Research & Knowledge
Publications
Books, chapters, journal articles, field manuals and commentary from the Mbuntu Foundation (formerly the Salama SHIELD Foundation) and its collaborators: four decades of participatory, community-led research across East and Southern Africa and Canada.
SACCOs, Social Collateral and Bitcoin Communities: A Filmmaker Documents New (and Old) Ways to Extend Financial Inclusion Past the Limits of Fintech
By Luke Willms · Guest article
Drawing on the documentary Unbankable, Luke Willms follows savings cooperatives (SACCOs), peer-backed lending and group accountability: community systems where members make the rules and share the returns, and where the group itself stands in for collateral. Set against the debt traps of app-based digital lending, these older models offer a more durable path to financial inclusion.
Read on NextBillion ↗“The group was the security: This was social collateral in action.”
— L. Willms, NextBillion, 2025
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No. 19
What is ‘Trust’ for Women Entrepreneurs in Uganda?
Dennis G. Willms, Donald M. Wagner
Paper submitted for publication.
Journal article2019 -
No. 18
Micro-credit for WaSH: A Choice for Women in Uganda
Dennis G. Willms, Rose Kawere, Hajat Sarah Matovu
Solutions, Vol. 7, No. 6, pp. 85–92.
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No. 17
Conceptual Events: Bridging the Epistemological Divide Amongst Stakeholders
Dennis G. Willms
In J.J. Kirton, A.F. Cooper, F. Lisk and H. Besada (eds.), Moving Health Sovereignty in Africa: Disease, Governance, and Climate Change, pp. 85–94. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate.
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No. 16
Can Interfaith Research Partnerships Develop New Paradigms for Condom Use and HIV Prevention? The Implementation of Conceptual Events in Malawi Results in the ‘Spiritualised Condom’
Dennis G. Willms, Maria-Ines Arratia, Patrick Makondesa
Sexually Transmitted Infections, Vol. 87, No. 7 (December), pp. 611–615.
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No. 15
Climate Change and Conflict in Africa
Dennis G. Willms, Karolina Werner
In Nelson A. Sewankambo and Hany Besada (eds.), CIGI Special Report: Climate Change in Africa: Adaptation, Mitigation and Governance Challenges, pp. 26–29. Centre for International Governance Innovation.
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No. 14
Transdisciplinary Research in the Community
Nick Higginbotham, Dennis Willms, Nelson Sewankambo
In N. Higginbotham, G. Albrecht and L. Connor (eds.), Health Social Science: A Transdisciplinary and Complexity Perspective, pp. 175–199. Oxford University Press.
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No. 13
Representing HIV/AIDS Concerns in Uganda: The Genogram as a Visual Complement to Ethnographic and Epistemological Evidence
Nelson K. Sewankambo, Patricia A. Spittal, Dennis G. Willms
Chapter 6 in N. Higginbotham, R. Briceño-León and N. Johnson (eds.), Applying Health Social Science: Best Practice in the Developing World, pp. 141–163. London: Zed Books.
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No. 12
Nurtured by Knowledge: Learning to Do Participatory Action-Research
Susan E. Smith, Dennis G. Willms, Nancy A. Johnson (eds.)
New York and Ottawa: The Apex Press and International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
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No. 11
“We Are Dying. It Is Finished!”: Linking an Ethnographic Research Design to an HIV/AIDS Participatory Approach in Uganda
Patricia Spittal, Janette Nakuti, Nelson Sewankambo, Dennis Willms
In S.E. Smith, D.G. Willms and N. Johnson (eds.), Nurtured by Knowledge, pp. 86–110. The Apex Press and IDRC.
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No. 10
We Begin Our Research on Our Being
Dennis G. Willms
In S. Smith and D.G. Willms with N. Johnson (eds.), Nurtured by Knowledge, pp. 7–12. The Apex Press and IDRC Books.
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No. 09
Participatory Aspects in the Qualitative Research Design of Phase II of the Ethnocultural Communities Facing AIDS Study
Dennis Willms, Sharon Manson-Singer, Alix Adrien, et al.
Canadian Journal of Public Health, Special Supplement (May–June), pp. S15–S25.
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No. 08
Five Conversations: Reflections of Stakeholders on the Impact of the Ethnocultural Communities Facing AIDS Study
Dennis Willms, Reeta Bhatia, Jeff Lowe, et al.
Canadian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 87, Special Supplement (May–June), pp. S44–S48.
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No. 07
Designing an HIV/AIDS Intervention for Traditional Healers in Zimbabwe
Dennis Willms, Alfred Chingono, Maureen Wellington, Nancy A. Johnson
New York: International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) Monograph Series, No. 4 (February).
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No. 06
Essentials in Qualitative Research: A Notebook for the Field
Dennis G. Willms, Nancy A. Johnson
Plattsville, ON: Salama SHIELD Foundation (105 pages).
Field manual1996On request -
No. 05
AIDS Prevention in the Matare and the Community: A Training Strategy for Traditional Healers in Zimbabwe
Dennis G. Willms, et al.
Plattsville, ON: Salama SHIELD Foundation.
Training manual1995On request -
No. 04
A Lament by Women for “the People, the Land” [Nishnawbi-Aski Nation]: An Experience of Loss
Dennis Willms, Elizabeth Lindsay, Donald Cole, et al.
Canadian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 83, No. 5 (September/October), pp. 331–334.
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No. 03
Dilemmas, Trends, and Transformations in Community Health Worker Situations: Kenya’s ‘Nyamrerua’ of Saradidi
Dennis G. Willms
Environments, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 101–111.
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No. 02
Epistemological Relevances in Community-Based Health Care Programmes in the Republic of Kenya
Dennis G. Willms
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
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No. 01
Community-Based Health Care Programs in Kenya: Three Case Studies in Planning and Implementation
Dennis G. Willms
Chapter 22 in John H. Morgan (ed.), Third World Medicine and Social Change: A Reader in Social Science and Medicine, pp. 285–312. University Press of America.