Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00017208
UNDP EVENT
Online global consultation
Discussion: Digital Challenges and Solution for Sustainable Development ... 23 Aug - 24 Sep 2019
Peter Burgess
MODERATORS
Beniam Gebrezghi
Programme Specialist, Civil Society and Youth (UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub)
Lea Zoric
Facilitator – Community of Practice “Crisis Prevention and Resilience” (UNDP)
Martin Cadena
Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP)
Nina Grinman
Digital Strategist, Citizen engagement and Online Global Consultations (UNDP)
Romolo Tassone
Project Manager for Online Global Consultations (UNDP)
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comments
Welcome to an online global consultation leading up to the High-level side event of the 74th UN General Assembly. This consultation will take place from 25 August– 20 September 2019. It will provide an opportunity for all those interested in digital technology and how it can be applied to address global challenges.
The High-level side event at the 74th UN General Assembly in September 2019 will focus on “Disrupting Development: harnessing the power of digital to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”. We want to bring your voice to the event to help address some of the challenges and solutions! that digital technology has in delivering better results in the countries and communities in which UNDP works.
To take this discussion forward, we propose the following two questions:
1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues?
2. What are the breakthrough digital ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development?
Comments (51)
Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 3 days ago new Moderator
Greetings everyone, and welcome to this online global consultation. Let's take this opportunity to bring your lessons learned and case studies -from the vast experience you have- in the frame of the two posted questions. I will be one of your facilitator, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any related question to the consultation.
Looking forward to read your inputs and comments
Martin 4 likes
AdamRogers2030 AdamRogers2030 • from United States • 1 day ago new
In addressing the first question, I would like to bring up the power, presence and potential of social media in the new Millennium, and the influence it has in influencing mindsets and inspiring change— for better or for worse. Social Media thus has the ability to turbocharge efforts to achieve the SDGs. But what evidence is there out there of social media doing little more than seeking to raise awareness or self-promote? My concern is that it could be used for a whole lot more, but I am not sure exactly what. Does anyone have any ideas, or anecdotal examples?
2 likes
T Michelle Gapinsdal T Michelle Gapinsdal • 3 hours ago new
Before social media we used platforms and data banking. A good and dry environment was necessitates. So the truth is : social media is backup, plan B. 0 likes
Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 1 day ago new Moderator
Dear AdamRogers2030,
Thank you for your comment. I agree on social media potential in contributing to taking action towards the SDGs. I have seen some examples where colleagues have used social media to invite people to contribute to a project (i.e., crowdfunding) or to participate in a specific activity (i.e., reforestation). However, I do not know how effective these invites were.
Regarding your point on awareness, do you have any particular example of a challenge in raising awareness and how social media contributed to the solution?
1 like Default profile image Frank Dehnhard • founder at GLESI from Germany • 1 day ago new
Thanks to the GDH-team to put this important topic on the agenda.
We were frustrated that no ones seemed to care about IT 4 SDGs up to now.
Digital technology can become very useful to solve the SDGs. And social media as a small part has already proven to be effective. I don't think Fridays Fof Future would be what they are without social media. Neither would Greta be as popular nor would the movement have been growing so fast.
I believe the buring Amazon would still be unknown to most people.
And even online petitions have been working several times. If millions join and put pressure on politicians or companies it often works.
But there are many more areas where IT can become the solution to existing problems.
Please contact us for more details: frank.dehnhard at GLESI.org
1 like
Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 20 hours ago new Moderator
Dear Frank, thank you for your comment and welcome to this global discussion. We would love to hear more about your ideas to solve specific development problems using digital technologies, so we can go deep about them in this forum.
Best Martin 0 likes
Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
Let me draw your attention to an initiative that would be interesting to take to facilitate the adequacy and dissemination of innovations that could improve the lives of many people in developing countries.
It could be interesting :
To imagine a website in several languages which includes all open source plans, video tutorials, as for example the offer or the farmer lowtechlab.org workshop site, so that all developing countries benefit (including offline) of these innovations. It would be interesting to support and swarm labor lowtechlab that tests each upload technology, said the cost, time of implementation and the different stages of completion.
From this site complete with a description of all the low-tech products that already facilitate more fragile life in developing countries, such as the container Hippo water roller, the eye or a low cost phone oven to cook food safe and saving resources. It should list all these innovative devices that improve the lives of people in some countries and pooling knowledge on a site that lessons are learned from experience feedbacks on the ground. It would be interesting to proceed as lowtechlab that analyzes each innovation and launches than those actually shown their advantages in the field, to promote the swarming of the most successful solutions.
Such an initiative exists to problems related to climate through the Solar Impulse Foundation which accredits solutions after analyzing them and it would be interesting to do the same for all products or services that improve people's lives in a country and that could be deployed in other countries subject to the same constraints. An inter-agency unit could be set up to uncover all these innovations and promote their spin: this would commit few resources, but contribute to a great improvement in the lives of people in developing countries.
Enter the coordinates of the companies that produce these goods so they can be contacted by interested countries and promote swarming. Prices must be indicated and the establishment of local manufacturing units in each country should be privileged Import to promote ownership of the solutions by the locals.
In any case, I recommend an inventory of each region of each developing country and a list of problems faced by the residents, such as having to make kilometers each day to fetch water or lack of wood for cooking, and try to get in front of each problem, one or more products or services that could facilitate people's lives. If for example, it comes to 10 kilometers a day to fetch water at a water point in carrying a bucket of 20 liters on the head, it would be appropriate to set up the phony solution rolls to carry more water, more quickly, with less fatigue and more time and energy to devote to other tasks, such as trade or agriculture for example.
The process must be systematized after stress analysis of each region and entrepreneurs helped to spread their solutions to help people waiting longer term, the establishment of water networks, gas, 'electricity, …..
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
http://lowtechlab.org/wiki/Explore
https://www.latelierpaysan.org/
http://www.solidarum.org/besoins-essentiels/hippo-water-roller-bidon-qui-roule-ca-coule-de-source
https://www.jeuneafrique.com/149477/societe/l-eye-phone-outil-prometteur-de-diagnostic-oculaire-dans-les-pays-pauvres/
https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/energie-environnement/bertrand-piccard-en-quete-de-1-000-solutions-pour-changer-le-monde-780315.html
https://solarimpulse.com/
1 like
Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 14 hours ago new Moderator
Dear Patrick, thank you for your inputs, and for the subsequent detailed posts on your ideas and the examples of different initiatives which are using digital technologies to solve some development problems. The inventory of challenges could also be extended to developed countries, recognizing that one of the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals is its universality. As we may expect rapid changes in the environment during the next decades, new problems will be faced in developed and developing countries. 0 likes
Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
Let me share with you a great article from the last Harvard issue Business Review France because it addresses important issues on the market will be the fastest growing in the current decade and French companies must take their part in changing their approach to these markets to enjoy the highest source of growth in many areas. One point seems important for business growth in Africa: staff training I discuss a little later in this post. The state has a pivotal role to play in setting up training systems in African countries so that French companies have the best country's human resources.
Africa has become an important laboratory tests for global innovation. If you are able to create a product, a service or a business model that is profitable enough and strong to succeed in Africa, there is a good chance that it is competitive in many other parts of the world.
We will not minimize the difficulties associated with exercising commercial activities in Africa (whose difficulties are well aware business leaders successful). Because of inadequate infrastructure, companies will develop their own supply chain, for example, and lack of adequate public education, they will train employees in basic skills and attitudes. But as we shall see, these challenges also offer opportunities in terms of value creation.
This is to develop a shock-production model with vertical integration, producing electricity on site, a strong commitment with the government and a school dedicated to careers in industry and commerce. Local production of goods could be interesting if more manufacturers would use co-investment to make the most of the production lines: for example, several players in the food industry could share investment costs and make chains more flexible production to produce locally each of the product lines in the same plant, adapting to local tastes through crowdsourcing.
Another important point to consider: In the US, e-commerce is now slowly changing age-old business habits, while in Africa, it is creating habits. People make their first big purchases, such as smartphones, and their first purchases online simultaneously. These innovations could enable Africa to bypass the high costs of physical retail and proceed directly to an e-commerce model offering consumers more choice and lower prices, regardless of their place of residence. The choice to partner with an emerging platform as jumia to market products sounds like a good option.
Finally, with this number of young people entering the African labor market, innovation in education and skills development is essential. It is also useful in the world: more than 75 million young people worldwide are unemployed, while many companies do not find people with the necessary skills to fill entry-level jobs. This is partly due to the fact that many educational systems provide neither the expertise nor the behavioral skills needed to succeed and adapt to a world of rapidly changing labor. In order to have the staff fully trained, it is important to develop training courses that offer immersive programs of 'training camp' for six to eight weeks to strengthen the preparation for employment in related fields by providing adequate technical knowledge but also role playing and team exercises to transmit behavioral and psychological skills such as punctuality and resilience. To reduce the cost of these structures while maintaining their effectiveness, companies could follow the example of the African Leadership University, or ALU. Its campus allow students to manage their own education using technology, learning, peer-to-peer and internships four months in partner companies, thus giving the ALU able to cope with a reduced teaching staff. Their university produces talent competing with students from Harvard and Stanford, but they do it by using a tenth of the housing stock and this for one-tenth to one-twentieth of the cost. This training model already exists in France, such as kitchenhttps://www.cuisinemodemplois.com/ created by Chef Thierry Marx to make immediately operational apprentices in no time. It remains to deploy training courses throughout Africa. This could also be declined elsewhere in Asia, as did for example the cheese Bel https://www.novethic.fr/isr-et-rse/pratiquer-la-rse/bonnes-pratiques/isr-rse/ in-working-with-sellers-of-street-bel-wants-balance-PROFITABILITY-and safe-impact-social-145393.html .
This also implies rethinking the business model for a genuine dialogue with customers by exploiting imaginatively technology, particularly to reduce costs and price ranges. This is the guarantee of success.
What pushes innovators in Africa to get out of bed every morning to navigate this complex terrain and continue to expand their business? What they have in common, in our experience, it is a deeper motivation. Faced with high rates of poverty in Africa and its infrastructure needs, education and health care, they will not only see trade barriers; they see human problems it belongs to them, they say, to find solutions. To succeed, you must be more than a businessman. You must be a citizen of responsibility adoption. If you see a problem, think about how to solve part. What is exciting is to ask: 'What is the root cause of this problem? What can we do to tackle this root cause? '. ' There is an opportunity for the private sector to join in the efforts to eradicate poverty and to collaborate with the public sector and civil society to promote the creation of large-scale job. This will require a change in mentality in everyone. Whole sectors and leaders themselves have become significantly; it can not be like before. This trend is at work all over the world and Africa is one of the best places to change business practices, especially a company that will help solve some of the problems faced daily by Africans will anchor permanently in the country's history. 'It is no fun to play small, to be satisfied with life than you are capable of living. '
The human race has never been so many resources, knowledge and technology at its disposal, but there is still much to do to these advances translate into decent livelihoods and lives worthy for all the peoples of world. We believe that innovation by small and large companies can play a central role in addressing global challenges and pave the way for a collective of abundance. Tackling deprivation still widespread in Africa will be an important step in achieving this goal. But the challenges that characterize Africa are present surprisingly in all other regions.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
https://www.hbrfrance.fr/magazine/2019/03/24757-afrique-un-creuset-pour-la-creativite/
https://www.amazon.fr/Africas-Business-Revolution-Succeed-Worlds-ebook/dp/B078VF9S5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1552683695&sr=8-1&keywords=ACHA+LEKE
Allow me to include the full article (no graphics) that will give you concrete examples of success and the means to implement to achieve this and I can only suggest you subscribe to this magazine that produces articles very interesting and high level.
How many companies in Africa have an annual income of $ 1 billion or more? Most international executives with whom we spoke believe that there are fewer than a hundred. Many meet 'zero.' Reality ? There are four hundred such organizations - and they have, on average, both higher growth and higher profitability than their similar enterprises in the world.
We have advised many of these companies when they are expanded rapidly throughout Africa and beyond, and we observed an unexpected side effect of this surge in growth: Africa has become an important laboratory tests for global innovation. If you are able to create a product, a service or a business model that is profitable enough and strong to succeed in Africa, there is a good chance that it is competitive in many other parts of the world.
We will not minimize the difficulties associated with exercising commercial activities in Africa (whose difficulties are well aware business leaders successful). Because of inadequate infrastructure, companies will develop their own supply chain, for example, and lack of adequate public education, they will train employees in basic skills and attitudes. But as we shall see, these challenges also offer opportunities in terms of value creation.
To help managers and executives of large companies to identify innovations born in Africa they can learn with which to partner, or where they can invest, we have outlined a taxonomy of six types of innovation, we describe in the following pages. The technology is in the lead wire more than any other region perhaps, Africa is experimenting with digital advances that can help businesses overcome obstacles deeply rooted and achieve exponential progress.
Low tech and high tech head for financial inclusion
In emerging economies, 2 billion people and 200 million businesses lack access to savings or credit, and many who have to pay much for a small range of products (see the sidebar ' millions of people financially excluded '). The problem is by no means limited to developing countries. In the United States, a household of 14 - roughly 9 million people in all - has no checking account or savings account, often for reasons of accessibility. In addition, 24 more million people are 'under-banked' although they have accounts, they also use expensive products and financial services outside the banking system, such as payday loans.
To serve households excluded - and to make it sustainable and profitable way - the banks and other institutions should use technology solutions as well as low-tech palliative. African enterprises provide convincing examples. Take Equity Bank, born of a small mortgage company in Kenya in 2004. In 2017, it had over 12 million customers across East Africa, assets in excess of $ 5 billion and pre-tax profits of 270 million. The founder CEO James Mwangi explained that the main objective of the bank was 'to solve a social problem: the lack of access to financial services.' It was for him a very personal problem. 'I grew up in a rural area, and my mother did not have a bank account. The nearest bank branch was at 50 kilometers and the minimum required to open an account equivalent to several years of his salary. 'The reaction of Kenyans was to keep their money under their mattress.
Less than a Kenyan ten adults had a bank account at the turn of the 21st century. Today, largely thanks to the innovations of Equity Bank, they are two out of three. 'We knew we had to meet the needs of people like my mother,' said James Mwangi. Even before the arrival of banking by mobile phone, Equity Bank introduced what it called mobile banking: bank mini-branches that held the back of a Land Rover and went from village to village. Innovation, however, the best known of the bank is a bank branch model. It has accredited over 30 000 small service points across the country as agents bank, able to receive deposits and manage cash.
Alongside these innovations, Equity Bank took advantage of the exponential growth of mobile telephony in Africa. In 2000, sub-Saharan Africa as a whole had fewer telephone lines than Manhattan Island. In 2016, there were more than 700 million connections by mobile phones across the continent - about one for every adult. Cell phones have transformed the lives of Africans significantly, for example by replacing cash transactions for instant and secure payments via mobile phone. There are now 122 million mobile asset portfolios in Sub-Saharan Africa - more than in any other region of the world (see box 'Africa is a leader in mobile money').
New partnerships for infrastructure development
Developed countries and developing countries have glaring deficiencies in the area of transport infrastructure, electricity and water, as well as in infrastructure 'intangible' such as sanitation. Our colleagues at McKinsey estimate that the global gap between current spending and expenditures required in infrastructure is $ 350 billion per year; in all likelihood, growth will slow, and expanding cities will then undergo tremendous pressure. Nowhere is the gap greater than in Africa; and nearly 600 million people lack access to electricity. This deficit has raised daring collaboration between the public and the private sector,
A case in point: the 'company state' agreements between General Electric (GE) and various African governments. They represent a new frontier in the approach of society towards public sector clients. For example, the agreement between GE and Nigeria supported the financing, design and construction of infrastructures of critical importance, with projects including the development of a production capacity of 10 000 megawatts energy, the improvement of airports, modernization and increasing the number of locomotives of the national company of railways and the construction of public hospitals and diagnostic centers. The CEO of GE Africa, Jay Ireland, who recently retired, describes this approach as 'a framework agreement has enabled us to adapt our capabilities as a company to the problems it faced the country, including to add electricity to the grid, to strengthen the logistics and improve results in health care. '
Other African innovators use mobile money, as well as advances in the field of solar power and battery storage, to fill gaps in the continent's electricity production. One example is M'Kopa, based in Kenya, which provides affordable solutions for production and storage of electricity based on solar energy to households without access to the network - and which funds the payment over a period twelve months through mobile money accounts. Since its creation in 2011, M'Kopa has sold over 600 000 household kits and earned multinational investment, including the Japanese company Mitsui commodity trading. Another example is of Ugandan society Fenix, which sold 140,000 kits of solar energy, also through mobile money.
Intelligent approaches to industrialization
Manufacturing accounts for another category of African innovations that can be applied to other regions seeking to build or revitalize their industrial base to meet local demand and creating stable jobs. One of the pioneers is Nigerian Aliko Dangote, whose conglomerate Dangote Industries has managed the feat to build manufacturing enterprises large, while the country was plagued by chronic power cuts, the rate volatility changes and other obstacles, such as local supply chains underdeveloped and technical skills shortage. 'We knew that all those who had tried to industrialize Nigeria had gone bankrupt,' said Aliko Dangote us. So he devised a shockproof manufacturing model including vertical integration, producing electricity on site, a strong commitment with the government and a school dedicated to careers in the industry. Today, the group produces large quantities of pasta, sugar, salt, flour, plastic and cement, which will soon be added refined petroleum and fertilizers - all basic products traditionally imported by Nigeria. The company has created 30 000 jobs and made Aliko Dangote the richest person in Africa. which will soon be added refined petroleum and fertilizers - all basic products traditionally imported by Nigeria. The company has created 30 000 jobs and made Aliko Dangote the richest person in Africa. which will soon be added refined petroleum and fertilizers - all basic products traditionally imported by Nigeria. The company has created 30 000 jobs and made Aliko Dangote the richest person in Africa.
Africa is also home to a growing set of innovative sectors, from automotive to chemicals, which combines the latest technology with the advantages of labor from the mainland to meet the African and global demand. An analysis of the McKinsey Global Institute suggests enormous potential to increase production of such 'global innovation', which could enable Africa to double its manufacturing output in ten years. In Morocco, for example, the automotive industry has multiplied by 12 its revenue from exports, raising them from $ 0.4 billion in 2004 to 5 billion in 2015, and created 67,000 jobs over this period. French manufacturers Renault and Peugeot together invested over $ 2 billion to create an assembly capacity of 650,000 cars and 200,000 engines. Morocco has also has industries in aerospace and other advanced industries. In these African industries of high-tech companies use to both automation and a skilled workforce. This is quite logical: in Morocco, for example, costs the equivalent workforce to about a third of those of the cheapest European countries. And the African workforce is growing rapidly; by 2034, it will exceed that of China and India. By 2050, the continent's population of working age will be over 1.5 billion (see sidebar 'A population boom').
New food production models
More than 800 million people worldwide, 11% of the world population, hungry for the great majority in developing countries, 520 million in Asia and 240 million in Africa. But many low-income households are also involved in the rich countries, more than 40million people in the US. The United Nations has set a target to eradicate hunger by 2030. To achieve this, the agricultural sector will be forced to step up innovations in technology and management to improve yields, as well as food businesses will create nutritious and cheap, and reconfigure the distribution systems so that these products can get on the table for those in need. In all these areas,
Take Babban Gona (the 'big farm' in Hausa), a Nigerian social enterprise networks serving small operators. Its members benefit from improvements and training, credit, agricultural inputs, marketing support and other key services. Since its inception in 2010, Babban Gona has committed more than 20,000 Nigerian farmers, who averaged more than doubled their yields and increase their bottom line, until approaching triple the national average. Small participating farmers, which are generally considered to have a high credit risk, have a credit repayment rate of 99.9%, obtained through the program. Kola Masha, the founder of Babban Gona, wishes to engage one million farmers in the program by 2025, providing livelihoods to 5 million people. Other programs focus on smallholders are being launched across the continent, and large commercial farms are increasing their importance and also their production. Taken together, these efforts could eliminate forever the famine in Africa. Our analysis shows that performance increases favored by Babban Gona, if repeated across the continent, would be sufficient to feed the growing population of Africa and for export to other regions. these efforts could eliminate forever the famine in Africa. Our analysis shows that performance increases favored by Babban Gona, if repeated across the continent, would be sufficient to feed the growing population of Africa and for export to other regions. these efforts could eliminate forever the famine in Africa. Our analysis shows that performance increases favored by Babban Gona, if repeated across the continent, would be sufficient to feed the growing population of Africa and for export to other regions.
A new type of technology entrepreneurs is trying to accelerate the 'green revolution' in Africa. This is the case of Sara Menker, a former commodities broker in Wall Street, born in Ethiopia. She realized that farmers and investors do not have the necessary information to choose crops and markets, managing weather and other risks, identify where and when to invest in infrastructure. So she created Gro Intelligence, which she describes as 'a Wikipedia for agriculture, but with a more powerful analytical engine.' With offices in Nairobi and New York, the company has customers ranging from sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds among the largest in the world to individual commodity traders in Africa and around the globe.
Consumer products accessible and affordable
Grow more crops for consumption is a key step in the fight against hunger, but it is equally important that ordinary citizens have access to affordable, nutritious meals. Readers of this magazine may know the Indomie noodles, one of the most popular consumer products in Nigeria (see 'Africa: a new generation of innovators,' HBR French edition, August-September 2017). Sold in individual packages for the equivalent of less than 20 cents, these noodles can be cooked in under three minutes and combined with an egg to form a nutritious meal. Dufil Prima Foods has introduced in Nigeria in 1988. They were a huge success, and the company quickly grew from imports to local manufacturing. Deepak Singhal, CEO, we said: 'We created a suitable food in Nigeria. And in the space of ten to fifteen years, our name has become well known. '
Dufil also led a fundamental innovation by offering the Indomie noodles to all consumers in Nigeria. The company has a distribution network 'field' of more than 1 000 vehicles, including motorcycles, trucks and three-wheeled vehicles. When distributors can not go further on a vehicle, they continue on foot. This was a crucial innovation because the company was open to consumers through thousands of small outlets, often informal, rather than through an organized network of supermarkets. The approach Dufil in distribution has attracted attention around the world: in 2015, Kellogg's has invested $ 450 million to acquire a 50% interest in the branch sales and distribution West African parent company Indomie,
Again, the innovations in the consumer sector in Africa accelerated by the bold initiatives of technology entrepreneurs. The start-up ecommerce jumia is one example. Launched in 2012, it currently has over 2 million active customers in 13 African countries, and doubling its sales every year. Although jumia has not yet fully implemented its business model - or made a profit - it has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment from Goldman Sachs, among others. The French Sacha Poignonnec, co-CEO of jumia, noted that Africa has 60 000 people for each point of formal sales, while the United States have only 400 people per store. 'In the US, he says, E-commerce is now slowly changing centuries-old trading habits. Here it is creating habits. People make their first big purchases, such as smartphones, and their first purchases online simultaneously. '
To encourage these habits jumia created the JForce sales program in which officers go door to door with Wi-Fi connected tablets, taking customer orders without access to the Internet. 'This allows agents to become entrepreneurs, says Sacha Poignonnec, managing actually their own retail online from home. 'In addition, jumia created a logistics service to meet its e-commerce orders. In 2017, the company delivered 8 million packages, including many in isolated rural areas. And it has built an internal payment platform so that African consumers have more confidence in online payments.
Develop touring capabilities to the future
With such a number of young people entering the African labor market, innovation in education and skills development is essential. It is also useful in the world: more than 75 million young people worldwide are unemployed, while many companies do not find people with the necessary skills to fill entry-level jobs. This is partly due to the fact that many educational systems provide neither the expertise nor the behavioral skills needed to succeed and adapt to a world of rapidly changing labor.
Generation Kenya, a non-profit organization with 180 local employers and partners using 37 training centers across the country, is an African solution to fill the youth skills deficit. Each training venues offers immersive programs of 'training camp' for six to eight weeks to strengthen the preparation for employment in areas such as retail and financial products, customer service and the garment industry. These programs not only provide adequate technical knowledge; they also use role playing and team exercises to transmit behavioral and psychological skills such as punctuality and resilience. In 2017, more than 8,000 young Kenyans had followed a Generation program and 89% of them had found formal employment three months after graduation - encouraging proof that smart development programs can quickly prepare young people where that they are, to become high-performing employees in modern enterprises. (For information: Generation, now a global nonprofit organization, was founded by McKinsey and we continue to support, along with philanthropic foundations such as USAID, the Agency for the US international Development.)
Other African educational innovations are decidedly high-tech. GetSmarter is a start-up South African offering online certification courses to students worldwide, with the assistance of tutors and coaches remotely located. In 2017, it was bought by the American edtech company 2U 103 million. Another example: the African Leadership University, or ALU. Its campus in Mauritius and Rwanda allow students to manage their own education using technology, learning, peer-to-peer and internships four months in partner companies, giving the ALU ability to manage with a reduced teaching staff. Its founder, Fred Swaniker, Ghana is a Stanford graduate who set out to create a business model for higher education from scratch. 'Our university produces talent competing with students from Harvard and Stanford, he has entrusted to us. But we do it using a tenth of the housing stock and this for one-tenth to one-twentieth of the cost. '
How to increase and support innovation
In our consulting work, we saw a diverse group of entrepreneurial and corporate innovators in Africa and beyond create outstanding companies on the continent. Although these innovators significantly different geographical coverage and sectoral focus, they consider all the difficulties as an incentive to innovation and unmet market demand as a growth potential. They have adopted attitudes and practices as other markets firms could profitably apply their own growth strategies. This should start with a fine and empathic understanding of the needs of potential customers - remember that M'Kopa made for people who do not have electricity and what Indomie noodles made for consumers in search cheap meals, nutritious and convenient. This also implies rethinking the business model for a genuine dialogue with customers, as did Equity Bank through its agency banking model and its innovations in banking by cell phone. These examples suggest additional activity necessary for success: imaginatively exploit the technology, especially for lower costs and price ranges. This also implies rethinking the business model for a genuine dialogue with customers, as did Equity Bank through its agency banking model and its innovations in banking by cell phone. These examples suggest additional activity necessary for success: imaginatively exploit the technology, especially for lower costs and price ranges. This also implies rethinking the business model for a genuine dialogue with customers, as did Equity Bank through its agency banking model and its innovations in banking by cell phone. These examples suggest additional activity necessary for success: imaginatively exploit the technology, especially for lower costs and price ranges.
We further observed that African successful innovators, far from being dreamers, are more aware than anyone of the barriers to success and they establish long-term resilience in their business models. Deepak Singhal of Dufil says it takes 'heart of a lion' to succeed in a market such as Africa. 'We have our own logistics company, our own raw material, our own factories and our own packing facilities, has he specified to us. Control our supply chain is very important. 'In a survey conducted globally with executives, we found that such measures were highly correlated to the growth and profitability reported in Africa (see the sidebar 'Building resilience of your business'). Given the increasing instability in the world - in terms of policy, markets, trade or even the climate -, innovative companies around the world would do well to consider such approaches.
Companies must also fight firmly against another major barrier to trade: corruption, which remains extremely widespread in Africa. We advise clients to stay true to their values, whatever happens. In South Africa we have ourselves tested this principle when we briefly discussed the possibility of establishing a partnership with a local company to support Eskom, the national electricity company, to learn that this company belonged to a dubious character linked to a corruption scandal across the country. Although we ended the discussion, we have learned painful lessons from this experience and learned especially how important it is to have a thorough knowledge of the context of any potential commitment of the actors involved.
What pushes innovators in Africa to get out of bed every morning to navigate this complex terrain and continue to expand their business? What they have in common, in our experience, it is a deeper motivation. Faced with high rates of poverty in Africa and its infrastructure needs, education and health care, they will not only see trade barriers; they see human problems it belongs to them, they say, to find solutions. Take Strive Masiyiwa, chairman of Econet Group, a pan-African technology, media and telecoms. His business ambitions are beyond doubt: it is the largest shareholder of Africa's largest infrastructure company and broadband data services, Liquid Telecom, booming. But Masiyiwa deployed the same energy in philanthropic initiatives. Thus, he has used his wealth to provide scholarships to more than 250 000 young Africans. 'To succeed, you must be more than a businessman. You must be a responsible citizen, has he explained. If you see a problem, think about how to solve part. 'He added:' What is exciting is to ask: 'What is the root cause of this problem? What can we do to tackle this root cause? ' ' You must be a responsible citizen, has he explained. If you see a problem, think about how to solve part. 'He added:' What is exciting is to ask: 'What is the root cause of this problem? What can we do to tackle this root cause? ' ' You must be a responsible citizen, has he explained. If you see a problem, think about how to solve part. 'He added:' What is exciting is to ask: 'What is the root cause of this problem? What can we do to tackle this root cause? ' '
international advocate for human rights (and president of the ALU), Graça Machel emphasized the responsibilities to be taken by companies that can be met UN targets for sustainable development. 'These targets are ambitious universal call to eradicate poverty, protect the environment and to ensure to all members of our global family peace and prosperity, has she told us. They demand that we leave no one behind us. 'To Graça Machel, there is an opportunity for the private sector to join in the efforts to eradicate poverty and to collaborate with the public sector and civil society to promote the creation of large-scale job. This will require 'a change of mentality in all of us, she warns. Whole sectors themselves and leaders must become significantly - it can not be like before. 'Her late husband Nelson Mandela would have agreed. As evidenced by one of his famous quotes: 'It is no fun to play small, to be satisfied with life than you are capable of living. '
The human race has never been so many resources, knowledge and technology at its disposal, but there is still much to do to these advances translate into decent livelihoods and lives worthy for all the peoples of world. We believe that innovation by small and large companies can play a central role in addressing global challenges and pave the way for a collective of abundance. Tackling deprivation still widespread in Africa will be an important step in achieving this goal. But the challenges that characterize Africa are present surprisingly in all other regions.
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Frank Dehnhard • founder at GLESI from Germany • 1 day ago new
Perhaps it might be helpful for others to get a 3 line summary what this is about ? 1 like
Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new Frank Dehnhard,
Globally more than 75 million young people worldwide are unemployed, while many companies do not find people with the necessary skills to fill entry-level jobs. This is partly due to the fact that many educational systems provide neither the expertise nor the behavioral skills needed to succeed and adapt to a world of rapidly changing labor.
Part of the solution may be a great accessible digital campus despite numerous connection problems facing Africa in particular. Without durable and stable jobs without formal economy, no sustainable development can in my opinion or so small. If the survival of populations bonus, no need to try to instill the concepts of sustainable development.
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 14 hours ago new Moderator
Patrick Tinayre thank you for taking the time to summarize the article. You have contributed with several insightful ideas and inputs on the use of digital technology to address development issues.
Is there any concern you may have when using digital technology for tackling development issues?
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Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
Since 2016, the Low-Tech Lab travels the world to 'identify, test and document collaboratively' low-tech to allow 'disseminate the greatest number.'
Around the world, inventors were creating ingenious systems to respond to local problems. In general, these solutions might like millions of people, but they remain locally.
For each technology, they produce the documentation, that is to say, video tutorials and written tutorials they disseminate as widely as possible. They begin to have much impact through their platform. For now, it has benefited 150,000 people from nearly 10 000 different cities worldwide. More and more people also contact them to document low-tech or create themselves Low-Tech Lab.
They studied a low-tech quarantine for two and a half years and their dream for a long time, is to create a low-tech NASA. Many resources are invested in high-tech contrast to the low-tech while the latter have a huge potential for innovation that could help billions of people.
It would be interesting, in the context of development aid:
help them find and fund a physical place where they could make and test technologies in conjunction with a whole Low-Tech Labs network, associations, companies or schools in other countries. The help develop Low-Tech Labs in as many countries through government agencies such as the IRD, AFD, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, .... help them develop their collaborative network in France and the world, to create a real Wikipedia Low Techs.
To allow this positive change of scale initiative given the multiple benefits it could bring to development aid.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
https://www.linfodurable.fr/technomedias/low-tech-lab-des-innovations-r… 0 likes
Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
In the context of development assistance, it would be interesting to implement some initiatives:
Nearly 30% of MOOC consumed worldwide is consumed in Africa, even though the coverage is very poor. Education is a central issue in the development of the continent. Yet the majority of training devices no longer meet market demand, either in volume or types of education. The university infrastructure remained unchanged for years, while population growth has exploded. Given this premise, the BAU university, was founded in order to provide application training students. This digital university is now the largest university in the digital world, with nearly 8,000 students. It would be interesting to create a large French and English digital university that serves to disseminate knowledge throughout the world (including us) free. To complement this initiative, it would make general all low tech technology training video used worldwide and which could greatly facilitate the lives of people, whatever their country. The aim of the university is to facilitate the transmission of knowledge and overcome the educational failures that may know the systems of developing countries.
Internet coverage and accessibility and availability of communications networks is very bad now in Africa, it will be necessary to enable offline use of this knowledge. Why not consider such a partnership with the Cameroon startup Eduair when wishing to offer a tool of access to education without internet connection? The box lists and a database of thousands of articles, video courses (Mooc), educational books, reference books and memoirs, lectures and events. Each box also contains the entire library Wikipedia.
In Africa, entrepreneurship is not valued because it does not generate short-term financial security and higher education no longer meet the needs of providers of employment sectors, as they have remained unchanged for decades, and especially, they are not designed to form entrepreneurs. It will be necessary to provide training in entrepreneurship at the online university's website as this will provide project owners and contractors of resources and tools to advance projects that meet the challenges of our time, and distilling the entrepreneurial culture in the society. In Africa, as elsewhere, the minimum requirements are far from being resolved, entrepreneurship often assumes a character of necessity.
Africa currently account for 8 million students. One African in two is under 18 years. In less than 15 years, in 2030 they will be 22 million students.
Now, the mobility of African students is mainly done on their own continent. A study of Campus France noted also that Africa attracts more than 20% of African mobile students worldwide. The countries benefiting from this intracontinentale mobility are South Africa (39%), Ghana (20%), Morocco (8%) and Tunisia (7%).
This elitism filtered by the amount of resources has its limits when needs are more reminiscent of a mass industry, including levels or demand is the most glaring: technicians, and other specialized professionals through short cycles. The request of African governments is clear: development of more professional short courses to address the shortage of middle managers. Not to mention the development of continuing education.
Remains to design the training facilities to the tremendous demand that swells across the Mediterranean:
By including this digital campuses, low tech video training forming to technologies introduced randomly over the world but have been proven to solve social problems (agriculture with the Zai technique for example, training Barefoot college in India that trains women to be solar technicians unable to read or write, ... ..). These tools that can radically change the lives of people there must be offered for free and be disseminated as widely as possible on the continent. The work of Low Tech Lab can be a starting point to get online this knowledge in the language of the various countries to be accessible to all people who can not read or write.
Cordially. Patrick Tinayre
https://www.lenouveleconomiste.fr/les-grandes-ecoles-francaises-a-la-conquete-des-elites-africaines-63656/
http://lowtechlab.org/wiki/Accueil
http://www.eduair.org/fr.html
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 14 hours ago new Moderator
Thanks again Patrick. Regarding online courses, we have experienced good results when a facilitator is involved, as participants can ask questions and interact with each other and with the facilitator. The issue of language is something that digital technology and A.I. could help to address, using automatic translators -like the one I am using here to be able to interact with you in Frech and English-.
The offline availability of courses is another important point. It would be great if participants could share solutions on how to make online courses also available in offline versions without losing quality/interactivity.
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Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
In the context of development aid, we must harness the benefits of electronic identification. The benefits are multiple: throughout Europe, these benefits are estimated at 150 billion euros per year, or about 35 billion reported in France or 1.5 points of GDP more for our nation. It is difficult to find other measures as big economic impact.
I also think it would be interesting to combine the electronic identification of citizens, with a data automation initiative so that every citizen fulfills its data once and are automatically prefilled, whatever the site where the user goes. Lots of time saved for citizens and businesses.
European countries have, with gains in quality of public service, security and the fight against tax evasion.
More than sixty countries around the world are or have implemented electronic identity systems, including 24 members of the European Union. Thus, Estonia has built into almost all of its public and commercial services. All medical information, tax, Family Estonian citizens are attached to a unique identifier, drastically simplifying the daily life of each of them.
Whether access to emergency medical user of a victim of a road accident record unconscious, and unable to give consent, a sworn supervisor will authorize emergency services and only them. Possible abuse of unscrupulous officials are severely punished, and are also subject to ongoing convictions through a specially constituted court for this. In addition, the system was designed so that it is impossible to access simultaneously to a large number of files to limit the risk of piracy.
In front, opportunities are expressed in many areas: reducing transaction costs, so as to allow new categories of services: board a plane, enter a museum without queuing, use transport multimodally ( train, bicycle ...) without necessarily having subscribed to each service, remove paper receipts and expense and easier management.
This also helps to increase very significantly the administrative productivity by facilitating the automation of files processing: it is no longer necessary to constantly re-enter the date and place of birth. In addition, e-ID allows to consider new forms of public action in which services become personalized: priority access to certain public services to the precarious public example, implement epidemiological analysis of quality ...
The benefits are also evident in fraud; this would better identify the social and economic fraud; and identifying the perpetrators of financial transactions over certain way also represent an obviously decisive advantage in the fight against tax evasion.
While risks exist, but so far, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia do not seem to have paid into dictatorship; their citizens are unanimously committed as it simplifies their life. Pushing its adoption would weaken the sovereignty of the state, leaving the whole place to be private digital platforms, American, or even Chinese.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/la-france-doit-accepter-les-benefices-de-lidentification-electronique-1024534#xtor=RSS-145
https://www.ieif.fr/revue_de_presse/le-boom-des-automates-de-saisie-de-donnees
https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/laffolant-regain-de-forme-des-editeurs-dautomatisation-des-logiciels-1023297
https://www.uipath.com/fr/
https://www.automationanywhere.fr/
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 13 hours ago new Moderator
Thank you Patrick. Identification is something that definitely digital technologies can help with. This is also a topic subject to some concerns. I would like to invite participants to share solutions regarding some associated challenges to electronic identification, such as privacy and data security to avoid identity fraud.
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Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
Let me bounce on an article highlighting a structuring action by South Korea vis-à-vis Ghana customs service as part of development assistance.
It would be interesting to highlight this kind of service structuring actions in developing countries as this can enable these countries to ensure efficiency and transparency of the process and better able to develop their own development policies.
Scanning systems will allow their better services to get revenue, to be more efficient and provide some transparency to the people. The digitization of processes are the most beneficial actions conducive to the development of these countries and the actions that have the best success rate among all development activities.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
http://www.commodafrica.com/11-04-2019-la-coree-du-sud-va-moderniser-et…
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Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
A report by the Institut Montaigne highlights the lack of skills of our representatives in the National Assembly. This perhaps is the same for the political representatives of developing countries
One solution would be to work with Estonia to fully digitize the decision making process in government departments, assemblies, senates, ....
The digital development is an integral part of the political, economic and administrative companies over the past 25 years in Estonia. Electronic solutions simplify the governance of the state, make services more accessible to the population and improve the transparency of decision making.
In Estonia, the documents on the draft laws, treaties and administrative issues are captured and digitally signed. This makes the digital process from beginning to end.
It would be possible to form all parliamentarians as part of the e-Governance Academy and initiate the digitalization of the entire legislative process. This should help to raise a maximum of parliamentarians to the upheavals created by the digital revolution that impacts all aspects of our lives.
Another positive impact of this mode of operation would be greater transparency of political life vis-à-vis the population.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
https://www.riigikogu.ee/en/press-releases/board-of-the-riigikogu/nestor-shared-estonias-experiences-e-parliament/
https://www.lepoint.fr/technologie/numerique-nos-deputes-sont-ils-si-nuls-09-12-2018-2277750_58.php#xtor=RSS-221
https://ega.ee/
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Patrick Tinayre Patrick Tinayre • from Réunion • 1 day ago new
Hello,
Let me bounce on the latest Doing Business report of the World Bank to bring to your attention the fact that eGovernment generally reduces red tape and corruption.
It would be interesting for the development of developing countries, to create a task force that brings together all stakeholders could help them to set up a similar e-government to that of Estonia remains the reference in the material.
This task force could be supported by another task force that would help these countries to streamline their procedures before digitizing. The Doing Business report constitutes a good basis to start, but I think it would be necessary to add other indicators to create a real management dashboard for all countries, to free growth.
The establishment of a website bringing together the best practices of each country could serve as an inspiration to other countries to develop their own services.
The digitalization of the administrative chain can be the key that will drastically reduce many obstacles to the development of emerging economies, and will certainly contribute to the same extent to the reduction of corruption.
Cordially.
Patrick Tinayre
http://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/news/immersive-story/2018/10/31/doing-…
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ATHARVA SUSTAINABLE • Climate Activist at Myself from United States • 23 hours ago new
Martin, Thanks for providing this great space to express our viewpoints.
Answer to your second questions: One way to advance sustainable development goals is to trend hashtags periodically on social media and educate people about sustainable products. It will be prolific when climate activist educates people and share their initiatives on social media platforms. People want to see the outcomes of the actions taken by the activist in their areas, regions or country. When people see actionable items, which can be easily managed and initiate at affordable cost, I believe people would like to use sustainable products and will realize the importance of climate action. I would suggest sharing sustainable products, action plans and the results achieved by using sustainable products on the digital platform.
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 14 hours ago new Moderator
Thank you for the comment. Sharing successful stories and tangible impacts, plus a call for action is a good way to engage with people. Would you mind to share examples of platforms you may know which are doing this?
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Beniam Gebrezghi Beniam Gebrezghi • Programme Specialist, Civil Society and Youth (UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub) at UNDP from Sweden • 13 hours ago new Moderator
Hello everyone, and thank you AdamRogers2030, ATHARVA SUSTAINABLE, Patrick Tinayre and Frank Dehnhard for your active participation and inputs. I am happy to join as a moderator for this global discussion, along with my colleague Martin.
To make the discussion easier and as insightful as possible for everyone, we invite you to:
1) Introduce yourself briefly and share with us why you are interested in this discussion.
2) Mention the question(s) you are answering to. But feel also free to discuss anything related to the topic: the 2 questions are only there to start the discussion.
3) Summarize your key points when necessary, so everyone can make the most out of your post.
4) Feel free to rebound/reply, give comments or feedback to other people's posts to keep the conversation going.
Thank you and looking forward to reading great discussions!
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Dinh-Long Dinh-Long • Youth Economic Empowerment Consultant at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from France • 9 hours ago new
Hello everyone, glad to be part of this global discussion.
My name is Dinh-Long and I now work in the youth team at UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (with Ben, who commented above). I focus on the programmes for youth entrepreneurs: incubation, acceleration programmes and coworking spaces, as well as 21st century skill programmes. I worked with several entrepreneurs using technology to address the SDGs, so I'm super interested in this topic!
I want to address the first question: my main concern is that while digital technologies can accelerate the implementation of the SDGs, more and more complex technologies also have a significant carbon footprint (e.g. data centers, electronic waste) or negative social impact (e.g. electronic parts coming from war zones). Furthermore, these issues are well known to the public (my assumption). I wonder how can all stakeholders take this into consideration?
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 6 hours ago new Moderator
Thank you Dinh-Long for introducing yourself and for your comment on addressing the first question. Do you have any solution you want to share on how to reduce the carbon footprint or social impact from data centers or technology waste? perhaps good examples related to circular economy in this area?
Best
Martin
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Frank Dehnhard • founder at GLESI from Germany • 5 hours ago new
Martin Cadena and Dinh-Long, some positive IT companies can be found. For example if you look at GOOGLE / Youtube etc ... they are (nearly) 100% on renewables. But many others are far behind.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/14/from-apple-to-walmart-these-firms-are-e…
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Dinh-Long Dinh-Long • Youth Economic Empowerment Consultant at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from France • 5 hours ago new
Mmh 3 things come to my mind:
1) The FairPhone, a groundbreaking smartphone company that wants to revolutionize the smartphone industry. They offer smartphones that are made with parts respecting the environment and the people, and each part can be replaced easily.
2) Many projects are decentralizing data centres to people's home, so that the heat generated serves for the household's own consumption (e.g. for heating during winter). Briliant idea.
3) There are more and more talks about the Proof of Stake mechanism, which is a newer consensus mechanism for the blockchain that consumes way less energy that the original Proof of Work mechanism.
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 1 hour ago new Moderator
Thank you Frank Dehnard and Dinh-Long for completing the comments and raising the point that we always have to count all the possible externalities when talking about digital technologies solutions.
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MUHAMMAD Ayaz KEERIO MUHAMMAD AYAZ KEERIO • SRF and CRE from Pakistan PAKISTAN • 3 hours ago new
Digital is good tool for understanding the SDG goals and proper implementation, how one thing I have addressed here that most of the population living in least developed countries were illiterate, so we have need to capacity building of those communities through volunteers for understanding of digital media and how SDGs work.
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Martin Chain Martin Cadena • Facilitator – Community of Practice Environment and Energy (UNDP) at UNDP from Mexico • 1 hour ago new Moderator
Dear Muhammad, thank you for your comment. To make the most of it, we would love if you could introduce yourself briefly and share why you are interested in this discussion, and mention the question(s) you are answering to.
If you also have more information to share, regarding a solution in capacity building for understanding digital media, that would be great too.
Best
Martin
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Daan Boom Daan Boom • Principal at CCLFI from Philippines • 3 hours ago new
Dear community members:
My name is Daan Boom and I work in Africa for a financial development institution. Good to see this initiative Romolo and Nina and the other members. While I don't work at this very moment on digital developments, the subject is close to my heart. In particular digital inclusion. We have seen over the last decade many cases where digital technologies played an important role in reducing transactions costs (remittances), health, and disaster preparedness to name a few. What I consider a major roadblock is still affordable, inclusive connectivity, coupled with digital skills and literacy, are essential elements in the fight against inequality. It can be acknowledged that digital creates enormous benefits, it also worsen existing divisions between countries, regions and communities. Those who have the means ($, devices, signal and bandwidth) and those who don't or have to cross some distance and simply does not have the capacity to read and understand. I don't think the problem is the supply side of digital technologies but improving access. The solutions may be simple but difficult to implement. Having a development dedicated fund to address some of thew shortcomings (like the GEF for the environment) might be a path to consider just aimed at bridging digital inclusiveness.
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Nina Grinman Nina Grinman • Digital Strategist, Citizen engagement and Online Global Consultations (UNDP) at UNDP from Sweden • 15 minutes ago new Moderator
Daan Boom , great to have you part of this consultation. Thank you also for your comment on the importance of digital inclusion and the suggestion for a dedicated fund similar to the GEF fund.
More information here for those of you unfamiliar with the GEF Fund. In your area of work and considering your vast experience in knowledge and learning, what would you suggest are the top three areas that we need to address in terms of digital inclusion?
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Gopal Sangeet Kayastha Sangeet Gopal Kayastha • Coordinator at Y-PEER Asia Pacific Center Bangkok from Nepal • 3 hours ago new
1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues?
- The main challange which i see is the apps which are build by many organizations are too heavy. Too heavy in a sense, some cannot be installed in cheaper android phones. Some are too heavy as it consumes lots of data and many apps are not built to consume less data rather have HQ pictures which consume more RAM and data.
2. What are the digital breakthrough ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development
- At present context, we just focus on creating the apps on IOS and Android whereas the most easy platform which can be accessible by everyone easily via phone or PC ' i.e Website' seems to be neglected and taken as ' Non Innovative Idea'.
People need choices and making the information available on all platform makes more sense.
I believe very few people will download the apps to access the information which they only need for 1-2 times. Whereas more people will access the website to get information if they need the information as there is less hassle of downloading the apps.
- The breakthrough ideas that are sustainable are to create a platform or invest in platform which do not need investment on the long run (such as website) rather than the ones which need investment again and again .
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Nina Grinman Nina Grinman • Digital Strategist, Citizen engagement and Online Global Consultations (UNDP) at UNDP from Sweden • 11 minutes ago new Moderator
Sangeet Gopal Kayastha , thank you for comment and for identifying that simplicity is sometimes the answer. Do you think the use of websites and platforms that are mobile friendly are useful only for those not wanting to download an app or will this address other user groups?
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Askar Raymkulow • teacher at School from Kazakhstan • 3 hours ago new
Hello. Sorry for my poor English.
1. I think that the main concern of adopting digital technologies is so called 'fake news'. It is very difficult to verify if the news is real of fake.Some criminals and politicians use them to reach their goals.
2. Digital education is the most important idea to cope with inequality in order to reach sustainable development. It means that modern technology creates a lot of opportunity to improve poor people's life. Accessible education, especially online digital education creates equal opportunity for people in different countries. People from developing countries can study online in foreign school.
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Dr. Fotios Fitsilis Dr. Fotios Fitsilis • Head of Department for Documentation in the Scientific Service at Hellenic Parliament from Greece • 3 hours ago new
Dear Dev Hub members,
Challenges and concerns
Since the topic is rather fuzzy when referred to SDGs (rather that to a single point of discussion), I would respond by saying that (a) technological and data openness could belong to the major challenges. (b) Regulation of advanced algorithms could be another one.
To (a): One could refer for example to the FAIR data principles and to the notion of 'open science' at large. As for (b), uncontrolled algorithmic decision making could lead to systemic failures of higher orders of magnitude and hence endanger the whole concept of implementing and monitoring the SDGs. My new book Imposing Regulation on Advanced Algorithms tackles these issues.
Breakthrough digital ideas
The principle of the 'algorithmic monitor', e.g. to crowdsource research on algorithmic misconduct, could be an interesting idea in this vast and deregulated field. This idea is explained in detail in the mentioned book.
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Charlotte Scott Charlotte Scott • Project Lead at ZayoHub from Zambia • 3 hours ago new
Hello. I am the project lead for ZayoHub, a Zambian NGO that is using technology to support the realisation of SDG targets in remote rural Zambian communities. The realities for many are not the digital technologies as such, but rather exclusion and inequalities when it comes to whether they can use them. ZayoHub is building tech-enabled community centres, and providing financial services, renewable power, access to computers and internet, mobile phone signal (where none was previously available), livelihoods and education programmes etc. We use technology to reduce remoteness - so, for example, livestock farmers can get to talk to a vet adviser via Skype, and local clinicians use connectivity to see advice on difficult cases. The impact of mobile money has been well documented, and we have found a similar appetite. We also support schools with digital education content, access to TV and computers. We manage these programmes, scattered across remote areas, via digital management programmes. Some of our programmes are manual - for example, we rent robust bicycles, fit for the local terrain but too expensive for our communities to buy - but technology helps us to monitor performance, while the bikes are GPS enabled which means we will find them if they are not returned. Our services are a blend of free, commission based (like mobile money) and chargeable (like watching the Africa Cup on TV!). We use our tech to share messages that never usually reach these communities - we have a partnership with the Health Ministry to share health education IEC, for example. So we aim for sustainability. None of these services would work easily on a stand-alone basis, as the costs would be high. But we share investment in power, connectivity, infrastructure and management across our diverse services, so the whole package becomes cost-effective and sustainable. We believe this would be a good topic for sharing at the proposed meeting, and will be happy to share more info. Meantime please check out www.zayohub.com thanks
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Andrew Mayer • Graduate Student at Syracuse University from United States • 3 hours ago new
1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues?
Resilient energy resources to power digital tech. Energy itself should become digital and needs to happen ASAP.
2. What are the breakthrough digital ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development? '=
Read here... https://www.peaceopstraining.org/cotipso/theses/increase-use-of-sustainable-energy-technologies-united-nations/
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Chris Chinien Chris Chinien • President at Compétences R & D Inc. from Canada • 3 hours ago new
Greetings from Montreal, Canada.
It is with immense pleasure that I am joining this important discussion. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the UNDP and staff for hosting this discussion.
Later today I will introduce myself and provide you with an indication of the focus of my contributions to address these two critical questions.
Warmest regards to All!
Chris
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Pedro Portela Pedro Portela • from Portugal • 3 hours ago new
I'll take a shot a question 2:
- It's a combination of digital idea with a 'new' paradigm of thought and understanding complexity of the SDG problem. The combination of the key ideas from complexity and network science combined with digital technology like participatory social systems mapping could have a huge impact.
Networks scale exponentially. Whenever we talk about 'viral spread' or 'cascades' or tipping points we're describing a phenomenon that has a network powering it. So, unless we understand how networks work (not digital social networks, the real life networks) and we put this knowledge and tools into the hands of changemakers, we are waisting a lot of opportunities.
So, my suggestion: Network Science + Graph Technologies
Here's more about this idea
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Andrew Mayer • Graduate Student at Syracuse University from United States • 2 hours ago new
See facebook.org providing satellite internet as a foundation upon which digital civilizations can bypass analogue development.
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Dr. Rantastia Dr. Rantastia • from Indonesia • 2 hours ago new
Digital technology will play a critical role in the achievement of the SDGs, although innovation will most likely affect progress in both positive and negative ways. How can we collaborate so that the good does come through? But at the same time, we know in our own operations there are a host of potential pitfalls and negative impacts that we want to mitigate as much as possible.
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Saripalli Suryanarayana Suryanarayana Saripalli • The from, India | • 2 hours ago new
The second question the best answer in today world is about 1 billion and more people are on Citizen recognised services in a short span of 2012-2018- 6 years.India and its Adhar card.
[b]About 0.4 billion people are enjoying high speed mobile data-unlimited at very low cost-India,and JIO-of Relience of India.
[c]Reach of national disbursals for Framers and low income groups,and issue of Cooking gas in subsidy for poor families happened,along with enroling around 0.3 billion to Bank accounts. [d]We have developed our own credit cards like china,and trying to keep our digital transactions servers and records in India.That also helps our biggest health scheme of the century in the world.
[e]We have started monitoring-drunk driving,accident makers by linking their all cards together.
[g]The highest is putting the full business,and property in one card,making impossible for freak,multiple scandles,in money,across borders.
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Gbadi • Gender Expert at Project Agro-Industrial Pole in the area of Aries from Ivory Coast • 2 hours ago new
Hello to all,
I Brigith Gbadi, Expert in kind in an agricultural program.
What I want to experience what is literacy via the mobile to enable women to both learn to read and to sell their products or services.
Illiteracy is an obstacle in the use of social networks by women. For many follow to the letter the information received without checking them or experience them. Training women in the verification of information will allow them to make best use of information distilled by social networks.
The construction of digital homes in Training and Women's Education Institutions is a niche to enable illiterate women to become familiar with the digital and use it in their income generating activities.
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Gamunu Jayasinghe Gamunu Jayasinghe • from Canada • 2 hours ago new
1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues?
Literacy/education to understand sustainable development goals and user friendly appropriate digital technologies to further sustainable development goals.
2. What are the breakthrough digital ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development?
Processes and digital technology that will empower the end user to meaningfully engage in furthering sustainable development goals.
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Saripalli Suryanarayana Suryanarayana Saripalli • The from, India | • 2 hours ago new
I am attaching a paper of mine for intrest on what we can do in digital platform-for Irrigation,Agriculture,water supply,water treatment.And also how to count the productivity,live stock,pumps,etc.
Irrigation_by_S.SURYANARAYANA.doc (1).pdf 900.32 KB
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S ann • from United States • 2 hours ago new
Civil and Human Rights - Research Policy Advisor, United States
Greetings everyone, I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Fotios Fitsillis’ comment.
Technology is a two-edged sword. While it is efficient and increases production, there are also ethical, legal, social, and economical implications that have not been addressed, as in the case of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). The projected magnitude of displacement in the labor force, costs and risks are yet to be determined, and machine learning algorithms are violating civil and human rights with no repercussions.
A.I. contributes to social and economic inequality, and the lack of concern and the absence of regulations is very troubling. More likely, the unchecked implications of A.I. will lead to yet another human rights crisis.
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Sanjay • 1 hour ago new
Hi, I am an IT professional and am interested in the SDG goals and the UN's ambitiousness in achieving it and would like to contribute in some ways for it.
Of the 17 SDG goals I would like to share some ideas on few of them.
Goals:
- GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- GOAL 13: Climate Action
One of the major contributor of green house gas emission is considered to be air travel and which is also one of the fastest growing travel modes. A simple aid in reducing the air travel is to substitute it by rail or efficient road travel for people who could afford to do it (we can't realistically force people to make such a choice).
One of the ways to help climate change conscious people to contribute is to provide a smartphone app which would track their air travel habits and provide substitute rail or road transport options. There are ways this could be done by the app which i could elaborate on request, but the main point is that the app would be aiding a person to make wiser travel decisions. The app would be gathering statistics on how much CO2 emissions has been prevented and thus encourage the person to reduce air travel further and make him feel good and develop a sense of contribution towards SDGs.
Governments could promote this app by hosting an ad for this on their websites and other appropriate places and may be even start a reward system for people with good record of preventing CO2 emissions.
Summary: A simple smartphone app which would help the user avoid air travel and take an alternative rail or road transport and thus prevent avoidable CO2 emissions and bring more employment to the rail and road transport industry.
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Rene Sugar • from Canada • 1 hour ago new
Software and drones that can plant one billion trees per year:
https://www.biocarbonengineering.com/
Community installed and operated 1Gbps symmetric Internet broadband networks:
https://b4rn.org.uk/
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Megan Sutton Mercado • Language and Education Specialist at SIL from United States • 56 minutes ago new
I'm a Language and Education specialist with SIL International, and I consult on literacy projects in non-dominant languages in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as conducting research on language and education. As that might imply, language is one of my main concerns with digital technologies. New initiatives need to take into account the large number of people who are not fluent in a language like English, Arabic, or Mandarin. Language is key to disseminating information and skills, so supplying resources in languages that people cannot understand will not help them in the way that resources in appropriate languages will. There is a tendency to assume that just because someone lives in a country where a European languages is used officially, most of the people who live there speak it, but statistics from Ethnologue.com make it clear that is not the case. Some major points to consider:
1. Does the new technology allow people to type in any script or writing system?
2. How will the technology be built to facilitate human translation? Given that machine translation only works for languages with large amounts of translation between them, artificial intelligence will serve speakers of smaller languages well, even the somewhat larger ones like Indonesian, Swahili, Yoruba, or Hausa. Some translations will need to be done by humans.
More generally, I'm concerned that initiatives gravitate toward the newest, most exciting technologies, when often older ones will be more effective. As another poster pointed out, websites can be more helpful that apps, but there seems to be less excitement about them. People may be very motivated to become literate so they can read and write SMS, but I don't hear much about leveraging that.
Another breakthrough has already happened; we just need to keep it in mind. Bill Gates said two decades ago, 'Content is king.' Devices are not king. The internet is not king. Content is king. People use technology to access information, stories, songs, and conversations with other people; they don't use it for its own sake. One breakthrough that has already occurred through digital technologies is widening the number of content creators. Communities can make and disseminate materials that matter to them. For example, Bloom layout software (bloomlibrary.org) simplifies publishing, enabling more people to participate. Wikipedia provides a platform for regular people to share about the topics that matter to them. Youtube gives people a way to share their creations and opinions. A breakthrough idea is leveraging technology so that communities can create the information they need to fulfill the SDGs themselves, through the learning methods that will serve them best.
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David Stodolsky David Stodolsky • Scientist at Institute for Social Informatics from Denmark • 12 minutes ago new
I am a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Social Informatics. I have developed and scientifically tested breakthrough ideas based upon digital technologies. I have shown how to improve dialogue management, democracy, and the management of contagious diseases.
Response to question 2:
Communicable disease is a major burden on development. Recent research shows it is a dominant factor impeding the achievement of women's equality. More people now have mobile phones than have toilets. Deployment of a smartphone application incorporating mesh networking and automated negotiation has the potential to dramatically reduce communicable diseases and sexual violence. I have outlined the communication and security architecture making this possible:
Stodolsky, D. S. (1997). Automation of Contagion Vigilance. Methods of Information in Medicine, 36(3), 220-232.
https://sites.google.com/a/secureid.net/dss/automation-of-contagion-vig…
This earlier model has been elaborated:
Stodolsky, D. (2017, January 17). Flirting failures, non-consensual sex, and stigma: Information technology solutions? Presented at the Sex, Consent & Technology Workshop. University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
https://groups.io/g/MedicalEthics/message/5 I will try to stay fairly close to the questions posed at the start of this conversation, that is: Q1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues? Q2. What are the breakthrough digital ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development? My involvement with computers and electronic data processing goes back to the time when they operated with vacuum tubes, and my own career has evolved as the technology has evolved. My background is univesity training in engineering and economics, training in accountancy and a number of years in corporate management in the USA. My work had a focus on profit performance and I learned a lot about management and moving the needle far and fast. My strength was mobilizing data to get people to make better decisions. I wanted data that were quick, cheap and good enough to enable others to make the best possible decision in their area of responsibility. Follow up data showed whether or not people were in fact making performance better or not. Speed was of the essence. So, with respect to Q1 I would observe that digital technologies need to partner with human understanding to address current development issues. Every time we expect that technology will solve a problem withou having a deep (and sound) understanding of human issues, there will be failure. Modern technology is very very powerful, but most of the data are not designed very well for management action. This must be changed. The second half of my career was working as an independent consultant for the UN, the World Bank and others. Many ... most ... of the people I was fortunate to work with were very impressive and highly motivated to do work that was worth doing. However, the management and structure of these organizations is sub-optimal which is a nice way off saying pretty much totally dysfunctional. It is an enormously difficult task to change this, and for most people who have tried, it has been the end of their careers. Nevertheless it needs to be done, and this is where something of a digital revolution is needed exponentially to advance sustainable development. Post career, I am working to develope enhanced management accountancy so that social and environmental impacts may be managed as efficiently and effectively as money is managed (and in the corporate sector, profit is maximised). This requires a system of numbering that is easy and widely accepted ... something that is not that difficult given the power of modern computation ... but the purpose must be very clear. The goal is not to have great data, it is to have great progress and performance. My experience both in running a fairly large factory (1,300 workers) and trying to improve development performance has been that summarized data may be good for reporting what has been done, but is less useful for planning and decision making. People closest to the problem being addressed must be able to relate to the data, and be part of decision making that gets the results that will improve things. Another way of saying this is that country level data is not very helpful, rather the data must relate to a place where people live their lives. Data flows should be designed so that the process of collecting data informs local people that they are making socio-enviro-economic progress so that there is incentive to do more. A last point, is that data that show progress in a very meaningful way should become the foundation for the development and humanitarian assistance community to mobilize the financial resources that are essential for success. I have argued for decades that the UN has the biggest job on the planet, and only about 10% of the money needed to do dthe job. THis will nto change until there is the sort of performance reporting that gets the attention of those that control the world's money. I am not good at short messages ... but this is the core of what I think I need to say. ////////////////////////////////////// I will try to stay fairly close to the questions posed at the start of this conversation, that is: Q1. What are your biggest challenges and concerns when adopting digital technologies to address current development issues? Q2. What are the breakthrough digital ideas you think could exponentially advance sustainable development? My involvement with computers and electronic data processing goes back to the time when they operated with vacuum tubes, and my own career has evolved as the technology has evolved. My background is university training in engineering and economics, as well as training in accountancy. I have had several years in corporate management in the USA where my work had a focus on profit performance improvement and where I learned a lot about management and moving the needle far and fast in a good direction. My management strength was mobilizing data to get people to make better decisions. I wanted data that were quick, cheap and good enough to enable others to make the best possible decision in their area of responsibility. I also wanted follow up data to show whether or not people were in fact making performance better or not. Speed was of the essence. The second half of my career has been working as an independent consultant for the UN, the World Bank and others. Many ... most ... of the people I was fortunate to work with have been very impressive and highly motivated and doing work that was well worth doing. At higher levels, however, I have not been impressed with the management of these organizations. The systems and structures are sub-optimal which is a nice way off saying pretty much dysfunctional and ineffective. I recognize that it is an enormously difficult task to change this, and for most people who have tried, it has been the end of their careers. Nevertheless it needs to be done, and this is where something of a digital revolution is needed exponentially to advance sustainable development. So, with respect to Q1 I would observe that development and deployment of digital technologies need to partner with human understanding to address current development issues. Every time we expect that technology will solve a problem without having a deep (and sound) understanding of human issues, there will be failure. Modern technology is very very powerful, but most of the data are not designed very well for management action, especially action involving human beings and complex communities. This must be changed. With respect to Q2 and the idea of a breakthrough digital idea, I argue for better management information. We need to change the way we keep score in the global socio-enviro-economic system. If we change the way the game is scored, we will change the way the game is played. Post career, I have been working to develop a way to use enhanced management accountancy so that social and environmental impacts may be managed as efficiently and effectively as money is managed (and in the corporate sector, profit is maximized). This requires a new system of numbering that is easy and widely accepted ... something that is less difficult now given the power of modern computation ... but the purpose must be very clear. The goal is not merely to have great data, but to move the needle and have great progress and performance. My past experience both in running a fairly large factory (some 1,300 workers) and trying to improve development performance informs my thinking. Summarized data is good for reporting what has been done, but is not useful for planning and decision making. Disaggregated data are needed so that people closest to the problem are able to relate to the data and be part of decision making. Another way of saying this is that country level data is not very helpful, rather the data must relate to a place where people live their lives. Data flows should be designed so that the process of collecting data informs local people so that they can see that they are making progress and be incentives to get more progress. A last point, is that summarized data about progress should become the foundation for the development and humanitarian assistance community to mobilize the financial resources that are essential for success at scale. I have argued for decades that the UN has the biggest job on the planet, yet has only about 10% of the money needed to do the job. This will not change until there is the sort of performance reporting that gets the attention of those that control the world's money. This could become possible if we embrace the right digital data strategy. I am not good at short messages ... but this is the core of what I think I need to say. Respectfully Peter Burgess 0 likes Peter Burgess Comment