Archive for category: Technology

Information and stories about technology news.

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Poverty Reduction and Data Collection

Data CollectionMillions of people across the world suffer from extremely impoverished living conditions and nations and organizations around the world have committed to greatly reducing this number by 2030. Surprisingly, data collection has and will continue to play a crucial role in this process.

In the last few decades, the world has experienced a significant decline in the portion of the global population that may be considered extremely poor. But how do we know this? Data collection is extremely important in determining a baseline for poverty as well as measuring successes in measures to eradicate it.

Data collection has taken several forms throughout the years, becoming more accurate and streamlined. However, there is still room for improvement in streamlining efforts, which takes human power, technology investments and funding. In short: without data collection, ambitious efforts toward ending global poverty may drag on or stall altogether.

Surveys are a primary means of data collection. Statistical groups see this as the best measure of current lifestyle conditions of those living in poverty. These types of surveys can measure levels of income, familial distribution, education, employment, gender ratios, birth rates and death rates across a large representative portion of any country’s population.

The coverage and frequency of these surveys has increased over time, making measurements that much more precise. However, this data still remains largely incomplete in many areas due to migration, refugee situations, and minimal access simply due to the level of danger.

Innovations in technology are helping to close inherent gaps in survey systems when it comes to data collection on poverty. Automating surveys make the collection even more accurate and organized as well as can become more widespread, reaching the once-unreachable. Cell phones and computers with Internet capabilities have carved out a new path for data collection, as they are accessible to most extremely poor countries. These technologies are also more fiscally responsible for the distributors in the long run.

Data collection is extremely important in continuing the battle against extreme poverty, to help better understand the problem at hand: what may be working, what is not, and what corrections will potentially make a huge impact.

– Casey Hess

Photo: Flickr

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“Chowberry” App Reduces Food Waste

ChowberryChowberry is an app combating hunger and food waste in Nigeria. The app was invented by Nigerian software developer Oscar Ekponimo. According to the Nigerian Tribune, Ekponimo has partnered with the program Project FoodAccess to connect impoverished Nigerians and non-governmental organizations with cheap food.

Chowberry works through several steps. The first step involves local grocery stores. As the store’s food products near their expiration dates, the stores begins reducing the food prices each day. The app alerts Nigerians and food organizations about the lowered food prices. Project FoodAccess specifically matches the food with families they register need it the most. These include families with young mothers and female breadwinners.

Chowberry helps to alleviate the problem of hunger, which affects Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 223 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry or malnourished from 2014 to 2016. Nigeria itself has been declared unable to feed its entire population by the World Food Programme.

Ekponimo himself has a personal experience with hunger. After his father had a stroke and could not work, his family could not afford to feed themselves. Chowberry has given Ekponimo the opportunity to help others going through similar situations.

The app has had a significant impact within different areas in Nigeria. The three-month trial run has fed 200 families and 150 orphans. Many Nigerians have requested that the program expand to more communities.

Chowberry also has assisted the 20 participating grocery stores. Food that would have been thrown out before now gets sold to families in need at a profit to the store. The helpful software has gained international recognition as well, winning the Rolex Award of Enterprise in 2016.

Ekponimo hopes that he can expand Chowberry to feed the hungry in other African countries. With continued innovation from people like Ekponimo, technology like Chowberry could be used to help put an end to hunger in Africa and around the globe.

– Cortney Rowe

Photo: Flickr

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Overcoming Language Barriers for Education in Malaysia

Education in Malaysia
Whether in textbooks or spoken in lectures, language is crucial in effective education. Without a common means of communication, many students will be left behind. While education in Malaysia has predominantly used Malay, the country’s official language, in its classrooms, some Malaysian schools also include more English, Chinese and Tamil cultures into their curricula.

In most instances, immense diversity is a privilege to instill greater global awareness, but, in the Malaysian education system, it has hindered progress, especially in keeping up with other countries’ educational opportunities. To keep up in an ever-changing economy and job market, education in Malaysia needs to establish a common language for all schools.

Despite its linguistic differences, Malaysian education is goal-driven and focused on improving itself. The government released an ambitious Malaysia Education Blueprint in 2013. The detailed plan hopes to achieve universal access and full enrollment of all children from preschool to upper secondary school, improved student test scores, and reduced urban-rural, socio-economic and gender achievement gaps, all by 2020.

To meet such high standards, however, promoting a mother tongue language for education in Malaysia is key. The benefits of doing so include higher enrollment and success rates, especially for girls and rural-based students, and greater parent-teacher communication. The students that tend to feel the most marginalized, those from poorer households, are more likely to attend school, retain information, and participate in their learning.

Other countries in the region with similar struggles serve as examples of how to overcome potential language barriers. Laos has dozens of diverse languages that are mainly spoken in rural, impoverished communities. However, with education requiring fluency in Lao, the official language, children from different ethnic backgrounds were left out. With UNICEF’s support, the government took a “Schools of Quality” approach that starts children in their native language and slowly transitions them into Lao. The change has been a successful way to boost student morale and attendance.

Such benefits of a mother-tongue-based education will propel Malaysia to become a world leader in a digital economy. Students who face language barriers in their education have limited opportunities to reach their full potential. If students fall behind in understanding their studies, they will also fall behind when facing an increasingly technical-based economy. Acquiring skills in technology and STEM-related fields requires a quality, forward-thinking education as a foundation. That education appropriately requires a cohesive language to teach and learn.

Education should be an accessible service to every person, regardless of their language, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Education in Malaysia is on the right path to improving its system, but an important step forward will involve overcoming language barriers. Other countries in the region serve as testaments to the positive growth in preserving the mother tongue, and, with continued support, Malaysia too can experience this progress.

– Allie Knofczynski

Photo: Flickr

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Mobile Empowers Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Market Technology Empowers Farmers in Sub-Saharan AfricaAlthough Africa as a continent possesses 54 diverse and independent nations, those nations located below the Sahara Desert are often grouped into one region. Though it is helpful to use this regional grouping in some instances of data gathering and processing, it is also important to ensure when doing so that the individuality of the nations is not lost and is, instead, carefully noted, as such individuality creates significant statistical differences. For example, although it can be easily asserted that 54 percent of the total African work force is found in the agricultural sector, such a statistic is entirely off-base when considering the case of nations such as South Africa, Angola and Mauritius, where less than 20 percent of all employment is found in agriculture, or nations like Burundi and Madagascar, where over 80 percent of employment is in the agricultural sector.

That being said, the impact of a nation’s agricultural systems is still so significant that a one percent increase in agricultural per capita GDP would actually cause a decrease in the poverty gap five times larger than a one percent increase in per capita GDP of any other area. Further, it is a widely shared belief amongst development economists that the area most impacted by agricultural growth is in non-farm income and employment. In other words, no matter how large or small a nation’s agricultural sector is, it has an immense impact on the nation overall. As a result, it is no wonder that addressing the agricultural sector is inherently necessary in the effort to address the 40 percent of the world’s poor that live in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Such is exactly why the work of Esoko Networks Limited is so important. As a technology platform that works to bridge the information gap for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, Esoko strives to improve the production yield and make farmers more market savvy through multiple facets – and all through the personal ease of the ever-ubiquitous mobile phone. Esoko provides up-to-date market information such as current prices and also includes weather alerts – the latter being an increasingly serious matter, as fluctuating environmental conditions due to climate change has forced changes in agricultural practices in many areas. Additionally, Esoko allows individuals to share information regarding agricultural practices and technologies, old and new, effectively creating a farmer-specific library of information from which to learn and improve one’s production.

Perhaps most exciting, this technology also has a feature which allows buyers and sellers to identify and connect with each other – creating a mini-market that can focus specifically on interactions between smallholder farmers while also providing access to larger markets. As a final measure, Esoko has included a system to survey the individuals who use their technology. This system has been so effective that it has brought down UNICEF’s profiling error rate to an astonishing zero percent – it was previously at 55 percent.

Overall, Esoko has been found to increase income for those farmers who use it by about 10 percent- and all by simply creating a network for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to communicate, connect and learn.

– Kailee Nardi
Photo: Flickr

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UNITAR Provides Instruction to Least Developed Countries

UNITAR Provides InstructionThe United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is the main training sector of the United Nations. UNITAR provides instruction and aptitude development activities to assist mainly developing countries with a concentration on “Least Developed Countries (LDCs),” “Small Island Developing States (SIDS)” and additional assemblies and precariously vulnerable nations, including those in disputed circumstances. The Institute incorporates topics in the broad areas of setting the stage concerning the 2030 Agenda, reinforcing multilateralism, furthering environmental sustainability and green development, improving resilience and humanitarian assistance, promoting sustainable peace and promoting economic development and social inclusion.

Capacity for the 2030 Agenda
UNITAR provides instruction and delivers a range of projects, e-training courses, in-person seminars, webinars and education sessions/conferences. This instruction is done with the intent of assisting national jurisdictions and stakeholders to develop the capability for mainstreaming, executing and analyzing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Agenda challenges all countries and stakeholders to cooperate in the implementation of global objectives at all levels.

Strengthen Multilateralism
UNITAR seeks to empower representatives to participate in intergovernmental deliberations as well as management.
Globalization is increasing, and the consequences of multilateral conversation and collaboration are growing. The demand from the Member States for training and capacity development in the field of multilateral diplomacy will continue to rise. UNITAR supports the Member States by conveying knowledge related to the practices, policies and methods of multilateral working conditions and United Nations intergovernmental machinery.

UNITAR provides instruction based on a unique focus on contemporary diplomacy-related topics including colloquies related to climate change, trade and intellectual property issues.

Promote Economic Development and Social Inclusion
To attain sustainable growth and development and to accomplish global objectives including the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, advancing nations including Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must understand current and future challenges affecting the environment. Many countries are inadequately outfitted to design, execute and monitor adequate expansion plans. UNITAR helps LDCs to increase their capacities for trade, finance, investment and intellectual property, assisting achievement related to their development priorities, altering procedures to create workable plans.

Advance Environmental Sustainability and Green Development
As countries persevere in building solutions to conquer impending environmental hurdles and to advance low carbon growth, UNITAR shares solutions gathered from its experience, analyzing learning requirements, designing tailored learning approaches and using the latest in instructional design techniques.

To advance the objective of furthering environmental sustainability, UNITAR provides instruction while partnering with U.N. associates, as well as additional associations and nations to develop well-organized learning tactics, as a means of delivering climate resilient development production. UNITAR focuses on increasing skills in analysis of vulnerabilities and risks and strategies to create resilience to climate change.

Research and Technology Applications
This area of work includes most of the organization’s research efforts in the areas of technology applications and innovation. UNITAR is home to an advanced center of excellence for satellite imagery and data analysis, UNITAR’s Operational Satellite Applications Program (UNOSAT). The center is active in research, applications and specialized training. Twenty-first-century technology will confront climate change, facilitate resilience and involve citizens in the work of the U.N. In this area, UNITAR provides instruction utilizing tools to promote information and knowledge about adult learning principles and instructional design approaches for all the Member States.

By focusing on these areas, UNITAR hopes to empower the world with knowledge, especially in creating sustainable solutions for the future.

– Heather Hopkins

Photo: Flickr

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On Artificial Intelligence and Poverty

Artificial Intelligence and Poverty

Artificial intelligence (AI) has forever changed the way society interacts with technology. It has provided limitless opportunities for problem-solving in the last decade, and the relationship between artificial intelligence and poverty reduction may be one worth fostering.

In 2007, the iPhone had first made its appearance on the world stage. Since its release, phone-based computer programs (apps) have evolved from simple games like Space Invaders: Infinite Gene, to industry-upsetting business models like Uber.

Since apps began to use algorithms to create relatively simple artificial intelligence (AI), computation has become vital to leading businesses and organization. Ten years ago, AI was almost entirely task-based, but a new form of AI—known as deep learning—has garnered more attention in the past few years.

Instead of a programmer telling how a certain machine should do a task, deep learning AI uses neural networks which actually teach the computer (or other deep learning AI) how to complete tasks in the most efficient manner. What makes it so special is that deep learning is faultless, and, with enough computation resources, can learn things faster than humans.

Does this finally mean that the age of robots is upon us? The easy answer is yes. Deep learning machines have now outplayed people in chess, Go (widely considered to be the most complex game in the world) and are possibly are going to try to beat humans at StarCraft, a multiplayer video game. But AI can disrupt the world’s economy in significant ways. Corporations use it to trade in the financial sector; write articles for newspapers; diagnose health disorders and diseases and do manual office work. It has even recreated a Nobel prize-winning physics experiment.

In the last decade, we have discovered that deep learning AI and AI has infinite potential. So, the question goes, how will artificial intelligence and poverty correlate? Can AI reduce poverty? In general, it should. Never in the history of mankind have we let machines do this type of work for us, so we have no precedents to build off of. Additionally, because deep learning machines are only just coming onto the marketplace, new obstacles may appear as we continue AI research.

However, people are beginning to harness this extremely powerful tool for the poor, and the work sounds promising. At the moment, AI is especially useful for data mining simple statistics: which areas need more development, which people require more education and how they can receive it, etc. Having to collect this data manually would be a time-intensive task that would also be incredibly expensive.

However, there are also more complex uses for AI, such as agricultural research for poor farmers. Tech giant IBM is working on an operations research robot that will optimize transporting food aid around the globe. Improvement of artificial intelligence and poverty reduction are thus parallel goals for these major corporations.

In addition, IBM is also working on a novel illiteracy project. If eventually implemented, it will allow people to learn how to read without the assistance of a teacher by having a computer analyze something that a student of any age might find in their daily life (such as a flower). The computer would then display the written word while playing the sound for it. This would allow people to learn how to read wherever they are, whenever they have time.

Of course, these are all leading edge uses when talking about artificial intelligence and poverty. While engineers continue to work on the technical aspects of the technology, the U.N. is preparing for the change in methodology in battling poverty by holding AI summits. Twenty U.N. agencies have and will continue to discuss issues pertaining to the Millennium Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals in relation to AI.

The potential to significantly diminish poverty with these new technologies is very high. It might take humanity decades before AI is actively fighting poverty, but when it does, it will most likely help eradicate it.

One main challenge of AI is to make sure that we can control it. Futurologist Elon Musk, along with world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and many AI experts have signed an open letter warning the U.N. against the use of AI-powered weapons, as they can potentially develop their own ethics standards and kill humans ceaselessly, regardless of their affiliation. Even though this warning specifically targets militarized robots, it is a cautionary tale: we need to tread carefully when using new technology, which is why AI will only truly take off several years into the future.

– Michal Burgunder

Photo: Flickr

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How to Reduce Poverty in Developing Countries

Reduce Poverty in Developing Countries

A country’s economic growth, security, development and prosperity depend on the ability of its young population to obtain proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Students exposed to STEM education at an early age gain valuable experience in a consistently growing field. The skills they gain can be used to create a more innovative, efficient and productive workforce. Though most developing countries face many obstacles in affording basic education for young children, promoting STEM education can be one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty in developing countries.

As technological advancements become an inseparable part of our lives, STEM education can empower human resources with global competitiveness. UNESCO emphasizes that it is also a building block in creating “a critical mass of scientists, researchers and engineers to enable them to participate fully in the global economy.”

Obstacles in providing STEM education remain. According to the Institute of Engineering and Technology, low-quality teaching and a monotonous curriculum have been identified as two common barriers to students who end up losing interest in STEM education. Afraid of being perceived as “geeks” or “nerds,” students give in to negative stereotypes and fail to see how a STEM education can help propel them towards interesting, lucrative careers and reduce poverty in developing countries.

The perceived difficulty of STEM subjects and the ever-present pressure to obtain high scores scare off students, while a passive approach in transitioning from primary to secondary school discourages more thorough engagement. Furthermore, gender stereotypes create significant challenges for girls in developing countries to maintain an appreciable literary level, much less make strides in the STEM arena.

But there are also positive developments. In 2014, for example, 19 universities in west and central Africa received funding from the World Bank for specialized studies in STEM-related disciplines, as well as in agriculture and health.

Initiatives like Code to Hope seek to improve digital literacy and education by empowering underserved communities with the necessary computer and technical skills. Code to Hope notes that access to technology is directly related to an income increase of $21 per month.

Organizations such as the WorldFund work in Latin America and target poverty by assisting educators in devising teaching methods that can help spark students’ interests in learning STEM-related subjects.

Moreover, open source applications, which depend on the collaborative work of people all over the world, are also enhancing learning in STEM fields for students and helping to reduce poverty in developing countries. Schools utilizing the open source approach not only provide a more robust education for their students, but also help create a more sustainable future by helping people move out of poverty.

The United Nations places a special emphasis on STEM education, noting that it can empower youths and help eliminate the gender gap for young women and girls. The U.N. also notes that growing career opportunities in STEM-related fields present the best antidote to chronic youth unemployment and that STEM skills are “an ideal communication channel that enhances social engagement as well as sharing information and innovative ideas to overcome poverty and to promote peace and prosperity for all.”

By providing the necessary skill development and equal employment opportunities as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce inequality, STEM education can help reduce poverty in developing countries.

– Mohammed Khalid

Photo: Flickr

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The Effects of Automation on Developing Countries

The Effects of Automation on Developing CountriesThe world is on the cusp of another industrial revolution. This time, it is information technology that is dramatically altering the fundamentals of the global economy, displacing millions of workers in the process.

While technological disruptions have already taken a significant toll on developed countries—causing what Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee dub the “Great Decoupling” of wages from productivity—the effects of automation on developing countries are only beginning to be felt.

In the last three decades, information technologies produced high growth rates in many developing countries, as communication and transportation technologies facilitated economic globalization and tapped low-cost labor sources.

But in the future, continued technological advancement is expected to undercut even the lowest-cost labor in developing countries.

Last year, the World Bank estimated that roughly two-thirds of all the jobs in the developing world are due to succumb to automation.

While deindustrialization caused wage stagnation and inequality in developed economies, automation in developing countries will likely have an even worse effect. Lacking the wealth and educational infrastructures developed countries had, most developing countries will be hard-pressed to transition from export-led to service-based economies.

Instead, the coming technological revolution is likely to produce a reverse-outsourcing effect on developing countries. The countries with the best-educated and most competitive STEM workers will be the ones attracting the businesses that are going to design and develop the technologies that put everyone else out of work.

To compensate for technological disruptions, tech moguls like Mark Zuckerberg have suggested implementing policies like universal basic income.

While this platform may offer a short-term solution to the coming wave of unemployment, it will likely bankrupt governments and ultimately fail to uphold a long-term consumer-based economy.

In the developing world, specifically, universal basic income will explode budgetary deficits, which are in many cases already inflated from subsidizing industrial production and exportation.

Regardless of how cheap and efficient technology renders supply chains, without an employed and enriched populace, efficiently produced goods will find no new markets.

The only long-term means to mitigating the effects of automation on developing countries will be investing in human capital and educating high-skilled workers. Only when most workers are responsible for driving the driverless economy will the economy work for most workers.

– Nathaniel Sher

Photo: Flickr

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Listening to Africa

Listening to AfricaData collection is an extremely important part of solving any problem. It is key in understanding the needs of a person, place or thing and what impacts certain stimuli have on them. When it comes to people, this can be particularly difficult, especially in war-torn regions, impoverished nations or in migrant communities. Unfortunately, these are often the conditions of the extremely poor.

In order to understand global poverty and effective methods to eradicate it, data must be gathered on people and their living conditions, whatever they may be. Historically, groups such as the World Bank would collect this data personally, traveling to sites and interviewing locals. However, this can be a vastly ineffective way to gather data for the aforementioned reasons, as people may migrate or the area may be too dangerous to travel. Listening to Africa is an organization investing in technology to help solve this problem.

Listening to Africa is a program set up by the World Bank Group to collect data on global poverty. Listening to Africa is using mobile phones supplemented by information from statistical offices and nongovernmental organizations in Africa in order to systematically collect data on extremely poor regions.

The program marries two different approaches; face-to-face interviews and follow-up phone calls to monitor selected regions. Respondents are asked some simple questions to begin the process and take part in 20-minute phone calls each month as the program is carried out. Those who complete the surveys successfully are awarded credit to their phones. Data from these calls is then paired with data collection done in the field and with other statistical offices to help better understand real time conditions in impoverished regions.

Listening to Africa has a great potential for data analysts to communicate with policy-makers on actual conditions of these regions, which will, in turn, allow them to better serve these communities and eventually help bring global poverty to an end.

– Casey Hess
Photo: Flickr

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How Poverty Is Reduced Through Basic Technology

How Is Poverty ReducedMost modern technology is marketed towards the world’s wealthy, but that should not inhibit its potential to help the world’s poor. As prices fall and production increases, affordable and basic technology may be the solution for eradicating global poverty.

How is poverty reduced through basic technology? First and foremost, by understanding the realistic and productive uses for technology in a community and ensuring that it is relevant.

Too often there are stories of computers collecting dust in African classrooms, or new smartphone apps that can help impoverished people find work — in places where smartphones are unattainable. Despite the vast amount of information on the internet, it is hardly relevant to a rural family in a developing country and will rarely help them escape poverty. In reality, the technology that will help end poverty is more basic.

The United Nations is at the forefront of this vision, with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) working towards the global spreading of information and communications technology (ICT). Founded in 1996, the IICD has come a long way in understanding the pragmatic strategy needed for implementing modern technology in developing countries. The IICD has learned that “it is not the technology itself that makes the difference but rather the people who own it and apply it.” Therefore, helping people get the most out of ICT is now as equally important to the organization’s mission as introducing it.

The IICD works to apply ICT to health, economic and education sectors in different communities around the world. It’s main focus is in the context of helping the U.N. meet its Millennium Development Goals — an effort that the IICD has been at the center of. In short, the IICD works to instigate large-scale social change through low-tech, relevant technology.

Other organizations, such as Kopernik, work on a smaller scale to improve the lives of many through simple technology. Kopernik connects poor, rural families with basic, life-altering technologies that not only save lives, but also save money and time. These simple technologies include water filters, fuel-efficient stoves and solar lights.

Technologies such as solar lights are affordable and sustainable, and their usage is linked to positive behavioral changes and higher household productivity. Investing and distributing this basic technology should be a major priority, for it is fundamental to increasing human development and reducing poverty.

It is not to say that computers and the internet are not infinitely useful and powerful, but we should keep in mind that the internet won’t help a child if they only have access to contaminated water. So, perhaps the question of how to eliminate poverty has a simple answer: distribute relevant, basic technology.

– Catherine Fredette

Photo: Google