Technology for Development: Thinking Large & Small
No matter how great you think your tech idea is, if it is being created to serve the needs of People in Africa, for example, do your research, accept when someone tells you the solution is not for them.
-Hannah Metcalfe, Viamo in the latest Global Digital Futures podcast episode
There is a widespread consensus that innovative technology can drive development goals. The global growth of mobile and internet access laid the foundations for Technology for Development (T4D); the challenges brought about by COVID, particularly remote delivery of programmes, has cemented its value. This is echoed by organisations in the development space, such as UNICEF, who reported this year that T4D is now instrumental to every area of their work.
I first came across T4D last year, whilst interning at UNICEF’s Regional Office for South Asia. I was amazed by their U-Report tool, a chatbot that simultaneously disseminates information to, and gathers the opinions of, young people around the world. The ability to connect directly with the recipients of development programmes is a pretty big game changer - a hopeful glimpse into a more participatory, less top-down, future of aid. And, at a time where “big data” has earned itself a bit of a bad name, it is reassuring to see how large-scale data collection can be used for good.
But T4D practitioners still face scrutiny when it comes to how locally relevant and rooted their technologies are. International organisations, vying for global reach, can spread themselves too thinly, without the necessary depth in each local context. And although mobile and internet access is on the rise, the digital divide is still stark, operating across economic, geographic, linguistic and gendered lines. Plenty of cultural and linguistic understanding is required to ensure that shiny new technologies are really solving problems and reaching the right people. A preoccupation with the internet will ignore, for example, the 78% of people in Africa who have no access to it. Research by Oxfam suggests that older, more familiar technologies tend to be more effective.
This week, Chipo spoke to Hannah Metcalfe, Country Director for Viamo in Tanzania. Viamo’s technology can reach any mobile phone in the world: they partner with governments, NGOs and other organizations who want to carry out surveys, disseminate information and more. In their conversation, Hannah explains how Viamo’s voice recognition technology enables participants to speak to Viamo’s phone lines from any mobile phone in their own language, and some projects are still conducted via radio. It’s a reminder that new technologies are not necessarily going to be the most effective tool for every population; innovation should not be prioritised over user-experience. And the wealth of data that an organisation like Viamo receives can inform and improve their technology around the varied, complex needs of its users.
Another way to get real insight into the needs of users? Be one yourself. In the upcoming GDF ThinkTank episode that will accompany this podcast episode, we talk to Trueman Hama Mabumbo, a Zimbabwean A-Level student, who is the founder of Dzidzo Paden | Imfund’wedhlini, a WhatsApp based chatbot that disseminates academic resources to students across Zimbabwe. He recently secured a partnership to launch the bot with UNESCO. Trueman is a testament to what can happen when international NGOs listen to and collaborate with people who have rooted experiences of the problems they are trying to solve.
When T4D can enable development practitioners to listen better to those they serve, and adapt to global challenges like COVID-19, then it can represent all of the hope and innovation that I want to believe exists in the world of tech.
Listen to the podcast and let me know what you think.
See you next time,
Eliza
PS.Find our most recent ThinkTank on Digital Freedom and Platform Considerations here.
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Spotlight
ICT Works is a community for ICT4D professionals, with excellent articles on a range of topics contributed from experts and practitioners.
Resources from the podcast
Watch a talk by Viamo’s Chief Technology Officer, here.
Read an article co-written by Hannah on The Rockerfeller Foundation’s Yieldwise initiative, here.
Read the summary of the event ‘Do Black Lives Matter in ICT4D?’, which Hannah participated in, here
Other tech news I’ve been reading this week
Twitter is now obeying the Indian government’s new internet rules, which marks the end of a three month dispute. Read about it in The Verge here.
Over at Wired Jason Parham has compiled a three part People’s History of Black Twitter. Take a look here.
Two articles on online anonymity: in the New York Times, here; and in Danah Boyd’s blog, here.
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