Ethiopian digital health company

SHIFA builds artificial intelligence for the frontline of Ethiopian healthcare — clinical decision support and climate-health early warning, designed locally, in local languages, for resource-constrained health systems.

SHIFA's team standing together after a community health event

Who We Are

Sustainable Health Initiatives for All (SHIFA) is a digital health company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, building artificial intelligence for the frontline of healthcare and climate resilience.

Two live products carry that mission today: SCIP, AI clinical decision support for frontline health workers, and Degdeg, AI climate-health early warning for woreda health offices.

What We Build

Two live products, built as equal partners in the same mission.

A computer circuit board with a brain graphic, representing AI-powered clinical decision support

Live product

SHIFA Clinical Intelligence Platform (SCIP)

An AI clinical decision-support tool that gives frontline health workers real-time, guideline-based answers at the point of care.

Selected for the African Impact Challenge 2026 Bootcamp (Health Entrepreneurship – Builder Track) and the AI UniPod Bootcamp, Second Cohort — powered by timbuktoo with UNDP Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute, and Addis Ababa University.

Visit SCIP Read the announcement

Live product

Degdeg

AI Climate-Health Early Warning

An AI early warning platform that turns open climate forecasts into anticipated health impacts and plain-language advisories for woreda health workers — so health offices can act before disaster becomes an emergency.

100

Woredas monitored

WHO & national protocol sources

~2,000

Indexed protocol passages

100%

Advisories human-approved

First deployed across 100 woredas in the Somali Region, built to scale nationally.

Visit Degdeg

How We Build

The same AI principles run through both products — this is what makes them trustworthy at the point of care.

Grounded, cited answers

Every answer and advisory must cite a validated source — a clinical guideline or a vetted climate-to-health impact rule. Unsupported output is rejected outright.

Refusal over fabrication

When the evidence isn't there, our AI says so instead of guessing. Low-confidence outputs are held back until a human confirms them.

Human-in-the-loop approval

Nothing publishes automatically. A qualified health worker or officer reviews and approves every clinical answer and every advisory before it reaches the field.

Local languages

Built for Somali and English from day one — because a tool only helps if the people using it can read it.

Full audit trails

Every AI call — prompt, model, response, and validation outcome — is logged, so every answer can be traced and reviewed.

Recognition

AI UniPod Bootcamp, Second Cohort

Powered by timbuktoo, in partnership with UNDP Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute, and Addis Ababa University.

African Impact Challenge 2026 Bootcamp

Health Entrepreneurship Stream — Builder Track, organized by the African Impact Initiative.

Mission

To empower communities and frontline health systems through innovative, sustainable, and locally driven AI health solutions.

Vision

A future where everyone has equitable access to quality healthcare and communities are resilient to public health and climate-related disasters.

Our Roots

SHIFA grew out of frontline public health work — our team contributed to vaccination campaigns reaching more than 1.5 million children and immunization initiatives protecting 16,787 children. That frontline experience is why our AI products are designed for how Ethiopian healthcare actually works.

Leadership

Led by a medical doctor with an Erasmus Mundus Master of Public Health in Disasters, SHIFA combines clinical expertise, disaster public health, and AI engineering to build resilient health systems where they are needed most.