change it! voices 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Revi Sterling, PhDFounding Director – ICTD Graduate Program
ChangeIT!How to take your
technical skills and put them to use as a digital humanitarian
Student speaking in Mexico Congress on
ICT for anti-trafficking
Agriculture extension tech project, Nigeria
Maternal health monitoring technology, Kenyatta
National Hospital
Distance education and water monitoring, Peru
This just in…“Most of the world’s 7.2 billion people still do not have
Internet access, but there is a lot that governments can do
to make sure their citizens are not left in the dark.”
“The good news in that most of humanity
now lives within read of wireless networks.
About half the world’s population, or 3.6 billion
people, had cellphone service last year, up
from 2.3 billion people in 2008. And one-third
of all people used mobile networks to connect
to the Internet last year.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/opinion/getting-the-
whole-world-online.html
For the other 2/3, we have
ICT for Development
– Software, hardware, services, policies to address some of the biggest barriers to sustainable human progress: climate change, conflict, food insecurity, gender inequity, lack of access to resources, migration, global price fluctuations…
– What can technology do to help end poverty, and how?
– What can you do with your technical skills?
Definitions:
• Development = “enlarging the pie” (opportunities, resources, capacity building, social well-being, democratization… no one wants to give up their piece of pie, so we have to make a bigger one – through ICT.)
• ICT = Information and Communication Technology
• ICTD = “” + Development
Why do we need ICTD?• Millennium Development Goals and 20 years of decline
• Can tie other development efforts together
• Technology is coming, regardless
• Current efforts in ICTD have been dismal
Technology’s Role in Development:• Infrastructure
• Capacity building/training in ICT
• Digital content and services
Who is doing ICTD?
Foundations
Think Tanks
NGOs
FBOs
Private Sector
Trade Associations
Development Agencies
Governments
Academia
ICTD 1.0 ICTD 2.0 ICTD 2015
Technology driven: telecenters, web, email
Engagement driven:Working with communities, platforms
Data driven: big data, open data, monitoring and evaluation, Internet of Things
Technology for technology’s sake
Technology to support development sectors
How do we define technology?
Access: bring people to technology
Bring technology to people
Who is left behind?
Equipment: recycled, donated, PC-based, technology charity
Custom hardware,mobile-based, pilots – but is it computer science?
Underserved places are the cutting edge locales to conduct tech research
Funding: CSR, high tech RFPs, fad donors, gov’t
Funding: foundations, “grand challenges”, tech moguls, BOP strategies, social entrepreneurship
Funding: crowdsourcing, partnerships, social enterprises, Dev RFPs combined w research
Adoption of ICTD: marginalized in development industry
Move towards mainstreaming, academic response, hackathons
Leapfrogging; Global South produces its own technology; technology as “glue” to sustain/scale
Palepu and Sterling
ICTD 1.0
UN Millennium Development Goals
“Measuring the impact of ICT in meeting the MDGs”
“ICT role in achieving the MDGs”“ICT - MDG linkage at regional and national level”
“MDGs & WSIS”
“ICT for Development: Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals”
“Innovation and Investment: ICT and the Millennium Development Goals”
“How ICT Can Help Us Meet the Millennium Development Goals”
• “Leapfrog” traditional development
• Information = empowerment
• Mobile/Internet Drive Economic Growth
‘Technology as panacea’ phase
Qiang, 2009
ICTD 2.0
Too many pilot projects
Mobile health projects in Uganda –pre moratorium
COVERAGE: In Africa just 50 percent of the rural population is covered by cell service
CONTENT: Language and literacy issues (500m)
COST: Internet costs average 1.7% of average income in developed vs. 31% in developing countries
-ITU
The “secret” digital divide
• Internet Gender Gap in SSA: 43%
• 25% gap worldwide (200M)
• 75% of the world’s poorest are women
• 500M illiterate women WW
• Inequitable development ≠ sustainable development
• Role of tech/role of culture
ICTD 2015
Post-2015 framework
Sterling, 2013
supply-side development
vs.
demand-side development
LeapfroggingNetworking and Connectivity Energy Monitoring and Evaluation
IPv6 (Bhutan); TV White Space; Google Loon, UAV/drones
Micro grids, phonecharging/light hybrids
Big Data, Open Data, Integrated sensors, Internet of Things
http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/files/Kelly_Techhubs_0.pdf
LookingAhead
Get to know Global Development!!
• Start with Wikipedia – “International Development”. Get a few books that come up under Introduction to International Development
• Look at the UN system, Center for Global Development, Institute of Development Studies, Overseas Development Institute, ELDIS, The Guardian (UK) Global Development news (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development)
• Beware of reading ONE pundit
Get to know ICTD!!!
• Don’t start with Wikipedia• http://www.ictworks.org/• http://paper.li/tag/ict4d (we do everything in twitter,
#ict4d #ictd #mhealth…)• http://paper.li/GBI_Net/1399905970• http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/• https://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/• ICTD Jobs: http://ict4djobs.com/• ITID Journal – Free from MIT press• Conference proceedings from ACM ICTD conferences
(ICTD2006, ICTD2007, ICTD2009, ICTD2010, ICTD2012, ICTD2013 – next is 2015)
What ICTD really needs• Mobile development• Big data/data scientists• Networking• Interoperability• HCI experts • Usability experts• Technologists with domain expertise in development areas
(agriculture, gender, mobile payment systems)• Policy people – esp for spectrum mgmt., privacy• NLP, Drupal, databases, embedded systems, educational software,
gamification, security (requests I’ve gotten w/in last 2 months)• Drones/hardware
But needs all these people to have a sense of context and culture that you can only get by knowing something about int’l development
(What’s been done before? What might/might not work?)
