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More Digital, More Impact: How Digital Transformation Boosts Impact of Projects in the Asia, Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean Regions

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2019), 25 pp.

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Digital Future

D+C: Development and Cooperation, issue September (2019), pp. 19-33

"From the mid-90s to the Arab spring of 2011, a sense of euphoria was common. Before the 1990s, however, information technology simply did not seem relevant in developing countries. That began to change when international media became aware of the IT hub that had evolved around Bangalore. Next, inte ... rnet access spread fast, and, though digital divides persisted, the World Wide Web came ever closer to living up to its name. Then mobile telephony conquered much of Africa. Suddenly, Kenya was pioneering mobile money. Digital technology was making a difference in evermore people’s lives, and masses of them were poor. Mobile phones became commonly used devices even in remote villages. People got access to more information than ever before and started to interact with others who were far away. In many ways, digitalisation proved empowering. For example, social media were essential in the Arab spring. As dictators were toppled, journalists spoke of “Facebook revolutions”. That was then. Platforms that seemed to facilitate free communication in early 2011 are now infested with disinformation and propaganda. Moreover, the business models of established media houses are being undermined, to the detriment of quality journalism. Instead of living in “knowledge societies” as we were promised, it is getting harder to understand our world. As a general trend, both public administrations and private-sector businesses are being computerised. Digital disruption is common, and leaders in both spheres are paying increasingly close attention to what is discussed online. Some are doing their best to manipulate public discourse. Authoritarian populism is gaining ground, while the respect for democracy seems to be waning in many places. China’s communist regime is leading the trend of monitoring citizens, but other governments seem all too eager to follow. At the same time, the corporate powers that dominate the internet today are still largely beyond government control. They are not paying taxes commensurate with their revenues. The top managers cultivate a liberal image, but their lobbyists are really only striving to protect the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple from regulation. The algorithms of Facebook and YouTube, which belong to Google’s parent company Alphabet, are driving the radicalisation of angry people by offering users ever more extreme content. That trick keeps them on the platform. Digitalisation is shaping our species’ future. We need sensible rules. The forces that dominate the web are far more powerful than most nation states. The only three political entities that still seem able to regulate them are the USA, China and the EU. At this point, only the EU shows a preference for protecting citizens’ rights. If other countries want to have an impact, they must forge alliances. That way they can tap technology’s still promising potentials and keep a check on the risks. There is no alternative – unless we want to surrender to overwhelming corporate and state power." (Editorial, page 3) more

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Mobiltelefone in Afrika = Mobile Phones in Africa

Christine Hoffendahl

Hamburg: German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) (2019), 29 pp.

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Förderung von Digitalisierung in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage der Abgeordneten Markus Frohnmaier, Stefan Keuter und der Fraktion der AfD

Deutscher Bundestag, 19. Wahlperiode (2019), 31 pp.

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Glossar: Digitalisierung in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Fachbegriffe aus der digitalen Welt für die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

Bonn, Berlin: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) (2019), 108 pp.

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Information and Communications for Development 2018: Data-Driven Development

Washington, DC: World Bank (2019), xxi, 152 pp.

"This report shows how governments in developing countries can enhance their use of data to provide better services to citizens. It also shows how the business sector is starting to capitalize on data for competitive advantage. For citizens, the report argues that new tools can allow them to take mo ... more

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Sustainable Digitalization: Guidelines for a Digitalization We Need for the Future We Want

Berlin: German NGO Forum on Environment and Development (2019), 8 pp.

"If digitalization truly is an element of great social change, it has to be sustainable, fair, and relevant to all people and working for the common good. Without proper discussions on benefits or risk, without democratic control and regulations, technologies have the potential to lead to more and n ... more

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Was Bits und Bäume verbindet: Digitalisierung nachhaltig gestalten

Anja Höfner, Vivian Frick (eds.)

München: oekom Verlag (2019), 144 pp.

"Knapp 2.000 Menschen zog die ‹Bits & Bäume› im November 2018 an die Technische Universität Berlin. Dieser Zuspruch verdeutlicht die Lücke, die wir mit unserer Veranstaltung gefüllt haben: Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit als zwei wesentliche aktuelle Herausforderungen unserer Gesellscha ... more

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Instrumentalising the Digital: Adolescents’ Engagement with ICTs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Shakuntala Banaji, Sonia Livingstone, Anulekha Nandi, Mariya Stoilova

Development in Practice, volume 28, issue 3 (2018), pp. 432-443

"In development agendas regarding children in low-income communities, both older and emerging media are typically ignored or assumed to have beneficial powers that will redress social and gender inequality. This article builds on a recent rapid evidence review on adolescents’ digital media use and ... more

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More Than Just Bitcoin: The Potential of Blockchain Technology, Using the Example of Latin America

Christian Hübner

KAS International Reports, issue 1 (2018), pp. 64-77

"Blockchain tehcnology (BT) can make a significant contribution to the future development of Latin America. It provides a robust alternative to weak state authorities in the fight for democratically legitimised laws and standards that have only been applied to a limited extent, or not at all. BT cou ... more

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Digital Innovation Made in Africa for Sustainable and Inclusive Development, Volume 2

Stephanie Wiedner, Jonas Schug

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2018), 48 pp.

"With the second volume in the series Digital Innovation Made in Africa, we want to raise awareness of the enormous potential of young entrepreneurs in Africa. In this edition, the Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative Make-IT in Africa presents innovative initiatives and projects that have attracted att ... more

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Creating Mobile Health Solutions for Behaviour Change: A Study of Eight Services in the MNutrition Initiative Portfolio

Kim Viljoen, Tobias Wacker

London: GSMA; Altai Consulting (2018), 50 pp.

"The GSMA mHealth programme, under the mNutrition Initiative funded by UK aid (the UK Department for International Development, DFID), has been working with mobile network operators (MNOs) and other mobile and health sector stakeholders to support the launch and scale of mobile health (mHealth) valu ... more

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Reflecting the Past, Shaping the Future: Making AI Work for International Development

Amy Paul, Craig Jolley, Aubra Anthony

USAID (2018), 97 pp.

"This document aims to inform and empower those who may have limited technical experience as they navigate an emerging ML/AI landscape in developing countries. Donors, implementers, and other development partners should expect to come away with a basic grasp of common ML techniques and the problems ... more

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From Simple Fixes to Systemic Enablers: The Future of Digital Development

Ben Ramalingam, Becky Faith, Kevin Hernandez, Pedro Prieto Martin, Tony Roberts

Brighton: Institute of Development Studies (IDS) (2018), 16 pp.

"Far too often the implicit theory of change in digital developments, as with technology for development more generally, is that importing technologies can fix development. This does not acknowledge the political and social transformations that are needed to address and overcome economic and power a ... more

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Digital Innovation Made in Africa for Sustainable and Inclusive Development

Jan Schwaab, Stephanie Wiedner, Kathleen Ziemann

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2018), 48 pp.

"Innovative Entrepreneurship is one of the key drivers behind Africa’s digital transformation. For many young people, entrepreneurship is often the best way to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Innovative entrepreneurs know their local markets and understand the social context. This gives them a co ... more

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Google Scholar (199)

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Empowerment as Development: An Outline of an Analytical Concept for the Study of ICTs in the Global South

Jakob Svensson

In: Handbook of Communication for Development and Social Change

Jan Servaes (ed.)

Singapore: Springer (2018), 19 pp.

"It is a certainty that the proliferation of ICTs (mobile phones in particular) has opened up a range of possibilities and new avenues for individuals, aid agencies, and NGOs. However, overviews of communication supposedly for development reveal a field based on economic understandings of developmen ... more

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Experiences of ICT Use in Shared, Public Access Settings in Philippine Slums

Cheryll Ruth Soriano, Ruepert Jiel Cao, Marianne Sison

Development in Practice, volume 28, issue 3 (2018), pp. 358-373

"This article examines how privacy is understood, lived, and negotiated by youth users of information and communication technology (ICT) in slum communities in the Philippines. In the context of shared and public access arrangements prevalent in many low-income communities in the Global South, the a ... more

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Donor Organizations and the Principles for Digital Development: A Landscape Assessment and Gap Analysis

Björn Haßler, Meaghan Brugha, Chisenga Muyoya, Joel Mitchell, David Hollow, Alan Jackson

London: Jigsaw Consult (2018), 39 pp.

"This study engages with a comprehensive spectrum of stakeholders within the development and aid sectors around the role of digital, and the ideals that guide that role. The Principles for Digital Development, stewarded by Digital Impact Alliance, and the community of endorsers present a key forum f ... more

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The Digital Nonprofit Skills Assessment

NetHope (2018), 25 pp.

"This Digital Nonprofit Skills (“DNS”) Assessment is the second white paper in a series of benchmarks established by NetHope’s Center for the Digital Nonprofit that provide insight into the opportunities and challenges for transforming the nonprofit sector. The first white paper, the Digital N ... onprofit Ability (“DNA”) Assessment, measured the general readiness of NGOs for digital transformation by surveying respondent organizations’ progress along two axes: their connectedness with beneficiary interests, and the automation of their operations. Respondents, as a whole, achieved DNA scores that clustered just below the digital threshold, indicating they were Tech-Enabled nonprofits and approaching the point at which they were ready to become Digital nonprofits. The DNA study noted that digital transformation requires investment in three areas: people, process, and technology; and that the journey toward digital transformation starts with people changing the way they work made possible by technology. The DNA identified that the people and process categories were, on average, hindering NGO digital transformation. This second self-assessment takes the next step for participating NGOs by measuring certain details about the skills of people for future transformation efforts, focusing on six digitally-oriented aspects of how we work. To provide a broad assessment of skills, both across the sector and within organizations, the survey was taken by over 300 people from 49 nonprofits (37 of which are NetHope members) representing $20.6 billion of annual aid, covering seven job functions and six categories of humanitarian organizations, and representing every geographical region of the world except Australia. Respondents answered 18 questions in six categories which represent the structure of NetHope’s Digital Skills Framework that is based upon research into technology trends, existing frameworks, and digital skills needed for success. Respondents answered each question twice: once on behalf of their organization according to their beliefs about the organization as a whole (the organization score), and a second time answering strictly on their own behalf as they would rate themselves (the individual score). more

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Social Tech Ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa
Deep Insights

Christopher Csíkszentmihályi, Gemma Rodrigues et al.

Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI) (2018), 86 pp.

"Around the world diverse actors are working to develop technology that directly improves social conditions. This report refers to these types of technology as ‘social tech’. Examples of social tech include anti-corruption systems for citizens to report bribes; communications platforms for refug ... more

Social Tech Ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa Deep Insights

Social Tech Ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa
Deep Insights