Publications

At SPIDER, research and practice are inseparable. Our publications grow out of active programmes and direct field experience across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Researchers work alongside implementers, and findings feed back into how programmes are designed and delivered. This action research approach means that the questions we ask are shaped by real challenges on the ground, and the answers we find are tested against real conditions.

Our work covers the issues that matter most to inclusive digitalisation. For example how regulation shapes who gets access to technology, how digital tools can strengthen health systems, and how to ensure that the benefits of digitalisation reach everyone and not just those already well connected. We write for researchers, but also for policymakers and practitioners who need findings they can actually use.

Publications 

Larsson, C. W. (2026). Speaking back to the divide: Reassembling gender, mobile communication, and AI through feminist data justice in Zambia. Mobile Media & Communication, 0(0).
SPIDER staff
Examines of how mobile AI platforms reassemble the gendered digital divide.

Kabukye, J. K., Koot, J. A. R., Beltman, J. J., Nakatumba-Nabende, J., Katumba, A., et al. (2026). Frugal AI is the missing piece in cervical cancer screening. Nature Medicine, 1–3.
SPIDER staff
Argues that affordable, low-resource AI tools, rather than high-end technology, are what is needed to make cervical cancer screening viable at scale in low-income settings, with evidence from implementation in Uganda and beyond.

Kabukye, J. K., Djotsa, A. B. S. N., Joseph, A., Muya, C., Kithaka, B. N., Cira, M. K., et al. (2025). Leveraging virtual communities of practice for cancer control in Africa: Experiences from the Africa Cancer Research and Control ECHO. ecancermedicalscience, 19, 1878.
SPIDER staff
Examines how online communities of practice can connect cancer care professionals across Africa, sharing knowledge and building capacity in settings where specialist expertise is unevenly distributed.

Mölleryd, B., Ozger, M., Westring, M., Nordlöw, A., Schupke, D., Engström, U., & Sciammetta, N. (2025). Regulatory and spectrum policy challenges for combined airspace and non-terrestrial networks. Telecommunications Policy, 49(1), 102875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102875
SPIDER staff
Examines how ICT regulatory frameworks need to adapt to emerging airspace and satellite technologies.

Kabukye, J. K., Soomre, E., & Elmi, M. J. (2024). Digitalisering och global hälsa [Digitalisation and global health]. Expertgruppen för biståndsanalys (EBA).
SPIDER staff
A report in Swedish for Sweden's Expert Group for Aid Studies, examining the role of digitalisation in global health and its implications for Swedish development assistance. Available in Swedish.

Kabukye, J. K., Nakku, J., Niwemuhwezi, J., Nsereko, J., Namagembe, R., Groen, I. D. E., Neumbe, R., Mubiru, D., Kisakye, C., Nanyonga, R., Sjölinder, M., Nilsson, S., & Wamala-Larsson, C. (2024). Assessing the usage and usability of a mental health advice telephone service in Uganda: Mixed methods study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26, e65692. https://doi.org/10.2196/65692
SPIDER staff
Evaluates a toll-free telephone service delivering mental health information in Uganda, finding sustained usage and high user satisfaction across diverse groups.

Kabukye, J. K., Namagembe, R., Nakku, J., Kiberu, V., Sjölinder, M., Nilsson, S., & Wamala-Larsson, C. (2024). Implementing a hospital call center service for mental health in Uganda: User-centered design approach. JMIR Human Factors, 11, e53976. https://doi.org/10.2196/53976
SPIDER staff
Describes the design and implementation process for a hospital-based mental health call centre in Uganda, using a participatory approach to ensure the service met real user needs.

Baral, B., Hansson, H., & Larsson, U. (2024). Evaluating e-learning acceptance in Nepal: A case study of a Tribhuvan University affiliated college. Journal of Business and Social Sciences Research, 9(2), 139–156. https://doi.org/10.3126/jbssr.v9i2.72422
SPIDER staff
Investigates how teachers and students at a Nepali university responded to the introduction of a digital learning platform, identifying both the benefits and the infrastructure barriers to adoption.

Van Biljon, J., & Mwapwele, S. (2023). Research collaboration in asymmetric power relations: A study of postgraduate students' views. The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 19(1), 1288. https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v19i1.1288
Project and supported research
Explores how power dynamics shape research collaboration between postgraduate students from the Global South and their supervisors, drawing on students supported through SPIDER's research capacity building programmes.

Sukums, F., Kisenge, R., & Wamala-Larsson, C. (2023). Assessment of ICT services using the Information Technology Infrastructure Library framework at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania. East African Journal of Science, Technology and Innovation, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.37425/eajsti.v4i3.643
SPIDER staff
Maps and assesses 84 ICT services at a major Tanzanian health sciences university, providing a practical model for other institutions in resource-constrained settings undertaking digital transformation.

Kabukye, J. K., Namugga, J., Mpamani, C., Katumba, A., Nakatumba-Nabende, J., Nabuuma, H., Musoke, S., Nankya, E., Soomre, E., Nakisige, C., & Orem, J. (2023). Implementing smartphone-based telemedicine for cervical cancer screening in Uganda: Qualitative study of stakeholders' perceptions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e45132. https://doi.org/10.2196/45132
SPIDER staff
Explores how healthcare workers, patients, and managers in Uganda perceived the introduction of smartphone-based screening tools, identifying what drives or hinders adoption of digital health technologies in low-resource settings.

Kabukye, J. K., Kakungulu, E., de Keizer, N., & Cornet, R. (2022). Digital health in oncology in Africa: A scoping review and cross-sectional survey. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 158, 104659.
SPIDER staff
Maps the current state of digital health tools used in cancer care across Africa, identifying where adoption is strongest, where gaps remain, and what conditions enable digital health to take hold in under-resourced oncology settings.

Ilozumba, O., Kabukye, J., de Keizer, N., Cornet, R., & Broerse, J. E. W. (2022). Cancer as a death sentence: Developing an initial program theory for an IVR intervention. Health Promotion International, 37(3), daac070.
SPIDER staff
Explores how fatalistic attitudes toward cancer diagnosis in Uganda shape patients' engagement with health services, and develops a theoretical framework for designing interactive voice response interventions that can shift those perceptions.

Chiwona-Karltun, L., Amuakwa-Mensah, F., Wamala-Larsson, C., Amuakwa-Mensah, S., Abu Hatab, A., Made, N., & Bizoza, A. R. (2021). COVID-19: From health crises to food security anxiety and policy implications. Ambio, 50, 794–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01453-6
SPIDER staff
Analyses the cascading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security across the Global South, research conducted within a Sida-supported bilateral university programme with University of Rwanda in which SPIDER participates.

Mwapwele, S. D., & van Biljon, J. (2021). Novice researchers' perspectives on affordances in ICT4D research collaboration. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 87(5), e12177. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12177
Project and supported research
Examines how early-career researchers experience collaboration in ICT4D projects, drawing on the perspectives of postgraduate students supported through SPIDER's research capacity building programmes.

Mwapwele, S. D., & van Biljon, J. (2021). Novice researchers' perspectives on affordances in ICT4D research collaboration. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 87(5), e12177. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12177
Project and supported research
Examines how early-career researchers experience collaboration in ICT4D projects, drawing on the perspectives of postgraduate students supported through SPIDER's research capacity building programmes.

Popova, I., & Fabre, G. (2017). Digital inclusion of secondary schools' subject teachers in Bolivia. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 13(3).
SPIDER affiliated, Project and supported research
Examines how secondary school teachers in Bolivia engaged with digital tools, contributing to SPIDER's broader work on digital inclusion and the conditions under which technology adoption succeeds in under-resourced educational settings.

Wamala Larsson, C., & Svensson, J. (2018). Mobile phones in the transformation of the informal economy: Stories from market women in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 12(3), 533–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2018.1484328
SPIDER staff
Documents how market women in Kampala used mobile phones to navigate and reshape their economic lives, contributing to SPIDER's research on gender, technology, and informal economic empowerment.

Svensson, J., & Wamala Larsson, C. (2016). Situated empowerment: Mobile phone practices among market women in Kampala. Mobile Media & Communication, 4(2), 205–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157915619212
SPIDER staff
Explores how mobile phone use among market women in Kampala created new forms of agency and empowerment, grounded in the specific social and economic contexts in which women lived and worked.

Wamala, C. V. (2014). Theater, gender, and development: Merging traditional and new media to address communication challenges in Uganda. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 39(4), 866–874. https://doi.org/10.1086/675539
SPIDER staff
Examines how combining theatre with digital media created more effective development communication in Uganda, with implications for how inclusive approaches to technology can reach marginalised communities.

Kemppainen, J., Mpogole, H., Tedre, M., & Chachage, B. (2014). Validated risk identification tool for ICT in international development co-operation projects. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 64(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2014.tb00459.x
Project and supported research
Develops and validates a practical tool for identifying risks in ICT development projects, produced with SPIDER funding and directly applicable to the kinds of programmes SPIDER coordinates.

SPIDER ICT4D series

The first SPIDER ICT4D series was published in 2009. Each publication focus on a certain aspect of digital development.

1. ICT for Mitigating HIV/Aids in Southern Africa
2. Mobile banking - financial services for the unbanked?
3. Increasing transparency and fighting corruption through ICT
4. Empowering women through ICT
5. Modeling ICT4D: system dynamics model of
   Swedish university projects
6. ICT for anti-corruption, democracy and education in East Africa