Hosted by Transform Health

Africa is currently the youngest continent. It is estimated that Africa’s population will grow to over 2.2 billion by 2050 (from around 1.2 billion in 2015). In order to satisfy the healthcare needs of this growing population and harness the demographic dividend, African governments, working with the private sector and civil society, will have to make use of digital technology and data to transform health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage.  Across the continent, young people are driving innovation in digital health and advocating for greater youth leadership and engagement in shaping health policies and services. Greater commitment and investments in young people’s engagement, capacity building and advocacy are essential to harness the potential of more African youth to drive equitable progress towards health and development goals.  This session will focus on the importance of leveraging the knowledge and dynamism of African youth to shape health policies and programmes in a digital, post-COVID world; highlighting the role of platforms like Transform Health and Young Experts: Tech 4 Health in supporting youth to influence the digital health agenda; and how to mobilise greater investment in youth and opportunities for them to shape digital transformation in health, so that countries across the continent can achieve UHC by 2030.