LocationsHealth & Social Inclusion | Ghana
Harnessing AI to Improve Health Outcomes in Ghana While Addressing Its Potential Risks Undermining Human Security
Project Summary
Ghana's health system faces a convergence of urgent challenges a dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, rising cyber threats to its rapidly digitising health infrastructure, growing climate-sensitive disease outbreaks, and deep inequities in access to health services, particularly in rural and northern regions. At the same time, Ghana is accelerating its digital transformation, with AI emerging as a powerful tool for leapfrogging development barriers. However, without strong governance frameworks, robust data privacy systems, and inclusive digital literacy, AI risks deepening existing inequalities rather than addressing them. This joint UNDP–WHO programme, funded by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS), harnesses AI to strengthen Ghana's health outcomes while mitigating the risks AI poses to human security. Guided by a human security approach that places protection, empowerment, and equity at its core, the programme runs from March 2026 to February 2027 with a total budget of $980,000, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, University of Ghana, SORA Technology, and Life is Tech!
Objectives
The programme's overarching goal is to advance Ghana's digital health transformation by harnessing AI to build stronger institutions, safeguard patient data, promote equity, and enhance resilience against climate-sensitive diseases. It pursues five interconnected outcomes: strengthening institutional and human resource capacity for evidence-based AI governance; building robust data privacy and security frameworks for medical records and health data; improving digital health literacy and rights awareness among healthcare workers and vulnerable populations; deploying AI-powered early warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases integrated with Ghana's national health information system; and strengthening private sector engagement for responsible, human-centred AI investment in health.
Gender Empowerment
The programme deliberately prioritises women in its beneficiary reach, with 9,000 of the 15,000 healthcare workers targeted for digital health literacy and AI training being women. Vulnerable groups including women, children, and residents of climate-sensitive regions are specifically prioritised in digital rights awareness campaigns, and gender disaggregation is embedded throughout the programme's indicators and implementation approach.
A Human Security Approach to AI and Digital Health
The programme addresses interconnected challenges across health, environment, equity, and governance through five outcomes from AI governance frameworks and data privacy systems, to digital literacy for 15,000 healthcare workers, AI-powered early warning systems for malaria, cholera, and meningitis, and a national roadmap for private sector investment in responsible AI. By jointly implemented by UNDP and WHO, and embedding the human security approach across every outcome, the programme ensures that Ghana's digital health transformation is inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable and that no one is left behind.
Expected Results
- Enhanced institutional and human resource capacity to generate and use evidence on AI for policy, planning, and investment — including a revised Ghana Health Service Digital Health Strategy embedding the human security approach.
- Strengthened data privacy and security frameworks for medical records and health data, including a national medical records and health data policy and a data security audit of Ghana's national health information systems.
- Digital health literacy and AI training delivered to 15,000 healthcare workers across 75 districts in 6 regions, alongside community dialogues reaching 1,500 community members.
- AI-based early warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases — including malaria, cholera, and meningitis — developed and piloted, integrated with Ghana's DHIS2 platform and supported by drone-based malaria control in selected high-endemicity districts.
- A national multi-stakeholder forum convened and a strategic roadmap developed to guide private sector investment in responsible, human-centred AI solutions for health in Ghana.
