EXPLORING CO-DESIGN CHALLENGES AND INSIGHTS FOR CO-DESIGNING AN MHEALTH INTERVENTION FOR MALARIA PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Our research investigated the issues and benefits inherent with conducting co-design research in marginalized/ hard-to-reach communities in Nigeria, using Ebonyi State as a case study. The study concentrated on creating a design framework for health intervention creators to enable them to create culturally relevant and community -oriented interventions system that will help them to solve the problem of malaria in their domain. We adopted Participatory System Design (PSD) methodology to achieve the co-design purpose. Similarly, our findings underscore the importance of community engagements, tailoring, flexibility and users’ participation in co-design processes to give the owners of problem the opportunity to contribute in solving their problem as this will guarantee accelerated innovative solution. Conclusively, this research shares design insights and recommendations for co-design research framework within the marginalized communities.

Keywords: Malaria intervention, co-design research, marginalised communities, culturally-relevant, context-specific design