AFRO-NETS> Health Cards (25)

Health Cards (25)
-----------------

        Colleagues,
        
          I've been struck not only about the degree of interest
        in health cards, but also by how few Africans have been
        participating in the debate. I haven't been keeping count, but
        my sense is that Merrick Zwarenstein (with apologies for the
        spelling) is the only active African participant; and that,
        other than him, Africans have contributed no more than one or
        two of the 24-25 entries. This seems to be a debate among
        North Americans and Europeans about Africa, with Africans
        pretty much on the sidelines.
        
          My impression is that much the same could be said for
        the Afro-net activity as a whole. Again, I haven't been
        keeping count; but an awfully high proportion of the activity
        seems to be North Americans or Europeans either 1) seeking
        African contributions to projects they are entrepreneuring or
        2) announcing courses or meetings they have organized for the
        benefit of Africans.
        
          I'd like to suggest that the Afro-net organizers
        systematically monitor Afro-net traffic from this perspective,
        and let us know what they find out about the geographic
        location/background of contributors after two or three months.
        A useful breakdown might be contributions: a) from outside
        Africa; b) from representatives of international agencies
        posted in Africa; c) from Africans working in African
        institutions.
        
          If such a review confirms my sense that a very small
        percentage of the total contributions is from group c), then I
        think we should all be seriously concerned. It would suggest a
        certain degree of validity on the part of those who see the
        internet as a "neocolonialist tool" serving to increase the
        intellectual dominance of Americans (like myself), Europeans,
        and international agencies in African health development; and
        it would argue for vigorous efforts and measures to increase
        effective connectivity and active participation by Africans.
        
        Best regards,
        Dave Gwatkin
        International Health Policy Program
        Washington, D.C., USA
        mailto:dgwatkin@worldbank.org

[We thought about analysing the contributions in the proposed way already
but the problems is that from the name and e-mail address - sometimes the
only information we have about a contributor - we can't decide which
category he/she belongs to. Dave is right in his assumption that only the
minority of contributions to AFRO-NETS originate in Africa - therefore my
proposal to hold back on the health card issue and wait for the opinion of
our colleagues from the field. DN Mod.]

--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.