Putting health facilities on the map: a renewed call to create geolocated, comprehensive, updated, openly licensed dataset of health facilities in sub-Saharan African countries
A harmonized HFDB for all SSA countries will facilitate efficient healthcare planning and service provision. A continental, cross-border effort will further support planning during natural disasters, conflicts, and migration. This is only achievable if there is a regional commitment from countries and health system stakeholders to open data sharing. This SSA-wide HFDB should be a government-led initiative with contributions from all stakeholders, ensuring no one is left behind in the pursuit of improved health service provision and universal health coverage.
Authors
- John Kapoi Kipterer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8732-8874)
- Peter M. Macharia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3410-1881)
- Nicolas Ray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4696-5313)
- Robert W. Snow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3725-6088)
- Moses M. Musau
- Aline Semaan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-1206)
- Mark Herringer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0605-8348)
- Emelda A. Okiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9543-8360)
- Lenka Beňová (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8595-365X)
Institutions
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Kenya Medical Research Institute (KE)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (NL)
- World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (CG)
- Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Medicine
- Published
- 2025-04-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-025-04023-z
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Data-Driven Disease Surveillance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.13
Funders
- Wellcome Trust