How governments have used technology to address women’s health needs during the Covid-19 pandemic

This article is written by Calum Handforth, Amanda Dorsey, and Claudia Abreu Lopes

• The problem: Women’s health needs are often overlooked through traditional patient contact methods
• Why it matters: This results in, and is the result of, broader inequalities in society
• The solution: Tech-enabled solutions have helped improve women’s health awareness

COVID-19 has prompted and accelerated changes to the way that we work, study, travel and socialise. It’s helped us make progress on some key health challenges, while entrenching others – particularly those most affecting women and marginalised populations. Local and national governments around the world have faced unprecedented demands in responding to these issues. (You can see how many governments have responded in the EPIC tracker, which is collating policies explored by governments around the world).

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Technology has played a key role. Governments with strong tech foundations and understanding were able to leverage these tools for digital payments, healthcare and service delivery, and to communicate with citizens. These successes have not necessarily correlated with income - with lower-income, but tech-savvy, countries responding well. It’s likely that technology will also be crucial in COVID-19 recovery.

Emerging evidence highlights the considerable and negative multiplier effects as a result of the pandemic.

Technology is helping governments identify women's unmet health needs

Ahead of the pandemic, women were already often struggling to access healthcare. The digital transformation that COVID-19 has catalysed in many health systems has started to improve this situation. In South Africa, the local government in the Western Cape had to adapt and innovate their existing solutions. The Department of Health leveraged the Provincial Health Data Centre and real-time data processing to drive COVID-19 response. A single-patient viewer web-app was developed to integrate clinical data to improve clinician response, and to monitor how patients used health services - including breaking this down by gender and other aspects. Spatial data was also analysed to identify the location of cases, mitigating the lack of patient addresses.

This focus on data meant that digital technology could be used to track the impact of the pandemic on women and their access to health services. This health data was valuable in recognising the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 task force in the country saw a 30% increase in maternal mortality in the early wave of the pandemic due to women not using reproductive healthcare systems, and noticed that early clusters were mostly affecting healthcare workers - consisting primarily of women. Understanding these gendered outcomes has driven evidence-supported gender responsive measures. These have improved the government's response now, and provided crucial lessons for future crises.

Going where citizens are

In India, technology has also played a key role in mitigating the health challenges faced by women. This has included building new approaches to support pregnant women’s access to maternal health services. The introduction of Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation software allowed the team to consolidate lists of pregnant women in each district, categorise their risk level, and monitor their health accordingly.

Importantly, this shift also allowed the team to communicate more effectively with patients and to leverage channels that they were already familiar with. In a country where almost 99% of the population is covered by a 4G signal, this included communicating with patients through WhatsApp and social media. Digital service delivery also played an important role. Local governments ran awareness campaigns on a number of platforms to inform women and other vulnerable groups about mental health telemonitoring services.

Using tech to tackle broader inequalities

The closure of services, lockdown measures, and fear of infection has stopped women from accessing crucial sexual and reproductive and other health services. These emerging challenges also intersect with digital inequalities, particularly for women. Without equal access to digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic, women were often left out of contact tracing efforts. They were also excluded from government support programmes and other opportunities. All of these aspects correlate with women’s access to healthcare.

In the Philippines, by the end of 2020 almost five million Filipino women were estimated to have unmet family planning needs. Digital has played a role in tackling this challenge. The HELPLINE initiative in the country provides family planning and gender-based violence resources online. This work is founded on recent digital literacy efforts in the Philippines. However, using different channels to ensure inclusion has been crucial. Agencies have launched programmes on Facebook, online talk shows, and held adolescent rallies on health issues.

Progress must not be lost

Emerging evidence highlights the considerable and negative multiplier effects as a result of the pandemic. This includes increases in maternal and child deaths, unintended pregnancies, and child marriage rates. As local and national governments tentatively start to chart a path toward COVID-19 recovery, tech is likely to continue to play an important role – particularly for women and other minorities. We need to build-on and sustain this digital transformation - and ensure that everyone is able to benefit from its potential.

More fundamentally, we must also address the assumptions and inequalities that the pandemic has highlighted – particularly in how technology can improve the lives and livelihoods of women. This means designing systems and services that focus on the needs and realities of women, and other marginalised populations. We have seen digital products and services and interventions address many of the detrimental effects that COVID-19 has had on women’s health, by putting women at the centre of how these solutions are developed and delivered. We need to learn from these efforts, and ensure that no one is left behind. — Calum Handforth, Amanda Dorsey, and Claudia Abreu Lopes

The above insights were shared during the second seminar of the Gender and Digital Health Webinar Series – which showcased how national and district governments and international agencies utilised digital technology to uncover and respond to gender gaps in the access to health during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch the full online seminar here.

The EPIC Tracker compiles measures that governments have put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Access it here: https://epictracker.org/search/technology

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