What's interesting this week...
Tech for Good - Issue 94
Happy Friday!
I hope your week is going well! This week I am featuring a few interesting articles, most notably: a series on AI/Data For Good, a fantastic report from All Tech is Human on the alignment of technology and our human experience, and a blog from DAI on their experience using technology amongst displaced persons.
At Glean Asia we are still working on our Tech for Good platform and making steady process. We’ve completed a series of tools that I think you’ll find helpful if you’re looking to source new funding leads, projects, or if you’re looking for a new job in #techforgood. We are still on track for a end of February beta, so please let me know if you’d like to give it a try!
Have a great weekend!
Jesse
What’s interesting this week…
A Taxonomy for AI / Data for Good
This piece is the culmination of a series of explorations seeking to map and make sense of the landscape of efforts to apply data for good. The process involved not only a review of the field, but also a taxonomy for understanding how different initiatives labeled as “data for good” or “AI for good” relate to one another. This work represents input from over 30 stakeholder interviews and six live feedback sessions.
HX Report Aligning Our Tech Future With Our Human Experience
How can we align our tech future with the human experience? All Tech Is Human, a non-profit that unites a diverse range of stakeholders to co-create a better tech future, assembled a large working group and interviewed a broad range of 45 individuals (students, researchers, designers, psychologists, tech leaders). Looking at the concept of HX (HXproject.org), this report breaks down the concept into six major themes and utilizes a Rubik's Cube analogy to promote a holistic approach.
Technology and Displacement: The Role of Digital Tools Among Displaced Persons
‘In a previous post from last March, I wrote about the reality of the gender digital divide, in which I noted the difference in digital access and usage among women and men globally and the lost potential that results from women’s lack of access. When able to access, understand, and leverage digital tools, women can use these tools to better their economic outcomes and those of their families and communities.
However, women are not the only group facing the reality of the digital divide. The United Nations Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, a report presenting strategies for inclusive, equitable adoption of digital technologies, notes some of the many other groups affected by similar challenges, including “migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, older persons, young people, children, persons with disabilities, rural populations, and indigenous peoples.”’
Strategic Evaluation of WFP's Use of Technology in Constrained Environments
The evaluation was concerned with WFP’s use of digital technologies and data over the period 2014 to mid-2021, in environments that are constrained in terms of humanitarian access or where there are important physical, social or political obstacles to the deployment of digital technologies. It was framed around the four interrelated components of a system including technology, people, policies and processes, and partnerships.
Protecting women’s identities through mobile tokenisation
Access to mobile phones and services can have a positive impact on women’s lives, contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 focusing on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and can also provide economic benefits to the mobile industry and the wider economy. However, women are being left behind as various barriers as well as social norms keep them from accessing and using mobile technology at the same rate as men. Research has consistently shown that safety and security concerns related to mobile are key barriers which women tend to experience more acutely than men.
Mobile-related security issues can be improved through tokenisation, a process of replacing sensitive data with a unique string of numbers, which has been successfully implemented in other industries. As well as benefitting customers, solutions such as these can also improve customer acquisition, ARPU and retention for mobile operators.