Nine ways to harness tech for development
Ranjit Devraj, regional coordinator for South Asia,
SciDev.Net, New Delhi, India. @SciDevNet_SA
Don't be discouraged by way of illiteracy: Curiously, it is
illiterate Indians who're making the best use of the digital technology on
cellular phones geared up with cameras. Savvy fishermen on the coast of Kerala
country ship in pix in their catches to capability customers earlier than they
land. If the price is not proper they circulate up or down the coast to markets
in which they are confident of a good deal.
Improve coordination in the sector: Much of the generation
needed to improve the assembly of the millenium improvement desires (MDGs) already
exists, it is all a question of coordinating people, governments, business and
investment. Some countries might also need to collect the fundamentals while
others like Brazil and India have capacities to help themselves in addition to
different international locations. A local approach, if no longer a
international one, may be beneficial to get things shifting.
Danny Sriskandarajah, secretary standard, Civicus,
Johannesburg, South Africa. @civicusSG
Beware of the involvement of the personal region: The
involvement of the non-public area is a double-edged sword. In a few cases, it
has been key to success. In the case of cellular telephone proliferation, it
has only came about because marketers like Mo Ibrahim saw that there was cash
(and social precise) to be made even inside the poorest international
locations. But in other cases, it has include extreme issues such as effective
oligarchies that wipe out opposition, prevent local innovation, gasoline
corruption and are searching for rents.
Delia Lloyd, senior policy supervisor, BBC Media Action,
London, UK. @realdelia
Don't get seduced by the hype, assume out of doors of
'excessive-tech' technology: Innovation in improvement shouldn't be conflated
with era. There are many ways to innovate in development and masses of
different kinds of era can help us reap our desires. High tech isn't always the
manner to move. You have to pay attention to your audience's needs and what
types of technology exist already in their day by day lives and start from
there. Simple sorts of era along with interactive voice reaction often deliver
the only effects.
There is lots of hype around using tech in development, that
is regularly synonymous with the net however greater often with mobile phones.
At BBC Media Action, we love to mention that we are "tech agnostic" –
this means that that we do not begin with the generation. We begin with the
audience and use whatever technologies are most suitable to that area and
demographic.
Ida Jeng, director of worldwide communique and approach,
Refugees United, Nairobi, Kenya. @idajeng
Develop your technology inside the discipline: Especially in
the subject of humanitarian innovation, it's no longer always a great strategy
to construct your technical tools, apps or mobile tool in a convention room
somewhere in the West, and then try to implement and scale your product in a
small rural village. I'd want to see more technical gear and solutions being
built at the floor and in near coordination with the communities they may be
meant to serve. Whether it's in a refugee camp it truly is nearly not possible
to get admission to, or a small village with excessive climate situations.
Samia Melhem, lead policy officer, World Bank Washington DC
US. @WorldBank
Get cell operators on board: They are a effective set of
allies. We get bombarded with price of roaming facts as quickly as we land in a
new us of a. Why can't we get SMS-based totally facts about the college round
the corner, water points, fitness clinics, or road protection? If governments
and operators worked higher collectively we may want to even use SMS to foster
peace in war situations. The trouble is that non-business, MDG type content
material is beneath-exploited by means of mobile manufacturers, users and
companies. Donors have a massive function to play in addressing this.
Arvin Bunker, senior meals safety marketing consultant,
Crown Agents USA, Kansas City, US. @crownagents
Ensure that agricultural technologies advantage smallholder
farmers: Technology has the capability to accelerate development toward
specifically within the location of agriculture. Germplasm research
technologies have substantially changed agricultural manufacturing practices,
precision agriculture is beginning to do the identical and the era for far off
crop monitoring is expanding rapidly. Our mission as a development network is
to assist transformation of modern-day growing united states technologies to
work for smallholder producers and agribusinesses in developing areas.
Andrew G Mandelbaum, director of programmes,
SimSim-Participation Citoyenne, Rabat, Morocco. @SimSimPCM
Use technology to facilitate open get entry to of presidency
records: The post-2015 time table must deal with technology by imparting
incentives for governments that provide MDG information in open codecs that may
be processed the use of era. A government that is severe approximately
improvement might be inclined to permit citizens to check their work via
manipulating government records, and mixing and matching it with other
information sets to find out new ideas and links.
Raul Zambrano, senior coverage advisor, UNDP, New York City,
US. @raulza
Bridge the distance among selection makers and ICT
practitioners: Information and communications era (ICTs) need to be on
improvement coverage agendas to have any real impact at the floor. There is
however a coverage hole between key decision makers and ICT practitioners. The
former see ICT as simply another subject and possibly a good device to exchange
a few matters round. The latter tend to see ICTs as an result in themselves,
and one that could change everything by itself. This gap is possibly best
pondered inside the cutting-edge sustainable development desires or submit-2015
discussions where ICTs are barely mentioned.
Read more stories like this: Making ICTs work for social
justice and improvement How ICT tools are enhancing performance of agricultural
improvement Connected ladies: the use of cell telephones to defend migrants
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