About WHO
Our primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations system. Our main areas of work are health systems; health through the life-course; noncommunicable and communicable diseases; preparedness, surveillance and response; and corporate services.Activities by WHO
Spotlight Initiative – Mining Gender Perceptions from Public Radio Discussions
Africa UgandaThis project uses an AI-powered public radio social listening tool to mine data on perceptions around Gender Based Violence (GBV), Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Harmful Practices (HP), Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), and Violence Against Children (VAC). The data provides insights for timely and targeted interventions. Radio remains the most popular source of information in Uganda, used by different people irrespective of their demographics. Radio shows allow two-way communication between radio studios and people in the community through call-ins, making them a rich representation of the people that are digitally marginalized.
Activity Type AI Tools/SolutionsResearch/Reports/AssessmentsPulseSatellite: A collaboration tool using human-AI interaction to analyse satellite imagery
Africa, Asia and the Pacific BangladeshSomalia
PulseSatellite is a collaborative satellite image analysis tool that leverages neural network models that can be retrained on-the-fly and adapted to specific humanitarian contexts and geographies. The tool has models for mapping structures in refugee settlements, roof density detection, and flood mapping.
We are also working closely with UNOSAT to develop benchmark datasets for shelter (refugee camp) mapping, building footprint detection and damage assessment. We plan to use these to test many of the available well trained and top-performing models, but in the context of UN-focused datasets (e.g. with more of a Global South and development context than many of the standard machine learning benchmarks) and make this available as a service to the UN system.
Operational contexts are rapidly changing, meaning that AI models may not always perform well. Through using a human-in-the-loop approach we have found that models can be adapted to such changing settings, however, this still requires (sometimes significant) manual intervention from analysts.
Using Social Media Tools to Monitor and Fight the COVID-19 Infodemic
AfricaThis project has two components. First, it conducts social media listening exercises in Africa to understand conversations related to COVID-19 and poliovirus. Second, it supports research to test interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy among social media users using machine learning.
Activity Type Research/Reports/AssessmentsAwareness/AdvocacyGlobal Initiative on Artificial Intelligence for Health (GI-AI4H)
Global Not Applicable
The GI-AI4H is a global collaboration initiative led by ITU, WHO, and WIPO, dedicated to ensuring that AI improves health outcomes ethically and equitably. Its work is centered on three pillars:
• Enable: Develop International standards, governance, and ethical frameworks for safe use of AI in Health.
• Facilitate: Promote knowledge and data sharing, foster multi-stakeholder partnerships and strengthen global cooperation.
• Implement: Support scalable real-world deployment of AI in health, especially in low-resource settings.
The initiative delivers benchmarking tools, policy guidance, innovation insights, and best practices to build trusted AI-enabled health systems and its ultimate goal is to make AI-driven healthcare trustworthy, inclusive, sustainable, and accessible worldwide.