Speakers - 2026

Abstract

Digital technologies are transforming healthcare—expanding access, improving outcomes, and enhancing patient engagement. However, despite this promise, women around the world—especially in the Global South—are not benefiting equally from these innovations. According to the 2024 World Health Organization report, digital tools show significant potential for addressing women’s health issues, particularly in gynecology, mental health, and maternal care. Yet, gender disparities in digital access, skills, and representation persist, reinforcing existing inequalities.

This keynote explores how digital storytelling—the practice of creating and sharing personal narratives through multimedia—can serve as a powerful health promotion tool to address these disparities. Grounded in participatory and community-based approaches, digital storytelling empowers women to share lived experiences, challenge taboos, and foster peer learning—especially in areas where formal health communication is limited or stigmatized.

Drawing on my work with the CHAMPS health project, which focuses on maternal health and child mortality prevention, I will share insights from workshops conducted with local health promoters in Africa and South East Asia. These sessions revealed how storytelling fosters trust, emotional connection, and motivation, especially among women with low health literacy or limited access to care. Stories became not just educational tools—but catalysts for behavior change and community support.

To expand the reach and impact of digital storytelling as a knowledge transfer intervention, we are currently developing the Digital StoryHelper, a digital tool designed to guide individuals and communities in crafting and sharing their own health stories. This platform is built to support individuals, including women with low digital literacy, and can be adapted across different cultural and linguistic contexts. By amplifying women’s voices and experiences, the Digital StoryHelper aims to reduce stigma, increase health-seeking behaviors, and promote digital inclusion.

While the potential is significant, this approach is not without challenges. Barriers such as limited internet access, lack of digital skills, privacy concerns, and cultural norms must be addressed thoughtfully. Nonetheless, the opportunities are profound. Digital storytelling can reach women in remote or underserved areas, connect them with peers and health resources, and contribute to closing the gender digital divide in health.

In this keynote, I will argue that digital storytelling is not just a communication strategy—it is a tool for empowerment, equity, and systemic change. By integrating personal narrative with digital innovation, we can reimagine health promotion as an inclusive, participatory process—one that recognizes women not just as patients or beneficiaries, but as authors of change in their own communities. Digital storytelling can help bridge the gender digital divide, one story at a time.