Godwin Ubong Akpan

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Born2aid (talk) 10:08, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

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Godwin Ubong Akpan
Portrait of Godwin Ubong AkpanGodwin Ubong AKPAN.jpg Godwin Ubong AKPAN.jpg Akpan in 2026
Born
🏳️ Nationality	Nigerian
🎓 Alma mater	Al-Madinah International University (PhD) Walsh College (DBA candidate)
💼 Occupation	Data science, decision intelligence and digital transformation leader; United Nations official
👔 Employer	United Nations Population Fund
Known for	Public-health intelligence, geospatial systems, digital surveillance and population intelligence
🏅 Awards	WHO African Region Outstanding Staff (2015) WHO African Region Most Outstanding Team (2017)

Godwin Ubong Akpan is a Nigerian data science, decision intelligence and digital transformation leader and United Nations official. He has held senior leadership and advisory roles at the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), where his work has connected data science, geospatial analytics, digital platforms and institutional processes to public-health and population decisions. His work spans disease surveillance, geographic information systems, digital health, artificial intelligence, public-health intelligence and population intelligence.

Education

Akpan earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Information and Communication Technology from Al-Madinah International University in Malaysia. His doctoral research examined the use of mobile geographic information systems and open-source data collection to strengthen disease surveillance, routine immunization, geolocation and supportive supervision in Nigeria. He is pursuing a Doctorate of Business Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Walsh College in the United States.

Career

World Health Organization

Akpan began working with WHO in Nigeria in the mid-2000s, initially in data-management and information-technology roles. A profile published by CIO Look traced his interest in precision public health to earlier work analysing health effects in oil-affected communities in the Niger Delta, after which he joined WHO as a data manager.

In Nigeria, he worked at the intersection of field surveillance, information systems and geographic analysis. During the 2014 Ebola response in Rivers State, mobile reporting and geospatial tools were used to support contact tracing and disease surveillance. WHO later quoted Akpan, then its zonal data manager, explaining that field reports were uploaded to a server and made immediately available to public-health authorities for review and action.

His responsibilities later expanded from country implementation to regional leadership. WHO described him as Regional Polio Data Manager for Africa in reporting on the Auto-Visual Acute Flaccid Paralysis Detection and Reporting system (AVADAR). By 2024, WHO listed him as Regional Lead for Information Systems and Data Analytics in the African Region. In that role, he worked across surveillance, outbreak response, immunization, geospatial intelligence and digital innovation, with an emphasis on systems that could operate across countries with different levels of infrastructure and connectivity.

United Nations Population Fund

Akpan later joined UNFPA as Senior Adviser for Data Analytics, Dissemination and Use. His portfolio extended his earlier work in public-health intelligence into population and development, including demographic data, geospatial analysis, data integration, artificial intelligence and open-source signals for anticipatory decision-making.

At UNFPA, he has contributed to an integrated population-intelligence approach intended to connect official statistics with geospatial, health, humanitarian, climate and open-source data. The approach supports analysis concerning maternal health, sexual and reproductive health, harmful practices, displacement, service accessibility and populations that may be poorly represented in conventional data systems.

On 6 March 2026, Akpan participated in the UNFPA side event From Population Data to Population Intelligence: Strengthening Decision-Making in an Era of Data Constraints during the 57th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission. The event, broadcast by UN Web TV, presented the evolution of UNFPA's Population Data Portal towards a platform combining population data, geospatial analysis and emerging digital signals.

At the 2026 Global Data Festival and Kenya Space Expo, he was listed as a speaker for a session titled From Signals to Foresight: AI, Space Intelligence & Population Intelligence. The event biography described his work as transforming complex data ecosystems into population intelligence for policy, programming and anticipatory decision-making.

Data science and decision intelligence

A recurring theme in Akpan's work is the conversion of fragmented data into decision intelligence: information that is integrated, interpreted and delivered in forms intended to support operational or policy action. His work has combined epidemiological reporting, geospatial data, community signals, health-facility information and digital platforms to improve the visibility of risks, service gaps and underserved populations.

At the 2024 EIOS Global Technical Meeting, he presented an initiative on radio mining for public-health intelligence in the African Region. The work examined how FM and AM radio content, including material in under-represented languages and low-connectivity settings, could complement formal surveillance and contribute to the detection of health signals.

A WHO biography prepared for the launch of the GIS Centre for Health described his work as using data, digital health and GIS to analyse surveillance and immunization gaps, anticipate outbreaks and guide programme responses. The CIO Look profile discussed his use of predictive analytics, machine learning, geospatial methods and One Health data, alongside his emphasis on local knowledge, cultural context and the adaptation of technology to country realities.

Digital surveillance and geospatial systems

Akpan's research has included the use of Android devices and Open Data Kit for household-survey data management in resource-constrained settings. A 2017 study documented practical benefits and limitations of paperless data collection in the Niger Delta. ODK later featured him in a case-study video discussing the regional use of mobile data collection in WHO-supported disease-surveillance and polio-eradication programmes.

His work was not limited to mobile data collection. He was lead author of a 2022 paper describing how geospatial infrastructure developed for polio programmes was adapted for COVID-19 contact tracing and health-facility surveillance. The paper reported that the contact-tracing system was piloted in several countries and that a health-facility surveillance application was used in 27 countries in the WHO African Region.

He led the report of the 2019 African Regional GIS Summit, which set out priorities for interoperability, data governance, national capacity and sustainable use of GIS in public-health decision-making. Other co-authored research examined inaccurate geographic coordinates in electronic supportive-supervision data, real-time digital monitoring of a polio outbreak-response campaign in South Sudan, and community-based detection of acute flaccid paralysis through AVADAR.

WHO reported that AVADAR had been deployed in 99 districts across ten African countries by 2019.

Leadership and public engagement

Akpan's presentations have addressed the institutional use of data science, precision public health, geospatial intelligence, epidemic intelligence and population intelligence. CIO Look reported that he spoke at the World Data Summit on Fighting Diseases in the African Region One Data Byte at a Time.

The same profile described his leadership approach as emphasizing multidisciplinary teams, continuous learning, collaboration and the adaptation of technology to operational and cultural context. His published work has similarly emphasized reusable data capabilities, interoperability, governance and country ownership rather than isolated technology pilots.

Honours and recognition

In 2015, Akpan received the WHO African Region Outstanding Staff award for developing a mobile-phone application used for disease-surveillance data capture and for his contribution to Ebola contact tracing and health-facility surveillance in Nigeria. In 2017, the WHO African Regional GIS Centre team with which he worked was recognized as the Regional Most Outstanding Team in the WHO African Region; this recognition is documented on his professional profile and in a retrospective post.

Selected publications

• Maduka, O.; Akpan, G.; Maleghemi, S. (2017). “Using Android and Open Data Kit Technology in Data Management for Research in Resource-Limited Settings in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: Cross-Sectional Household Survey”. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 5 (11): e171. doi:10.2196/mhealth.7827.
• Bassey, B. E.; Braka, F.; Vaz, R. G.; et al. (2018). “The global switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine to bivalent oral polio vaccine: facts, experiences and lessons learned from the south-south zone, Nigeria”. BMC Infectious Diseases. 18: 57. doi:10.1186/s12879-018-2963-6.
• Ticha, J. M.; Akpan, G. U.; Paige, L. M. F.; et al. (2020). “Outcomes of the Deployment of the Auto-Visual Acute Flaccid Paralysis Detection and Reporting System for Strengthening Polio Surveillance in Africa, 2017–2018”. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. 6 (4): e18950. doi:10.2196/18950.
• Bello, I. M.; Maleghemi, S.; Ferede, M.; Akpan, G. U.; et al. (2021). “Real-time monitoring of a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreak immunization campaign using digital health technologies in South Sudan”. Pan African Medical Journal. 40: 200. doi:10.11604/pamj.2021.40.200.31525.
• Akpan, G. U.; Bello, I. M.; Touray, K.; et al. (2022). “Leveraging Polio Geographic Information System Platforms in the African Region for Mitigating COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Surveillance Challenges: Viewpoint”. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 10 (3): e22544. doi:10.2196/22544.
• Akpan, G. U.; Mohammed, H. F.; Touray, K.; et al. (2022). “Conclusions of the African Regional GIS Summit (2019): using geographic information systems for public health decision-making”. BMC Proceedings. 16 (Suppl 1): 3. doi:10.1186/s12919-022-00233-y.
• Bello, I. M.; Akpan, G. U.; Gital, A. Y.; et al. (2022). “Determining Inaccurate Coordinates in Electronic Data Collection for Surveillance and Immunization Supportive Supervision: A Case Study of Nigeria EPI Supportive Supervision Module”. Frontiers in Digital Health. 4: 907004. doi:10.3389/fdgth.2022.907004.

External links

• ODK case-study video
• UN Web TV: From Population Data to Population Intelligence

Category:World Health Organization officials Category:Living people

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