Poster: Lessons from Doing Fieldwork with Bandwidth-constrained communities Online

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us of all the things we have taken for granted, things such as giving an old friend a hug or visiting our beloved grandparents were no longer things we just got to do. No family or industry was prepared for this rude awakening. It thus comes as no surprise that the research community was not an exception to this rule. The pandemic swiftly removed access to both remote and local communities and ceased ongoing studies with many institutions, prohibiting face-to-face in person research [2]. This left many researchers needing to find ways to work around the physical restrictions in order to engage with communities.Traditional research methods such as workshops, in person interviews and focus groups [6] were no longer available as tools that we could readily access and conduct as part of our studies. Online platforms started gaining huge momentum [4] and researchers did what researchers do best -find new ways to conduct research, even in the toughest of circumstances. Not surprisingly many articles started to touch upon how to conduct research during

Digital Health Technologies for Maternal and Child Health in Africa and Other Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Cross-disciplinary Scoping Review With Stakeholder Consultation

“…We did not include community participants in the stakeholder consultation due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions and data connectivity issues in low-resource settings. Community members are experts in their own living experiences, and we engaged with 4 geographically distributed communities in South Africa after the scoping review was conducted through interviews [ 198 , 202 ] and co-design activities [ 198 ] that complemented stakeholder consultations with interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners. Future reviews should aim to include community participants during stakeholder consultation to broaden their participation in the early stages of research and account for their local expertise, even if only within a small number of community participants.…”

“Must you make an app?” A qualitative exploration of socio-technical challenges and opportunities for designing digital maternal and child health solutions in Soweto, South Africa

“…A multi-site study, Co-Designing Community-based ICTs Interventions for Maternal and Child Health in South Africa (CoMaCH), was initiated partly due to the unequal nature of digital health development, taking a participatory and community-centred approach to this domain. The project team includes a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-geographical consortium of researchers, technology designers, healthcare professionals and community stakeholders who are exploring the potential of ICTs to enhance maternal and child health and wellbeing in South Africa [16,17].…”