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On February 21, 2023, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) officially opened the co-creation workshop in Accra that launched the Ghana Country Innovation Platform, a partnership with CII, Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), AMP Health, and the USAID Ghana Mission to identify priority health challenges and fund innovations that could respond to these needs. Dr. Alberta Adjebeng Biritwum-Nyarko, Director of Ghana Health Service’s Policy, Planning, Monitoring, & Evaluation Division, served as the main facilitator of the workshop, which drew participants from multiple GHS divisions and regional offices, other government agencies, representatives from teaching hospitals and medical universities, innovators, and innovation hubs. CII Senior Innovation Advisor Rachel Wood helped organize the interactive workshop that drew on human-centered design principles to assess critical maternal and newborn health challenges in 6 regions in Ghana: Western, Northern, Upper West, Upper East, Savannah, and North East.
The workshop discussions recommended focusing the innovation call on health issues related to referrals between health facilities, transport of women and newborns in emergencies, improving skills of healthcare workers, and increasing availability of essential medicines and supplies for mothers and newborns. GCC will next launch a request for proposals for proof-of-concept innovations that address one or more of these challenges and provide catalytic funding to winning innovations to support their implementation in the priority regions in Ghana.
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Honored to serve as VinFuture Prize nominator |
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CII is honored to serve as a nominator for the VinFuture Prize, which focuses on catalyzing meaningful change in people’s everyday lives through tangible and highly scalable improvements. The VinFuture Prize pledges US$4.5 million annually to reward breakthrough scientific research and technological innovations, including special VinFuture Prizes that will highlight achievements by developing country-based innovators, female innovators, and outstanding achievements in emerging fields. Past awardees include Professors Quarraisha and Salim Abdool Karim for their work leading a landmark clinical trial in South Africa that provided the initial evidence that antiretrovirals (ARVs) prevented sexual transmission of HIV, thereby laying the foundation for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as an HIV prevention approach. Nominations for the 2023 prize close May 15.
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Promoting conversations in digital health at workshop hosted by WHO and GAVI |
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In collaboration with members of the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s Covid Response Team (CRT), CII Senior Digital Health Advisor Adele Waugaman participated in a WHO and GAVI-hosted three-day workshop in Geneva to discuss the integration of COVID-19 vaccine monitoring into routine systems.
The workshop bridged immunization and systems strengthening specialists, and mapped a variety of considerations from data indicators to digital systems interoperability that will be taken into account in identifying next steps.
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CII speaks at side event for the UN’s 67th Commission on the Status of Women
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CII Digital Health Advisor Amarynth Sichel was a panelist at a UN side event during the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women titled, “Gender Equity and Rights in the Prevention and Control of NCDs: the role of Digital Health.” Her remarks focused on USAID’s work in digital health, promoting women’s leadership, and primary healthcare. Keynotes were given by the first ladies of Liberia and Gambia, and panelists included Liberia’s Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection Williamette E. Saydee-Tarr, Head of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Dr Adriana Blanco Marquizo, and others. At the end of the panel, a Call to Action was released, urging multi-sectoral stakeholders to address the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in women and girls, leveraging digital solutions to help overcome gaps.
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Google officially launches Open Health Stack – the product of a multi-year partnership between Google and the World Health Organization, with input from USAID – which is a set of building blocks for software developers to draw upon to create innovative, standardized, secure healthcare apps.
CII congratulates our USAID/PSE Hub colleagues on the launch of the $50 million EDGE Fund, which provides entrepreneurial USAID teams with flexible, unearmarked resources for private-sector partnerships with the most out-sized development impact.
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Chioma is a Management Partner at AMP Health embedded within the Ghana Health Service (GHS) with support from CII, which was a founding partner and continues to serve on the Advisory Board for AMP Health. In her role, Chioma provides expertise in strategic planning, innovative thought partnership, and ensures the smooth implementation of the Ghana Country Innovation Platform.
In her free time, Chioma loves reading or watching nonfiction. She also enjoys spending time with her four-year-old and grandmother.
Read more about Chioma here.
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USAID's Center for Innovation and Impact (CII) takes strategic risks to incubate new ideas, put them into practice, and scale effective approaches for critical health issues. We apply our expertise in innovation, market-based solutions, and digital health to work in partnership and through institutional change.
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