 From Ghana to India, Saving the Global South’s Mothers with a Digital SolutionMarine Al Dahdah Global Policy, 2021, vol. 12, issue S6, 45-54 Abstract: With the widespread use of mobile phones in the Global South, digital tools are attracting growing interest from international aid actors as well as local governments – positioning digital technology as an essential driver of economic growth and an obvious solution to many social problems. Initiated by multiple actors from the digital industry, these programs reconfigure the state, the rights of citizens, the perimeter and access to health services. Through the study of the Motech Global Mobile Health Program (mHealth) implemented in Ghana and India to improve maternal health, this paper explores the way in which processes of medical globalization and privatization come into being through digital technology. It shows how forms of philanthrocapitalism drive such digital programs. By confronting the stories of the techy philanthropists promoting such solutions and the global south’s mothers that are supposedly benefiting from it, this paper also illustrates the gap between the promise of better healthcare offered by such digital solution and the realities experienced on the ground by its users, on gender and empowerment issues or accessibility and quality of healthcare. Date: 2021 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:s6:p:45-54 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Global Policy is currently edited by David Held, Patrick Dunleavy and Eva-Maria Nag More articles in Global Policy from London School of Economics and Political Science Contact information at EDIRC. |
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