We published a(renewed) call to create geolocated, comprehensive, updated, openly licensed dataset of health facilities in sub-Saharan African countries.

Published in BMC Medicine

- We discuss why the availability of health facilities databases (HFDBs) remains a challenge in SSA and the way forward.

- The lack of progress in curating HFDBs is no longer due to technical issues but due to a lack of financial resources , political will, and coordination needed to create and maintain HFDBs.

- HFDBs will be achievable if there is a regional commitment from countries and health system stakeholders.

- Open data sharing will be key