Fact checking, cyber slavery, and new funding opportunities
Tech for Good Newsletter - Issue 75
Happy Tuesday!
I hope you are having a great week! This week we have a few new funding opportunities and two very important issues on technology to cover.
I tend to not editorialize too much in these emails, but there is one recent technology project that I feel is important to highlight. In July of this year, the Asia Foundation with funding from the US State Department launched an online fact-checking platform. A month later the platform was shut down, highlighting how challenging such a tool can be in a country like Cambodia. I wanted to highlight this project, not as an attempt to issue blame or call out an organization, but as practitioners in technology it’s important we look at these programs as an opportunity to learn. With that in mind, Alastair McCready wrote a very good deep dive into CambodiaCheck for South East Asia Globe and it’s very much worth your time to read.
The other topic I wanted to highlight is the area of cyber slavery in SE Asia. Not much has been known of this issue and Nikkei Asia has a fantastic long read on what is happening in many SE Asia countries.
As always, if you have anything you’d like to share with this community, please let me know!
I hope you have a great week!
Jesse
What’s interesting this week…
What this failed fact checking scheme revealed about ‘truth’ in Cambodia
In late-July, the US-funded CambodiaCheck project would be launched to counter misinformation surrounding the Kingdom. Less than a month later, the fact checking initiative would be cut short, standing accused of spreading the very thing it set out to counter.
Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs
Illicit industry traffics thousands of victims from China through Southeast Asia. This deep dive into the underbelly of a newer trend in trafficking: digital online scams. This is a great long read for anyone who might be working in the trafficking sector, or wants to understand how these criminal enterprises work.
UNDP Wants Your Input on How to Use Telehealth Solutions Successfully
The United Nations Development Programme wants to improve the understanding of relevant policy, institutional and programmatic challenges related to telehealth, and explore solutions and opportunities to promote the use of telehealth as an innovative approach to improve access to health services.
Call for Proposals: Let’s make it Louder! Cambodia
Voice is looking for innovative ideas to forge stronger influencing approaches from grassroots to the national level, addressing inequalities and boosting the economic empowerment of the rightsholder groups most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This call is specifically looking for projects or ideas that test innovative approaches around economic empowerment, access to social services and social protection particularly of women and girls across all the rightsholder groups.
Call for Code: Education Innovation Case Competition
Equal and equitable access to quality education is one of the greatest challenges facing global society. Socio-economic status, geography, race, gender, and disability all play a role in how and when we learn, and the resulting opportunities education opens. Critically, the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded long-existing challenges and wiped out 20 years of progress.*
Technology can be key to addressing these issues. Regardless of your course of study, by participating in this case competition you can devise innovative solutions that address the challenge of making quality education a right for all – not a privilege. As current students, the world needs your expertise, empathy, and unique perspective to design technological solutions to a global problem.
Apply for the Global Cultural Relations Programme 2021
Would you like to broaden your skills in international cultural relations and network with cultural and creative practitioners around the world? The Global Cultural Relations Programme (GCRP) is a unique opportunity for changemakers and innovators in the cultural and creative sectors.
Apply for the opportunity to develop lifelong skills, increase your knowledge, build your international network and receive support to engage in international cultural relations. You will also be able to develop concrete international collaboration projects with your peers.