About us

The Digital Health and Rights Project (DHRP) was launched in 2019 in response to the rapid growth of new partnerships by global and national health agencies with big tech companies, to gather empirical evidence of the effects of the digital transformation on young adults living with HIV and young key populations in low- and middle-income countries, and use this evidence to inform national and global health governance.

Working together, Sara (Meg) Davis (then Geneva Graduate Institute, now University of Warwick), Allan Maleche (KELIN), Mike Podmore (STOPAIDS), and leaders of the Global Network of People living with HIV (GNP+) launched a new partnership that uses participatory action research to build knowledge and expertise in national and global civil society networks. The consortium investigates how digital technologies, health, and human rights intersect in a context of global and local inequalities, and advocates collectively for rights of young adults and civil society in low- and middle-income countries. Building on learning and mobilization in the global HIV response, DHRP explores barriers to digital access, threats faced by marginalized groups online, and the transformative power of community-led networks for research, education and action from local to global levels.

Transnational Participatory Action Research

As a group of social scientists, human rights lawyers, health advocates, rights advocates, and communities living with and affected by HIV, we use a participatory action research approach: which the people being studied co-design the research, validate the findings, and use them in advocacy. Our rigorous social science research values lived experience as a form of expertise. National researchers at KELIN, NAP+ Ghana, Universidad de los Andes and VNP+ lead the research in each country, supported by University of Warwick.