Ethiopia's digital sovereignty challenged by data governance in health partnerships

The country is transitioning to an intangibles economy where national power increasingly depends on ownership of intellectual property, control over data, computational capacity, and technical standards. While Ethiopia has made progress in AI policy and digital infrastructure, it lacks a comprehensive national data strategy. This issue is highlighted by the December 2025 bilateral health Memorandum of Understanding MoU between Ethiopia and the United States, one of 17 such agreements with African nations.

These MoUs, part of the America First Global Health Strategy, involve co-investment and focus on public health priorities like HIV/AIDS and infectious disease preparedness. These programs generate significant volumes of sensitive biomedical and epidemiological data, raising questions about data ownership, access, use, and commercialization. The article emphasizes that while digitizing health systems is crucial, the rules governing this data must be grounded in Ethiopian law and institutions to prevent dependency and ensure accountability and transparency.

Ethiopia's unique diversity makes its health data particularly valuable, and the MoU should be seen as part of a broader contest over data access and economic advantage. The authors, Professor Ann Fitz-Gerald and Gashaw