Background and Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to depict the most essential aspects of the
“landscape” of authorities, organizations and service flows related with maternal healthcare from the
viewpoint of the local communities in the small town of Grabouw in Western Cape, South Africa.
Understanding the wider landscape is needed for understanding the “close-up” view of the maternal
healthcare services and activities in place in Grabouw, which in turn is a prerequisite for co-designing
ICT based tools for the caregivers.
Methods: The methodology for depicting information systems landscapes was applied in guiding the
data collection and in analyzing the data. Data was collected from public sources (government
documents, web sites, literature) and from administrators and educators with general knowledge..
Results: The geo-political structure around Grabouw consists of municipalities, districts, and the
province of Western Cape within the republic of South Africa, all of which have elected structures
with overall political authority. The structure of healthcare authority differs from the structure of
political authority – the provincial Department of Health and not the local municipality is in charge of
all healthcare facilities. The flow of healthcare services beyond Grabouw is defined by the referral
system, which in principle is aligned with the political structure but is adjusted to particular
geographic factors. Within the Grabouw community the service flow is guided by proximity of care
and the preferred services.
Conclusions: The results show that it is vital to understand the ‘healthcare landscape’ and the context
around maternal care in Grabouw. There is an overlap of geo-political and healthcare authority
structures, and information systems developers need to aware in order to develop useful, effective and
efficient ICT solutions. The landscape model has proven to be successful in understanding the
different elements of a ‘landscape’ around a community.