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"From the written word to the mobile phone, every major technology has reached people with strong social capital first. This is not a failure of the technology. It is a sociological constant. People who are well-connected and institutionally embedded always benefit from new tools first. However, pub
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Smartphone Distribution Alone Will Never Close the Gender Gap
ICTworks, August 11 (2026)
"Surprise! Giving smartphones to women doesn’t work. A rigorous study from Tanzania tracked women who received smartphones through a distribution program and found that only 34% still possessed their handsets after 13 months. Let that sink in. We’re achieving a 66% failure rate on the most basic
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"When I first compiled the list of every African country’s national eHealth strategy or digital health policy back in 2020, the dominant instrument across the continent was a five-year national eHealth strategy. They were written to a WHO Global Observatory template, often expired, frequently undi
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Practical Insights on Chatbots: How Chatbots Improve International Development Programs
ICTworks (2026)
"Chatbots with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities are emerging as powerful tools in enhancing international development outcomes. These digital assistants are reshaping online interactions and are increasingly leveraged to address complex challenges in developing countries. Their impact o
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"A new study in the International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science surveyed 200 women micro-entrepreneurs in Bengaluru and reported that 32.5% of them are “actively using at least one AI-enabled tool” in their businesses. The tools, according to the paper, include KhataBook (
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"In the Santiago River Basin of Peru’s Amazonas region, an ambitious initiative is underway to bridge the digital divide and bring reliable internet connectivity to rural communities. The “Connectivity for the Santiago River Basin” project, led by a multi-stakeholder alliance, aims to foster s
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"The promise of technology as a vehicle for African economic development often comes wrapped in the values and norms of the Global North. Western-designed software, pervasive across the Continent, reflects ideologies that may not align with indigenous African values. Digital colonialism is the enfor
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"The United States has long held the position of the world’s single largest donor to humanitarian aid, a fact clearly illustrated by data from the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS). In 2024, the US contributed a staggering $13.80 billion to humanitarian efforts globally, representing 43.04%
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15 ICT4D Solutions Transforming Health, Education, Agriculture Sectors in International Development
ICTworks (2025)
"This analysis examines current implementations and emerging trends across international development sectors like health, education, and agriculture. Digital solutions are fostering innovation, improving service delivery, and enhancing economic opportunities. As we move deeper into the digital age,
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Rethinking Open Source in the Age of Foundational AI Models
Deep Insights
ICTworks, July 29 (2025)
"As the global artificial intelligence community wrestles with the tension between scale and accessibility, recent work by researchers at Lelapa AI offers a compelling example of what inclusive, efficient AI can look like. Around the world, the push to shrink massive language models into deployable,
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A Great Open Source Race: China vs India vs the African Continent
ICTworks, August 19 (2025)
"China now leads the world with 2.2 million active open source software developers, while India’s 2+ million contributors already overtook Europe and the US in total numbers. African countries show the fastest growth rates globally, but the China-India race creates both opportunities and challenge
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Giving Thanks: Top 15 Digital Development Blogs Focused on LMICs
ICTworks, November 27 (2025)
"Analysis of the 15 most influential ICT4D blogs reveals three dominant meta-themes reshaping the field in the last few years. None of these topics should surprise long-term ICTworks readers: responsible AI deployment and governance; digital public infrastructure as foundational systems; critical po
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How Do You Explain ChatGPT to a Community Health Worker?
ICTworks, December 2 (2025)
"I’ve been diving deep into groundbreaking research on community health worker (CHW) perceptions of AI applications in rural India. The truth is more complex than the rosy predictions flooding our sector about artificial intelligence transforming global health. The findings expose a troubling gap
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Open Source Software Trap: Our Fatal Business Model Flaw
ICTworks, July 1 (2025)
"I’ve been building open source software technology for NGOs for over a decade, and I have a confession: we’ve been living a lie. For years, I firmly believed that open source was the moral imperative that would democratize technology for the Global South. I championed platforms that could be fr
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5 Lessons Learned Running a Chatbot Service for Social Good
Deep Insights
ICTworks (2024)
"ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization focused on fighting extreme poverty and preventable diseases, particularly in Africa. ONE had been using mobile technologies to reach new audiences since 2012, leveraging SMS, USSD, IVR and mobile-optimized websites to provide a simple and easy for cit
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How InkubaLM is Revolutionizing Locally-Led Development in Africa
ICTworks, September 26 (2024)
"Language diversity on the African continent is both a cultural strength and a technological challenge. With over 2,000 spoken languages, mainstream artificial intelligence tools have largely ignored the vast majority of African languages, creating a significant barrier to the full participation of
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