What's interesting this week...
Tech for Good - Issue 91
Happy Friday!
I hope you’ve had a great and productive week! This week I am featuring an interesting report on internet affordability and how we can achieve universal access for those that remain unable to access the internet. Additionally, I discovered a fantastic article about Rith Sovandalin who is aiming to grow the next generation of female coders in Cambodia. This week I also wanted to feature a great new framework publish in ICTWorks that covers social media, conflict, and resilience.
At Glean Asia, we are continuing to refine our new Tech For Good platform which I am hoping will launch next month. Right now we are indexing over 3,000 organizations, funders, and service providers that are working in #techforgood. I’m currently working on analyzing and adding commentary to various technology funds, ideas, and concepts to help provide you better insight on the market and (hopefully) where I see opportunities for impact (and funding).
I’m excited about this new year and what lies ahead for all of us!
Have a great weekend!
Jesse
What’s interesting this week…
Cambodia’s Female Coder
Rith Sovandalin aims to inspire a generation of female coders across Cambodia with her innovative string of projects. Having always harbored an interest in tech and innovation, a young and enthusiastic Rith Sovandalin started exploring her passion of ‘’coding” at the age of 13. Despite the social norm and lack of family’s support, Sovandalin managed to overcome these emerging obstacles and is now recognized as a role model for other young girls to look up to.
Affordability Report 2021: A new strategy for universal access
Billions of people have never used the internet before. How do we connect them for the first time?
In many parts of the world, governments set up institutions dedicated to the idea that everyone in that country should have access to some basic technologies. They frequently focus on things like electricity, telephony, and the internet. These institutions are known as Universal Service & Access Funds (USAFs for short). In this report, we propose a reimagining of Universal Service & Access Funds (USAFs) as we know them.
New Framework: Understanding Social Media, Conflict, and Resilience
Information has been used throughout history as a weapon to stoke or intensify violent conflict by mobilizing fighters or supporters, rallying the public or allies, and undermining or deceiving adversaries. Technology and the internet have been game-changers: the cost of production and dissemination of weaponized information is low, and the reach of the information is comparatively exponential. A superpower’s leaflet drop during the Cold War is today’s altered video shared virally over social media.
To better understand and address the threats and opportunities surrounding social media in conflict-affected environments, Mercy Corps undertook research across four country contexts—Ethiopia, Iraq, Myanmar, and Nigeria. This brief highlights key findings from this research about the dynamics of social media and conflict as well as a framework for assessing these challenges, and provides some recommendations for responses.
Circulate Capital invests in “Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia” to expand recycling infrastructure and prevent plastic pollution in indonesia
Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management firm that finances innovations, companies, and infrastructure to prevent the flow of plastic waste into the world’s oceans and advance a carbon neutral circular economy, today announced that the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) is investing in Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia. This plastic waste collection and recycling company is pioneering and testing an innovative supply chain model for the management of plastic waste.
Digital connectivity as an enabling factor in Asian resurgence
There is little debate about Asia’s increasing economic and political significance. The COVID-19 pandemic that originated in the Asian land mass has retarded, but not reversed, the progress made in taking millions out of poverty and in moving the centre of gravity of the world economy back to Asia, where it was until the 16th century.
Because of the increase in the purchasing power of the burgeoning middle classes of Asia, all eyes are on Asia’s markets. It is natural that the goods and services produced in Asia will increasingly be consumed in Asia as well, leading to a growth in intra-Asian trade. For this to occur, it is necessary that barriers to trade be lowered; and that collective action is taken to provide the multi-faceted connectivity that is an essential precondition for inclusive trade that benefits more segments in society.