While it may not have made waves in international news, there is a new development in digital health that is very exciting for us at Bluesquare: The Digital Investment Principles.

If you have not heard of them yet, they are 10 guidelines that donors can endorse to demonstrate their commitment to working together towards improved collaboration in digital health. Created by leading players – the World Bank, the European Union, USAID, Unicef, WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – these 25 key donors and foundations are making their commitment known.

Principles 1-5 focus on collaboration, sustainable alignment in investments and a commitment for donors to make these investments a priority. The last five provide guidance on where the investments should go: creation and evolution, country capacity and peer-learning to call a few out.

At their center is an urgent call. One that we at Bluesquare have championed for the last 5 years – and that is alignment of investments to the national digital health strategies already in place in each country.

We have worked with Ministries of Health in over 25 countries. Our work has focused on integrated health information systems. Health information systems that support decision making from existing data while finding the most cost-effective ways of collecting additional data. We have seen and experienced the challenges to accomplishing this first hand.

These principles could not come at a better time. While they are simple in nature, they demonstrate how far we have come in the last few years for a meaningful dialogue on the importance of coordinated efforts in digital health in developing countries.

We are eager to continue to be part of the important work in this space.