Across sub-Saharan Africa, over 100,000 health facilities lack access to reliable electricity and internet connections. This gap threatens health when clinics can’t keep the lights on or reliably provide patients with oxygen and other life-saving care. Deprived of reliable power, they also can’t refrigerate vaccines and other temperature-sensitive medical commodities or use the digital tools that modern medicine relies on.
Millions of people will lack equitable access to life-saving health services without sustainable funding and cross-sector coalitions to connect health facilities across the region. The Abt-led Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA) is Power Africa’s flagship initiative to meet these daunting challenges.
HETA was launched in 2022 as one of USAID’s largest-ever Global Development Alliances. HETA’s ambition is to unlock funding and build coalitions to electrify health facilities across sub-Saharan Africa and expand their access to internet networks–all powered by clean energy. The goal is to reach 10,000 health facilities and improve health services in the communities they serve.
HETA works to create durable partnerships and business models for sustainable health facility electrification and digital connectivity, emphasizing sustained clean energy access and reduced greenhouse gas emissions through solar. This alliance is designed to amplify the U.S. government’s $47 million investment by mobilizing at least $50 million in investment and co-funding from the public, private, and social sectors. This money will fund the installation of reliable, renewable power and mobile network or internet access for 10,000 health facilities in Africa by 2027.
HETA has three goals:
- Increase public, private, and social sector partnerships to implement health facility electrification and digital connectivity
- Grow the quantity and diversity of resources, especially funding, for health facility electrification and digital connectivity
- Design inclusive and sustainable business models to ensure operations and maintenance (O&M)—a longstanding challenge for renewable energy in the health sector
Abt is the lead integrator for HETA, with founding partners RESOLVE, bechtel.org (Bechtel’s social enterprise), Orange, and a growing alliance of partners in the health, energy, and telecommunications sectors. Partnerships are the beating heart of HETA’s work—delivering funds, equipment, technical assistance, and in-kind resources to design, install, and sustainably operate and maintain renewable energy systems for healthcare, linked to mobile or internet networks.
In our first 18 months, we quickly laid a strong foundation toward our goal. As of April 2024, we leveraged over $15 million dollars committed from partners to co-finance HETA’s work, beyond the Power Africa funds from USAID and established 32 partnerships formalized through MOUs, grants, and other collaboration mechanisms. Already, 524 health facilities have new or improved access to electricity and digital connectivity, reaching nearly 9 million people with access to improved health services.
We are active in 13 countries, with planning and partnership development efforts underway in several more. At the country level, we are optimizing USAID’s investments in the private health sector.
In Tanzania, for example, HETA and our local partners are improving private healthcare providers’ ability to meet clients’ needs and supporting new service delivery models that make health services more convenient and comprehensive.
In the past, Clementina Clemency Mwamboneke, owner of Nkwabi pharmacy shop, dealt with downtime and out-of-stock medicine due to frequent power outages and theft. Now, solar panels provide electricity during outages, and her new tablet allows her to access pharmaceutical management software, streamlining her operations.
The shop is safer, more reliable, and attracts more customers. The upgrades made Mwamboneke think differently about the future, and she’s considering opening two more shops. Given a rapid increase in sales, she has been able to double her daily income.
“I used to make at least 20 to 30 Tanzanian thousand shillings a month, but nowadays I make 50 to 70 thousand [roughly $20-27 USD],” she said. “My sales have increased a lot.”
The upgrades are expanding her customers’ health and wellbeing, too. HETA is developing customized, locally-led business models so the energy and connectivity systems will continue supporting high-quality health service delivery and access to data well into the future.
With local partners such as Maisha Meds and Zola Electric, we have provided 250 drug shops with laptops and pharmaceutical software. We also installed solar panels at over 280 facilities.
HETA is unique among Power Africa programs in our ambitious scope and close ties to global health priorities. We look to unlock significant funding and partnership networks that will transform these realities for thousands of health facilities and the communities they serve. Our vision looks beyond HETA’s first five years—we are already doing the groundwork to create the governance structures and funding base for an independent organization that can continue supporting energy access and digital inclusion for the health sector well into the future.