The Incalculable Value of Digital Health Campaigns: Perspectives from Benin

Health campaigns are only effective when they can achieve high coverage, at scale. Yet, with paper-based records, it can be difficult to verify who was reached during a campaign and true coverage can be near or even below the minimum needed to achieve anticipated health outcomes. Digital tools can improve access to higher quality data that can be used to improve campaign coverage. Catholic Relief Services is a leader in health campaign digitization in Africa. By helping implementers achieve better campaign results, digital tools can offer more impact. Digitization efforts can also offer spillover benefits that further strengthen health system implementation. It is important that global health leaders not rely solely on cost-benefit studies when making digital investment decisions. Understanding the qualitative improvements derived from digital health campaigns should increasingly justify the significant financial investment in digitization capacity and infrastructure. This brief shares perspectives on advantages and challenges of campaign digitization and uniquely identifies benefits that are intangible or hard to quantify.