. Governments and healthcare providers increasingly turned to virtual consultations, mobile applications, digital prescriptions, remote monitoring technologies, and online health information systems to maintain essential services during lockdowns.
Since then, investments have continued to grow.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), digital health has the potential to strengthen health systems, improve disease surveillance, expand access to quality healthcare, and support universal health coverage when implemented responsibly and equitably.
Many African countries have also embraced digital innovation. Nations including Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt have launched digital health strategies aimed at improving healthcare delivery through electronic records, mobile health platforms, and telemedicine services.
However, experts emphasize that technological advancement alone does not guarantee equitable healthcare outcomes.
Women Continue to Face Unique Healthcare Barriers
Across many regions, women experience healthcare differently from men due to biological, economic, cultural, and social factors.
Maternal health, reproductive healthcare, menstrual health management, family planning, cervical and breast cancer screening, gender-based violence services, and mental health support all require healthcare systems that respond to women’s specific needs.
Yet many women continue to encounter barriers such as limited financial resources, long travel distances to health facilities, inadequate internet connectivity, lower levels of digital literacy, and unequal access to smartphones or computers.
According to the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), women in many low- and middle-income countries are less likely than men to own internet-enabled devices or have regular access to digital services. This digital gender gap can significantly reduce the effectiveness of online healthcare initiatives if inclusion is not prioritized.
The Digital Divide Remains a Major Challenge
Although mobile phone ownership has expanded rapidly across Africa, access remains uneven.
Women in rural communities frequently rely on shared mobile devices, intermittent internet connectivity, or basic feature phones that cannot support sophisticated healthcare applications.
Electricity shortages, affordability challenges, language barriers, disability accessibility issues, and limited digital skills further restrict access to digital health services.
For women living with disabilities, refugees, internally displaced persons, and older adults, these obstacles are often even greater.
Public health specialists argue that digital health strategies must therefore be designed around the lived realities of intended users rather than assumptions about universal internet access or digital literacy.
Why Inclusive Design Matters
Inclusive digital health means involving women in every stage of technology development—from research and planning to testing, implementation, and evaluation.
Experts recommend that governments and developers engage women from diverse backgrounds to understand their healthcare priorities, cultural contexts, language preferences, literacy levels, privacy concerns, and accessibility needs.
Applications should be simple to navigate, available in local languages, compatible with low-cost devices, and capable of functioning in areas with limited internet connectivity.
Privacy is equally important.
Women seeking reproductive healthcare, maternal services, HIV treatment, or support after gender-based violence often require confidential and secure digital platforms. Without strong protections for personal data, some women may avoid using digital health services altogether.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly emphasized that digital health technologies should be designed around people—not technology itself—and should uphold principles of equity, accessibility, safety, and privacy.
Opportunities for Africa
Africa’s growing digital economy presents significant opportunities to reshape healthcare delivery.
The continent has witnessed rapid expansion in mobile money services, digital identification systems, electronic health records, and community health worker platforms.
Governments are increasingly partnering with technology companies, universities, international development organizations, and civil society groups to improve healthcare access through innovation.
Digital maternal health programmes are helping pregnant women receive appointment reminders, vaccination schedules, nutrition advice, and emergency referral information through SMS and mobile applications.
Telemedicine services are connecting patients in remote communities with specialists located hundreds of kilometres away, reducing travel costs and improving access to care.
Artificial intelligence is also being explored to support disease diagnosis, medical imaging, and health system planning.
However, experts caution that these innovations must remain accessible to vulnerable populations rather than becoming services primarily used by urban, wealthier communities.
Investing in Women Means Investing in Health Systems
Research consistently shows that improving women’s access to healthcare produces benefits that extend beyond individual patients.
Healthier women contribute to stronger families, healthier children, improved educational outcomes, increased workforce participation, and broader economic growth.
Designing digital health systems that genuinely meet women’s needs therefore represents not only a gender equity issue but also a strategic investment in national development.
For African governments pursuing universal health coverage under the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring that digital health innovations reach marginalized women could significantly improve healthcare outcomes while reducing longstanding inequalities.
A Human-Centred Future for Digital Healthcare
Technology continues to reshape healthcare at an unprecedented pace, but innovation alone cannot solve structural inequalities.
Successful digital health systems must prioritize affordability, accessibility, cultural sensitivity, user privacy, and inclusive design.
Governments, technology companies, healthcare professionals, researchers, and community organizations all have critical roles to play in ensuring that digital transformation leaves no woman behind.
As Africa’s digital health landscape continues to evolve, policymakers face an important choice: develop technologies that primarily serve those already connected or create systems intentionally designed to reach women who need healthcare the most.
The future of digital health will not be measured solely by the sophistication of technology, but by its ability to improve lives equitably. Ensuring that women—particularly those in underserved communities—are central to digital health planning is essential for building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable healthcare systems across Africa and beyond.
Sources:
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- United Nations (UN)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- World Bank
- The Lancet Digital Health
- UNICEF
