Digital Storytelling & Co-Design in Africa’s Healthcare Landscape

Pillar

Network Learning & Development

Across Africa, communities are reimagining how health challenges are understood and solved — by drawing on their own stories, strengths, and ingenuity. Mothers, young leaders, and local health innovators are active co-creators of the continent’s health future. 

In this thought-provoking talk, Sampson Kofi Adotey, Associate Director of Communications at the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS), explores how Digital Storytelling (DST) and Co-Design can transform health systems by centering the people who live the stories. 

Rather than relying solely on top-down, data-heavy approaches, this model elevates community narratives as “thick data” — powerful insights that reveal the cultural and human dimensions behind the numbers. These stories subsequently inform co-designed interventions, ensuring initiatives like CHAMPS and the Africa Health Collaborative are not imported solutions but co-created with communities — culturally grounded, sustainable, and deeply resonant with the people they serve. 

What you’ll learn: 

• Stories as Catalysts for Change – How community narratives reveal insights that drive contextually grounded solutions. 

• Designing With, Not For – How digital storytelling and co-design amplify local creativity and lived expertise. 

• Power in Partnership – How Ubuntu-centered collaboration builds ownership and sustainability. 

Join communications leads, program directors, practitioners, researchers, and students for a conversation exploring how co-created storytelling can transform healthcare across Africa. 

The Speaker

Sampson Kofi Adotey, MBA, MPhil

Associate Director of Communications, Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) at The Task Force for Global Health