Khadijah Aliyu -Nigeria
Speak Up Africa’s Partnership Director, Sophietou Diop, presented the A8 Initiative (Africa Women in Digital Health) at the Africa Health Tech Summit.
The initiative aims to empower women in digital health and promote gender equality.
Launched in 2022 under Africa CDC’s leadership, A8 focuses on capacity building, creating a favorable environment, and investment.
The summit’s panel discussion brought together diverse stakeholders to share experiences and expertise, highlighting women’s representation in digital health.
The session sub-themed “Advancing Digital Health Equity in Africa: Gender Roles and Innovation was facilitated by Ms Sophietou Diop.
“It was a very good opportunity for us because it allowed us to present where we are because it must be said that A 8 was launched during the African Conference on Public Health in 2022”
“And so three years later, the idea today was to present A 8 and say this is what we had to do, this is the call to action that we have towards all these partners who are there, including young innovators, the private sector, media, and all relevant stakeholders who will continue to work together”
These were moments rich in sharing of experiences and especially in information for this edition, which saw luminaries from different fields, but also representatives of governments and civil society committed to working collaboratively for a connected Africa in order to enable him to face his challenges, especially health-related.
The panel of discussions brought together people with diverse experiences such as government representatives, civil society organizations to work together and contribute their expertise.
They were able to put forward what they had to do to ensure that women are still sufficiently represented.
Sophietou Diop highlighted that,
“So, today this type of panel allows us to engage people, it allows us to engage organizations and it also allows us to highlight all the people with whom we work”
The partnership director hinted that,
“our A8 objective is to be able to position women who today work in digital health. And today through this panel, we were able to put them forward, rejoiced the Partnership Manager of Speak Up Africa, one of whose main missions is focused on the advancement of women”
Note that the A 8 Initiative (Africa Women Digital Health), which translates into French as African women for digital health, was created in 2022 under the leadership of Africa CDC to ensure that women are involved when talking about digital health issues.
This initiative has three areas of intervention: capacity building, creation of a favorable environment and investment.