Gross explained, “All too often, we see that people are layering on complication to a health care worker or district manager job, rather than helping them do their job simpler, better. We have learned that if we want to see this impact, we need to ground all tech in their needs. That has to be our ethos.”
As a senior leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, his work through the Data Use Partnership (DUP) with PATH and the government of Tanzania focuses on providing resources in a way that reflect and respond to national priorities under the guidance of the government leadership to achieve digital and data transformation. The DUP approach sought input from the government on how they would design the investment to support their own capacity and systems, putting them in the driver’s seat in a more consultative process.
Although the Gates Foundation has partnered with several countries to learn lessons on how to achieve digital transformation of health outcomes, Tanzania was well positioned to make a significant impact by aligning its digital health initiatives to strengthen health programs. Over the years, Tanzania has benefited from several donor investments. However, this often comes with a lot of fragmentation, creating incompatible and parallel systems that impede harmonization.
“If done well,” Gross said, “the investment could bolster capacity for data use for other investments in HIV, maternal health, family planning, and neglected tropical diseases.”
Marty Gross, Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been a champion of the Data Use Partnership model and the importance of funding models that support improved health data use.
“All too often, we see that people are layering on complication to a health care worker or district manager job, rather than helping them do their job simpler, better...we need to ground all tech in their needs. That has to be our ethos.”— Marty Gross, Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Fortunately, Tanzania has seen several digital health successes since the inception of DUP. What Marty, the DUP team, and the government always point to is the work in articulating a national digital health strategy and investment roadmap—a first-of-its-kind achievement in the digital health field, in part because of its broad, system-wide approach.
“While other countries have created one, they aren’t put into action or reducing fragmentation,” Marty explained. “Tanzania took the next step to make the roadmap actionable and investable.”
Marty has had the opportunity to travel to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, several times to meet with the DUP team and the Tanzania government. But one visit stands out in particular—when Bill Gates visited along with him.
“Visiting Tanzania to see the work happening on the ground is always illuminating. The team was launching their Digital Health Investment Roadmap, and Bill was the keynote speaker and cut the ribbon to signal the fruitful collaboration. It was a fantastic speech, and the crowd was excited and proud of the Tanzania leadership to reorient their data systems and become a regional leader,” said Marty.
While DUP has developed and improved several systems within the Tanzania digital health ecosystem, the innovation at the core of the project stands out most to Marty. To him, a true innovation is in the sociopolitical architecture that is put into place. This work to enable the government mechanism to effectively coordinate across agencies and data systems is exciting. To support this work, the Centre for Digital Health was established within the government but functions separately to manage and coordinate the flow of investments. This will ensure that initiatives comply and adhere to national structures and policies. DUP and the government of Tanzania are working closely to create bylaws and mandates.
“My hope,” Marty said, “is that this work becomes an integral component of how the Tanzania government works—that these efforts really stand up the structure and all other investments, so donors see these structures as the most effective way to support these countries.”
Throughout his journey over the last five years on DUP, Marty has learned that his role requires flexibility and adaptation with resources based on what is learned and shifting dynamics in Tanzania. As a digital health champion, he helps elevate these lessons from Tanzania to other countries. He believes the DUP model can be replicated in other countries if leaders and implementers are adequately prepared and if stakeholder engagement is robust. If communities and countries have the right data, in the right hands, to make informed health decisions, it will lead to better outcomes and healthier populations around the world.
