The Health Tech Platform empowers African institutions to deliver on the potential of emerging health technologies to transform health in Africa. The Platform’s advocacy work aims to:
- Increase policymakers’ understanding, commitment and action to facilitate the development and use of emerging tools and technologies to tackle health challenges in Africa;
- Increase the voices and engagement of African scientists and ethicists, media, and CSOs in discourses to promote development and use of these technologies in Africa.
The Platform organises policy dialogues and workshops, develops advocacy products, and builds the capacity of African institutions on advocacy and communications.
Policy Dialogues and Workshops
The Health Tech Platform convenes policy dialogues with African and global players on issues surrounding the development, testing and deployment of targeted emerging health technologies in Africa. The issues covered in these forums include policy and regulatory frameworks and capacity for the development, testing and use of emerging health technologies. These dialogues also serve to promote uptake of evidence-based research and to strengthen advocacy capacity of African institutions.
Building Capacity for Advocacy and Communication
The Health Tech Platform works to strengthen the advocacy capacity of African institutions in promoting discourses and actions on the development and use of emerging technologies for tackling health challenges in Africa. This ensures that African institutions can spearhead effective advocacy that get governments to take actions towards facilitating the development of these technologies.
Champion Building
The Health Tech Platform engages with national and regional platforms and networks of scientists, ethicists and innovators to identify champions for emerging health technologies. The Platform nurtures and facilitates the champions to conduct advocacy at country, regional and global levels, to ensure that the technology addresses the needs, interests, contexts and concerns of Africans, particularly women and youth. The champions also work to increase the interest of key stakeholders and the public in the development of emerging health technologies.
Working with the Media
The Health Tech Platform engages national and regional media through journalist networks, as well as with individual science/health journalists, to equip them with skills and resources to undertake balanced, evidence-based and objective reporting on emerging health technologies.
Advocacy Products
We synthesize and translate evidence on emerging health technologies and package them into usable advocacy products.
Our advocacy products include briefs, infographics, videos, media toolkits, photo-stories, podcasts, blogs, newsletters, and webinar series. Browse our advocacy products.
Interactive and Dynamic Website
The Health Tech Platform website is a dynamic platform for showcasing emerging health tools and technologies in Africa, and a repository/portal for the evidence products, as well as other important documents related to the target emerging health technologies. These include government policies or regulatory frameworks, and emerging evidence on these technologies.
Social Media Campaigns
The Health Tech Platform uses social media to facilitate engagement and discussions with national, regional and global audiences. We work with experts and champions on emerging health technologies (EHTs), and social media influencers to expand conversations and debates on the role of EHTs in addressing health challenges and propelling Africa’s development agenda.