Professor X and Dr Y have been funded by their government research council in Europe, to investigate ways of providing advice about diagnosing common diseases in cattle and other farm animals in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor X is a veterinary specialist; Dr Y is a computer scientist. In the first phase of their work, they are collaborating with an NGO in one district of Northern Tanzania to design and test a proposed solution. The solution includes a mechanism so that farmers in the villages can request advice from a veterinary advisor based in the market town.
The trials were going fairly well with farmers making good use of the service, which resulted in 10 to 20 queries a day being handled. However, after some re-organisation in the NGO, the veterinary advisor asked for a raise, and cited the extra work of dealing with the electronic queries as one reason for the request. The NGO was unwilling to pay the extra, so the advisor refused to answer the queries unless his income was increased. Professor X & Dr Y did not have any spare resources in their budget to cover these extra expenses.
- What should Prof X & Dr Y do?
- What might they have done differently to avoid this situation?
- What are the ethics, roles & relationships relevant to this situation?
- What other questions do we need to ask about this scenario?
