ACCRA, Ghana — Ghana has rejected a proposed health deal with the United States over concerns about data privacy and is now seeking a new agreement, an official said Friday. It was the latest African country to walk away from the deal over similar concerns.
The deal included provisions that would have allowed U.S. entities access to Ghana’s sensitive health data without necessary safeguards, according to Arnold Kavaarpuo, executive director of Ghana’s Data Protection Commission.
The scope of the data access that was requested under the deal “went far beyond what would typically be required,” Kavaarpuo told The Associated Press.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the department does not disclose details of bilateral negotiations. “We continue to look for ways to strengthen the bilateral partnership between our two countries,” the spokesperson added, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Under the Trump administration’s “America First” approach to global health funding, the U.S. has struck such health deals with more than 30 countries, most of them in Africa. The new approach that kicked off late last year replaces previous health agreements under the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development.
The deals offer hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. funding to some of the African countries worst hit by the U.S. aid cuts to support their public health systems and help fight disease outbreaks.
The agreements, however, have raised questions about data privacy concerns. In February, authorities in Zimbabwe said they rejected the proposed deal over issues around health data, fairness and sovereignty. Zambia is also reported to have pushed back on a section of its deal, although no decision has been made there.
Activists in Africa say the agreements often lack adequate safeguards for the use of the data and are sometimes limiting in who is being helped — such as in Nigeria, where the U.S. committed to supporting mainly Christian faith-based healthcare providers.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director General Jean Kaseya had also cited “huge concerns” regarding data sharing in comments to reporters about the deals.
Ghana says no prior approval for data use
Under the proposed agreement worth around $300 million, Kavaarpuo said Ghana would have received about $109 million in U.S. funding over five years, with supplemental investments coming from the Ghanaian government.
Kavaarpuo, whose agency was directly involved in the talks, cited one caveat where individuals could be identified as deemed necessary for sensitive health data.
“That, in effect, was outsourcing the health data architecture of the country to a foreign body,” he said. “The proposed data sharing agreement looked at access not only to health data sets, but also to metadata, dashboards, reporting tools, data models and data dictionaries.”
The proposals would have also allowed up to 10 U.S. entities access to such data with no prior approval needed from Ghana for whatever the data is needed for, he said.
“We did not get a sense that Ghana had any real governance oversight when it came to how the data was going to be utilized. It was more or less if they undertook an exercise, they will notify the country. So it was not a prior approval arrangement,” he said.
Kavaarpuo added that Ghana has communicated its decision to reject the proposal to the U.S. and sought improved conditions for a better deal.
