W(h)ither Community: Locating participatory approaches to ICT-enabled health and development

Abstract

Around the world, community-based approaches to promote better health and development using information and communication technologies, particularly those concerned with facilitating health and development literacy and social and behaviour change, face significant challenges. Access to resources, e.g. skills and funds, is but one of those obstacles; deeper, more fundamental challenges also persist.

The article identifies three key reasons why particpatory community-based appraoches have yet to make into the mainstream of health and development planning, citing examples from Malawi and the Solomon Islands.