SPIDER’s work to ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of the digital transformation is key to provide full access to society. The COVID-19 pandemic both widened the digital gap and made it the importance of closing it even more urgent.
Dr. Caroline Wamala Larsson has been appointed the new SPIDER director, assuming the position from 1 September 2022. Caroline is associate professor with a PhD in Gender and Technology from Luleå University of Technology.
Having been with SPIDER since 2011, Dr Wamala Larsson is already a familiar name to SPIDER connections. She has been the head of SPIDER’s research programme since 2015, managed bi-lateral collaborations with universities in Cambodia, Uganda and Tanzania as well as providing her expertise in gender and technology to capacity building programmes run by SPIDER.
When developing the SPIDER research programme, learned the benefits of co-creating with communities where initiatives are taking place. Research also supports the goal of anchoring implementation in the community, which ties well with sustaining and scaling digital efforts that are suitable and asked for by beneficiaries. Research helps us live up to “nothing for us without us” in our projects.
Caroline Wamala Larsson succeeds John Owour who has accepted a new role working with the Access to Assistive team within the Medicines and Health Products Unit at the World health Organization Head Quarters in Geneva.