FAQs

DICE, or the Digital Health Centre of Excellence is a multi-agency consortium co-led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and was launched on April 29th, 2021. It is co-hosted by a UNICEF-WHO virtual secretariat that will be managing day-to-day activities and coordination with consortium members and other technical partners such as CHAI and Digital Square.

Many countries do not have fully functioning digital systems or solutions required to address health and information systems priorities. Through DICE, countries can solicit technical assistance for the sustainable and scalable deployment of carefully chosen mature digital health solutions for planning distribution of commodities and vaccines, tracking patients and supplies, surveillance and case detection, monitoring coverage of services, training health workers, and communicating with the general population to generate demand and reduce misinformation.

DICE is a consortium of partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), GIZ, the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the European Commission, The Global Fund, The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Gavi Alliance, USAID, and the World Bank. DICE is currently funded by donations from Gavi, GIZ, USAID, Rockefeller Foundation and the BMGF.

DICE will provide support through existing regional and country structures, including governments, the UN, DICE Consortium Partners and Technical Working Groups. DICE also works closely with Digital Square, whose mission is to connect health leaders with the resources they need for digital transformation. Through our collective partnership, we aim to not only support immediate country needs, but to also help country leaders build stronger, more sustainable digital systems, which will improve health outcomes.

DICE will provide coordinated technical assistance to national governments and partners on digital health solutions that address health priorities. DICE aims to enable countries to achieve more equitable coverage of quality health services, including vaccines, maternal and child health services, and nutrition interventions through increased use of data and evidence.

DICE's mission is to collaborate for more resilient and equitable health systems using information and technology. DICE is dedicated to delivering agile support to countries to build sustainable, scalable and secure digital solutions that address national health priorities.

DICE does not provide direct funding but can help coordinate between donors and development partners at the Regional and Global level. DICE will also align with donor agencies and support Governments to identify and apply for funding for deployments using costed investment cases (e.g. via the Global Fund C19RM or other in-country resources).

DICE can assist countries with the following activities: Review of concept notes, TORs, business requirements, and proposals; Guidance and support to implement assessment tools; Advise on existing digital global goods, including existing evidence, costs, and plans to scale/institutionalize; Provide recommendations/support in contracting technical partners; Support capacity building, training, and knowledge exchange

Requests for technical assistance should come from or be endorsed by a Government institution. Please fill the form that can be found here. The form asks for details of health system processes that need to be addressed, presence of a digital health strategy, in-country stakeholders, etc. Alternatively, you may complete the following information and email to: contact@digitalhealthcoe.org

After a request has been received, it will be reviewed internally by a working group that includes members from UNICEF, WHO and our partners. Depending on the type of request, DICE may either provide direct technical assistance or recommend consultants and vendors who can support the request. Please expect to hear back from us via email.

DICE is creating a roster of consultants, volunteers and partner agencies to respond to country requests. If you would like to get involved or support in other ways, please email to: contact@digitalhealthcoe.org detailing the services you are able to offer.

Resources can be found on this page, which includes a Knowledge Base, Case Studies and a Blog, all being regularly updated. In the Knowledge Base, users can find a variety of documents related to digital health, produced by DICE and its partners. The types of document in our Knowledge Base include Digital Health Assessments, Digital Health Strategies, Guidelines and Toolkits, Monitoring and Evaluation documents, and Presentations and Webinars.

We would be happy to host your resources, if they are related to our areas of work and digital health. Please e-mail it to contact@digitalhealthcoe.org.