Digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming how health systems deliver care, reach people, and respond to public health challenges across the WHO South-East Asia Region. Home to nearly two billion people across eleven Member States, roughly a quarter of the world's population, the Region confronts health workforce shortages, geographic remoteness, rising non-communicable disease burdens, climate-sensitive health risks, and persistent inequities in underserved communities, even as it hosts some of the world's most ambitious national digital health and AI programmes.

WHO-SEARO’s Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence (DH&AI) unit serves as the central convening and technical authority, working closely with Member States, development partners, and academic institutions to shape national and regional digital health and AI policies and ecosystems. WHO-SEARO's work spans strategy development, AI governance, health data standards, workforce competency frameworks, and multi-stakeholder consultations, all aimed at building resilient, inclusive, and evidence-driven health systems across the region.

The unit is committed to harnessing the transformative potential of digital technologies, data, and AI to accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals across the South-East Asia Region.

WHO SEARO’s DH&AI unit works towards several key objectives to advance the responsible and equitable adoption of digital health and artificial intelligence across the Region.

Strengthening Digital Health Governance and Policy- The Unit provides regional leadership and technical support to Member States in developing and operationalising National Digital Health Strategies, National Digital Health Blueprints (NDBs), regulatory frameworks, and governance structures that ensure safe, ethical, and inclusive adoption of digital technologies and AI in health systems.

Fostering Evidence-Based AI, Digital Innovation and Scale-up- The Unit drives the responsible integration of AI and digital tools in healthcare through structured evaluation frameworks, publication of research, and designing methodologies for national AI strategies. The unit identifies, co-develops, and scales digital health innovations, including AI-enabled tools, that are grounded in country needs. These innovations align with WHO normative guidance and are designed to improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable and underserved populations in the Region.

Building digital health capacity and competencies- The unit enables health workforces, national regulatory authorities, and institutions across the Region to develop the knowledge, skills, and systems required to effectively deploy and sustain digital health solutions. This work includes collaboration through the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN) and regional capacity-building initiatives.

Promoting interoperability and data governance- The unit works to establish common standards and frameworks that enable seamless data exchange across health systems while protecting privacy and ensuring ethical use of health data.

Regional Strategy and Global Alignment

The WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020 to 2025, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2020 and extended through 2027, provides the overarching framework for WHO SEARO's work on digital health and AI. Building on this foundation, WHO SEARO is actively contributing to the development of the next Global Strategy on Digital Health (2028 to 2033), including by convening six regional multi-stakeholder consultations in March and April 2026 to ensure that South-East Asian countries' experiences, priorities and implementation realities shape the global agenda.

At the regional level, WHO SEARO supports Member States in translating these global commitments into actionable national digital health plans. Priority focus areas include health information systems strengthening, interoperability, data governance, AI readiness, and digital inclusion for underserved populations. The Region's diversity, spanning countries at varying levels of digital maturity, makes it both a testing ground and a model for context-sensitive, equity-oriented digital health transformation.

WHO SEARO's strategic vision is for digital health and AI to be powerful enablers of Universal Health Coverage across the Region, making health systems more people-centred, efficient, resilient and responsive to the needs of all, leaving no one behind.