By Nurfilzah Rohaidi

As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, digital tools have proven to be essential elements of the response – in tracing and managing cases, mitigating the virus’ spread, and keeping communities informed. These solutions also play a key role in COVID-19 recovery for many countries.

Singapore, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are five countries in the spotlight for developing national digital approaches to tackle the spread of the virus. Can these insights help make an impact in the developing world?

In April, the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development in Singapore and the Nordic Innovation House Singapore partnered on a webinar to explore the possibilities of digital approaches to fight COVID-19.

Tech for the developing world

Not only are Nordic countries and Singapore hugely technologically advanced, but they are also forerunners in sustainability. The impact of COVID-19 on the developing world, however, poses even more threat to the current fragile healthcare systems, food supply chains, and the economy at large.

Digital tools can bring positive impact, especially in the immediate response and coordination of governments and societies all across the world, not just in affluent, high-tech countries. Simple, open-source, low-cost devices and digital tools could make all the difference to how these countries respond and recover from the crisis.

There are significant learnings from digitally advanced countries on using tech to reduce human-to-human transmissions, conduct community tracing, follow up on patients, and counter fake news. In a panel discussion moderated by Sami Jääskeläinen, Community Director of the Nordic Innovation House Singapore, country government experts shared their insights, and nine Nordic- and Singapore-based companies showcased their tech solutions for COVID-19.

In Singapore, the in-house engineering capability of the government has been a boon for virus response, which should be a sign to all governments to boost this capacity internally. Additionally, many of the country panel speakers highlighted fostering collaboration between all relevant teams as the most important element – in other words, gathering  people from each unit (health, technology, contact tracing, etc.), together in one (virtual!) room.

“Something we have learned over the last couple of years is that you really need to integrate the digital, the data aspects, with the business aspects. And this is not a technologist thing. You cannot just have an IT department that pushes for tech - it needs to be a leadership emphasis.”

– Tan Chee Hau, Director, Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, Singapore

Support comes from the top in Singapore, helping to accelerate the development of a digital-led pandemic response. For instance, Singapore’s TraceTogether bluetooth-enabled contact tracing app has garnered international attention in recent weeks and inspired the development of similar tools in other countries.

The proliferation of telemedicine

We can also draw insights from Norway’s approach, where the focus is on building up digital home care capabilities through a national eHealth strategy. Faced with a lack of nursing homes, in 2017, the country pushed to build infrastructure in municipalities to support home-based care. When the pandemic hit, this existing infrastructure helped the healthcare system to pivot towards telehealth quickly.

There are long-term implications as well: the post-pandemic healthcare landscape will be increasingly decentralised, where more and more patients are treated in their homes or community facilities. This can be a takeaway for developing countries that are struggling with limited access to healthcare, especially for rural populations.

“The adaptation of GP video consultations rose from 10% to 90% in a matter of weeks. As long as you have telephone access or broadband, then there are huge possibilities, whether you're an emerging country or more mature.”

- Arild Kristensen, CEO, Norwegian Smart Care Cluster

In times of crisis, when every second counts, the benefits of digital infrastructure and tools cannot be understated – coupled with the right data privacy protections, and with a focus on digital inclusion. Today, there are fewer barriers to the developing world deploying digital and tech tools than ever before.

Interested to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities out there? Have a look at the UNDP Global Centre Singapore’s Digital Toolkit of open-source technology to fight COVID-19. And as part of our COVID-19 Detect and Protect challenge, we are also working with some of the largest names in tech to crowdsource open-source innovations globally and implement these technologies for highly-affected countries.

 

 

Chee Hau has been Director, Planning & Prioritisation in the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office since the Office was established in May 2017. Chee Hau joined the Singapore public service in 2007 and has served stints at Ministry of Manpower, Minister of Defence, People’s Association, Sport Singapore and the Ministry of Communications and Information. He studied Computer Science at Stanford University and graduated with Bachelors and Masters degrees in 2005. He also spent a year as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2016.

 

 

Arild is director for Health in Validé,  holds several board positions, and is the CEO for the Norwegian Smart Care Cluster – a member in the Norwegian Innovation Clusters program. Arild holds a degree in economics and business administration from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He has extensive experience as a manager, salesman, entrepreneur, and consultant in companies such as IBM, Datus (iSolutions), Metier and Eskaler.