About the project
The World Health Organization has said that harnessing the power of digital and Big Data technologies is essential to ensure that everyone has affordable access to quality healthcare. In recent decades, there have been significant investments in these often cutting-edge technologies, including in African countries where public healthcare systems often struggle to provide the basics. Concerns about these technologies have arisen including their high costs, designs poorly suited to local social and cultural contexts, and insufficient regulation. Moreover, the investments have tended to open up opportunities in Africa for foreign profit-making and for the development of outsider expertise, thereby perpetuating long-standing colonial-era relationships. Together, these factors are said to hinder the potential of emerging technologies to address Africa's medical needs and improve health equity in its population.
This project explores the apparent alternative of "local innovation" in the former socialist country of Tanzania. Until very recently Tanzania was a low-income one and even today it is situated on the margins of global techno-science. Yet it regularly exceeds expectations: its economic growth has been high, it often scores highly on innovation indexes relative to other African countries, its public medical university is ranked third of all universities in Africa, and at the same time, it has one of the continent's most highly-regarded medical regulatory environments.
The project studies three main groups. First, the Tanzanian scientists and technologists who are designing diagnostic and other technologies, often using Artificial Intelligence. Second, the healthcare workers and patients who are turning to generic, often algorithmically-mediated, mobile phone apps to unofficially coordinate and seek healthcare. Third, the Tanzanian and global policy-makers, funders and regulators who often enthusiastically advocate for local innovation.
Together we seek to unpack what local and innovation mean as Tanzanians and the global community embrace, experiment and debate digital and Big Data technologies in healthcare and medicine on the margins of techno-science. With our empirical work, we will enter into vibrant conversations around postcoloniality, science and technology, and critique.
The project is led by Tom Neumark at the University of Oslo, and Simon Vendelin at the University of Dar es Salaam, and the team includes Katerini Storeng and Ruth Prince.
Financing
Norwegian Research Council - Researcher Project Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal
Cooperation
Department of Sociology, University of Dar es Salaam
Duration
July 2023 to May 2027