Participatory Design within the HISP network

This chapter seeks to contribute to the ongoing debates in the domain of Participatory Design by discussing the various trends and questions within the context of the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP) initiative ongoing over nearly two decades. The focus in this chapter is to discuss issues of Participatory Design during the course of the design, developme t, implementation and scaling of the DHIS software within an action research framework in the context of the public health sector in various developing countries. Further, we discuss ParticipatoryDesignwith respect to changes over time in technological and poli ical contexts and the challenges following from that; from stand-alone MSOffice to cloud computing and fully open source technology – enabling local Participatory Design! In this chapter, we try to describe this rather complex HISP movement over time following three broad phases; ‘traditional’ Participatory Design; pilots and networking Participatory Design, and Participatory Design and web technologies. After this historical reconstruction, we describe and discuss current trends and challenges, focusing on the new area of cloud computing and the need for integration with other systems. We elaborate on practical challenges and potentials of doing Participatory Design in the context of developing countries and in a longitudinal perspective. The reader will learn about Participatory Design in a global development perspective and about the importance of networking Participatory Design projects and to share software, lessons and resources across countries ‘South–North–South’ as a way to achieve sustainability and scalability. Rapid spread of communication technologies such as mobile Internet is currently changing the context for Participatory Design in developing countries. The chapter provides the reader with analysis and discussion on the potential for Participatory Design and empowerment of users in developing countries in the new area of cloud computing and in an environment where multiple systems need to be integrated. The emerging cloud-based infrastructure represents both an opportunity and a threat. While users even in rural Kenya may now feel empowered by having instant access to own and other data, global actors are aggressively promoting their own software-based services. To counteract the latter, the challenge is to enable development of local capacity to master the new technologies, for which Participatory Design may provide both the means and the end.