Community Participation in Health Informatics in Africa: An Experiment in Tripartite Partnership in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

Participatory Design has mainly been practiced in Europe and North America. Our seven-year experience in Nigeria suggests that user participation is also a must in developing countries. However, the scope of participation needs to be expanded. For instance, in health informatics the communities served by the health facility in question need to be involved along with computer professionals and health providers. This paper presents the results of an experiment in tripartite partnership in systems design for Primary Health Care by designers, users/providers, and community representatives in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The experience was extremely encouraging.