Features

At the latest Transform Africa summit, there was a positive mood about technology's potential to transform Africa. But the real question is how this optimism – and technology's potential – can be scaled up in practice to reach everyone, including the poorest and most marginalised men and women.

Tech governance is often one step removed from debates about international development. Developing countries need a seat at the table to influence the development of global technology policy. 

Gloria Chua writes about the Commission's civil servant policy hackathon, and why 'hacking' public service challenges with human-centred design can lead to innovative and user-centred solutions.

Our academic director and Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Stefan Dercon, wrote for Duncan Green's Oxfam blog about his confidence in future employment for the developing world, as well as the need to address digital inequality.

Shanta Devrajan, our commissioner and World Bank Acting Chief Economist, wrote for Brookings, on the Pathway Commissions two major reports and the 2019 World Development Report - 'The Changing Nature of Work.' He believes that '[t]aken together, they provide a robust platform for harnessing the power of technology for inclusive growth.'

Chimwemwe John Paul Manyozo has written a blog about his take-aways from the Commission's Young Civil Servants Tech-Policy Hackathon in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 2018.

Artificial intelligence evokes both excitement and fear. Kamal Bhattacharya is confident that the opportunities for developing countries outweigh the threats.

Tebello attended the We Robot 2018 conference on robotics, law and policy at Stanford University. The meeting helped the commission to understand the latest technology, and to think about the approaches governments could take as they navigate rapid change.

Prakhar Misra and Meena Bhandari summarise some of the key debates around India’s national digital ID experiment, and what it means for the most excluded and marginalised populations.