ICTs for Development blog
Catch up on the most recent posts from our Centre for Digital Development blog.
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Positive Deviance: A Data-Powered Approach to the Covid-19 Response
Richard Heeks
5 May 2020
Nations around the world are struggling with their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, they seek guidance on what works best in terms of preventive measures, treatments, and public health, economic and other policies. Can we use the novel approach of data-powered positive deviance to improve the guidance being offered? Positive Deviance and Covid-19 […]
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Protecting Gig Workers During Covid-19: What Platforms Must Do
Richard Heeks
27 April 2020
The estimated 50 million gig workers worldwide have been particularly hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. How are their platforms responding, and what more should platforms do? Reports indicate half of gig workers have lost their jobs. Those still working perform functions essential to society, yet they have lost two-thirds of their income on average. Many face […]
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Second round of Fairwork’s yearly platform ratings in South Africa launched!
Richard Heeks
18 March 2020
The Fairwork South Africa 2020 report highlights the precarious nature of work in the South African gig economy. This research is particularly timely in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which has brought the risks faced by front-line gig workers into sharp relief. The uncertainty that has gripped the world in the wake of the […]
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Rural Resilience Impact of ICTs-in-Agriculture
Richard Heeks
28 January 2020
What impact do ICT-in-agriculture projects have on rural resilience? To cope with short-term shocks (e.g. conflict, economic crisis) and long-term trends (e.g. climate change), rural areas in developing countries must become more resilient. Yet we currently know very little about the impact that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can have on resilience-building. To address this […]
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Ride-hailing Platform Asymmetries between Riders and Driver-partners in Lagos, Nigeria.
danielarubayi
9 January 2020
Platform companies, with the help of data, have the potential to formalise the processes of transport systems in global South cities, especially in African cities which are characterised with informal processes. For ride-hailing platforms, this will help improve safety and security for both drivers and riders and reduce the likelihood of workers who attempt to […]
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Addressing Institutional Voids in Nigeria’s Agricultural Finance Markets through Agri-finance Platforms
ezeomahbookie
5 December 2019
In my previous blog “Crowdfarming: Platform-enabled Investment in Nigerian Agriculture”, I talked about how digital platforms are being mainstreamed into agricultural finance markets in Nigeria. This blog describes how digital platforms are addressing some of the underlying problems which have constrained rural farmer’s access to agricultural finance thereby creating gaps which manifest as institutional voids […]
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ICTs and Precision Development: Towards Personalised Development
Richard Heeks
5 November 2019
Are ICTs about to deliver a new type of socio-economic development: personalised development? ICTs can only have a significant development impact if they work at scale; touching the lives of thousands or better still millions of people. Traditionally, this meant a uniform approach where everyone gets to use the same application in the same way. […]
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Digital financial inclusion in ten African countries: foregone digital dividends?
Gindo Tampubolon
18 October 2019
The story of mobile money in Africa, such as Mpesa, is one of the success stories to have arisen from the continent in recent years. A World Bank report in 2016, featured mobile money services, together with innovations from other places, to illustrate how digital technologies are yielding digital dividends in development. Specifically, the report highlighted […]
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Financial Inclusion and Institutional Voids: Are Digital Platforms a Solution?
Negar Tabrizi
2 September 2019
“What drives development” has long been a fundamental question for many scholars and policymakers. One consensus reached is that financial inclusion – access to and use of formal financial services by all members of an economy – is a central tenet of development [1]. It facilitates efficient allocation of productive resources by reducing the volume […]
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Trust Issues and Ride-Hailing Platforms in Lagos, Nigeria.
danielarubayi
17 July 2019
The idea of building trust is often central to the adoption and use of technology platforms in general such that the processes and governance of these platforms ought to align with the realities of user-groups which are essential for a seamless service. Since 2013, the entry of ride-hailing platforms in Nigeria has increased because of […]
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