LocationsThe People Powering Digital Health in Zambia
Connecting Care
December 8, 2025
Mapani and Malizhi are among the first cohort of national trainers of frontline ICT officers helping bring reliable power and digital connectivity to rural clinics, ensuring remote communities receive faster, more reliable healthcare.
Photos by: Vanessa Wematu Akibate/UNDP Zambia
Just over half of Zambia’s people rely on remote health care facilities across the country (World Bank Group, 2024). Residents of these communities often face long distances to clinics, power outages that interrupt care, medicine stock-outs that delay treatment, and the widening digital divide that leaves health workers without the tools and specialist advice they need.
These obstacles affect mothers seeking safe delivery, children needing urgent attention, and patients managing chronic conditions. Yet, amid these realities, people are learning and adapting, using new technologies to bridge these gaps and leapfrog these communities into the future of healthcare. In this way, digital health in Zambia is not built purely on technology – it is powered by people. People who quietly ensure that no community is left behind.
Two of those people are Mapani Shyne an ICT Officer with the Provincial Administration Office in Copperbelt Province and Malizhi Chisupa an ICT Officer with the Provincial Administration Office in Muchinga Province. They work in some of the most remote parts of their provinces, where power cuts and poor network connectivity can prevent critical, life-saving care.
“Remote clinics face power outages, poor network, staff shortages, long distances for referrals, and limited equipment”, Mapani shared. “There was a day we lost power and couldn’t access SmartCare; we treated a child without full medical history, causing delays and risk.”
They have also witnessed how connectivity and solar energy can transform communities, making the work of frontline teams more efficient and more accessible. Reflecting on how a simple solar-powered satellite dish can enhance the quality of care and service delivery in communities, Malizhi explained:
“Power outages don’t even bother the clinics there. They can still do the work and make the necessary calls… I’ve seen clinics becoming more stable. Systems stay online, reports are submitted on time, and communication with District Health Management Team is smoother. Patients now move faster because data is always available.”
For Malizhi, digital health is already changing lives: clinics stay connected through outages, data is always available, and patients move through the system more quickly. With rising innovation and better infrastructure, he believes rural communities will soon receive the services they deserve.
From treating children without access to their medical history to navigating outages that halt clinic services, Mapani knows the realities rural health workers face. She is committed to building the digital systems that will make healthcare faster, safer, and more dependable for all.
Those “necessary calls” can mean phoning an ambulance, consulting a specialist at the district hospital, or placing an urgent order for medicines. That is why reliable energy and digital connectivity are not luxuries but critical lifelines that enhance the Government's ability to deliver quality healthcare service to every Zambian.
For vulnerable groups, the stakes are even higher. As Mapani puts it, “Mothers and children suffer most because their services need timely records. When systems are down, follow-ups become difficult. People with disabilities also struggle because delays hit them harder.”
As part of the Smart Health Systems (SHS) project, health facilities across the country are receiving this support through the implementation of solar systems to provide reliable power, satellite connectivity systems to streamline communication, and capacity building activities to equip frontline workers with the skills to keep these interventions running and sustainable. The project is being implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Smart Zambia Institute, with generous support from the Global Fund that aims to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
The impact is tangible: clinics that no longer have to stop work during power outages, health workers who can consult, report, and coordinate without interruption, and patients, more particularly, vulnerable groups, can receive care with greater confidence.
Recently, both Mapani and Malizhi are part of the first cohort of SHS’s national Training of Trainers led by the Smart Zambia Institute alongside ICT officers from all 10 provinces. They learned how to install, maintain and monitor connectivity systems for high-speed internet, IoT sensors and other digital tools that support data-driven decision-making in health facilities.
They have now returned to their provinces to build the capacity of a new generation of technicians, district teams and health workers – making the difference between stock-outs and timely deliveries of medicines, paper-based systems and real-time digital reporting, and a clinic in the dark and a clinic that stays connected and ready to deliver life-saving care.
This approach fosters project sustainability precisely because when those closest to the challenges carry both the skills and the ownership, these vital systems keep running. The hands-on training provided to provincial staff helps ensure that this expertise is honed at the grassroots level, fostering long-term resilience and continuity.
“I hope it brings more confidence among staff, better use of digital tools, and stronger coordination between facilities and the district. It will help us move from manual work to faster digital processes,”Malizhi shared.
In this way, digital transformation becomes real through the actions and knowledge of the people who install, maintain, and use these tools every day.
The Smart Health Systems project is designed to ensure that no health facility is too remote to benefit from modern, resilient healthcare infrastructure. By integrating renewable energy and digital connectivity, the initiative strengthens health systems in rural and peri-urban areas, where vulnerability is often highest and services are hardest to sustain.
By focusing on both systems and people, the project is building a health system that is more resilient, connected and inclusive.
“I’m motivated by the desire to build capacity and help health workers deliver better services across the province.” Mapani adds, explaining that “Rising digital innovation, committed health workers, and better infrastructure give me confidence in the future.”
Stories of trainers like Mapani and Malizhi illustrate what this vision looks like in practice: health facilities that stay online when the grid fails, health workers who can call, consult and coordinate in real time, and communities that can increasingly trust that care will be there when they need it. Because in the end, a connected clinic is a promise of dignity and opportunity.
“I see hope because the country is investing in digital health, solar power, and better connectivity”, says Malizhi. “With these improvements, even rural areas will get better services and health workers will work with less pressure.”
This is the future that Smart Health Systems is helping to build - one clinic, one connection, and one dedicated health worker at a time.
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