The FAIR Guidelines—that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)—aim to improve the management of digital data assets for improved decision making. FAIR comprises 15 elements (called facets) that explain how data should be able to be reused by researchers and policymakers. For this research, eight policy documents were reviewed from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from 1999 to 2020. These were scrutinised to determine the mention of the FAIR Guidelines or FAIR Equivalent principles. The vision, mission statement and objectives of these documents were analysed relative to the 15 facets of FAIR. The research found that none of the policy documents in health/eHealth or ICT in Zimbabwe explicitly mention the FAIR Guidelines, but all contain some FAIR Equivalent principles. Hence, the regulatory framework for health/eHealth data management in Zimbabwe is aligned with the FAIR Guidelines and, therefore, a policy window is open for the adoption of FAIR Guidelines in relation to health/eHealth data management.

This article investigates expansion of the Internet of FAIR Data and Services (IFDS) to Africa, through the three GO FAIR pillars: GO CHANGE, GO BUILD and GO TRAIN. Introduction of the IFDS in Africa has a focus on digital health. Two examples of introducing FAIR are compared: a regional initiative for digital health by governments in the East Africa Community (EAC) and an initiative by a local health provider (Solidarmed) in collaboration with Great Zimbabwe University in Zimbabwe. The obstacles to introducing FAIR are identified as underrepresentation of data from Africa in IFDS at this moment, the lack of explicit recognition of situational context of research in FAIR at present and the lack of acceptability of FAIR as a foreign and European invention which affects acceptance. It is envisaged that FAIR has an important contribution to solve fragmentation in digital health in Africa, and that any obstacles concerning African participation, context relevance and acceptance of IFDS need to be removed. This will require involvement of African researchers and ICT-developers so that it is driven by local ownership. Assessment of ecological validity in FAIR principles would ensure that the context specificity of research is reflected in the FAIR principles. This will help enhance the acceptance of the FAIR Guidelines in Africa and will help strengthen digital health research and services.