Through this agreement, WHO and I-DAIR will work together to harness the digital revolution towards urgent health challenges, while emphasizing equity and greater participation from Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) in the research and development and governance of the digital health and AI space, with a particular focus on the inclusion of young researchers and entrepreneurs. 

The partnership will focus on achieving these common goals through a multi-faceted approach focusing on promoting scientific cross-domain/cross-border collaboration and implementing innovative digital health long-term solutions, consistent with WHO recommendations and interoperability standards.

The joint activities include inter alia the promotion and the development of new norms and guidelines for the governance of health data as a public good, the building of evidence cases for thoughtful investments in digital health globally, and the strengthening of stakeholders’ capacities - for instance via the common elaboration of the WHO digital health competency framework.

The MoU was signed by WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, I-DAIR’s CEO and Project Director Dr Amandeep Gill, as well as by Dr Marie-Laure Salles, Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute, I-DAIR’s host institution since its incubation in 2019.

Founded in 1948, WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners and people to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health. 

I-DAIR is a multi-stakeholder platform for enabling global research collaborations on digital health and for convening stakeholders to develop global public goods aimed at solving issues around the inclusive, equitable, and responsible deployment of data and AI for health.