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The Rise of the Creator Economy in Emerging Markets: Empowering Youth and Marginalized Communities Through Web Monetization
The creator economy — a thriving ecosystem of online content creators ranging from influencers to bloggers — is a growing source of employment and income in developing economies, especially for younger generations. And as Matšeliso Thabane at the Interledger Foundation explains, alternative earning routes are emerging that can allow these creators to monetize their content in new ways. She explores how Web Monetization — a “pay-as-you-use” approach that enables small, real-time payments to content creators — can help this work become a viable career for creators in emerging markets.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Connected Power: Ensuring Africa is Not Left in the Dark — or Offline
Sub-Saharan Africa has both the highest energy access and digital connectivity gaps in the world. As Ravi Suchak at Helios Towers explains, this is due not to a lack of demand, but to fundamental infrastructure barriers: Telecom towers and mobile networks require a reliable power supply, which is often absent or prohibitively expensive in rural areas, and electricity providers need consistent demand to de-risk rural energy investments. He explores a solution that addresses both of these needs: "connected power," a development approach that aligns energy and telecom infrastructure by positioning telecom towers as anchor customers for electrification projects.
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- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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New Platforms, New Voices: NextBillion’s Evolving Social Media Strategy
In recent weeks, NextBillion has begun to shift our social media strategy. Our goal in making these changes is to bring our content to the attention of more entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and others, while promoting more open engagement with other thought leaders and organizations. Under this new approach, we’ll strive to maintain a balance between sharing our own content, and highlighting posts and discussions from other voices across the sectors we cover. This article briefly summarizes the site's evolving strategy.
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- Telecommunications
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Inclusion Requires Interoperability: Why All Digital Financial Services Should be Interoperable
As of 2021, there were 1.4 billion financially excluded people globally — over 1 billion fewer than there were in 2011. As Briana Marbury at the Interledger Foundation explains, mobile money and other digital financial products and services have helped to drive this progress, reaching populations that have traditionally been excluded. But she argues that this momentum has highlighted an emerging issue that could limit the impact of the growth in financial inclusion: the lack of interoperability between digital systems.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Making ICT4D Green: Three Focus Areas for Improving the Environmental Impact of the Information and Communication Technology for Development Sector
The global digital transformation is generating many positive impacts, and digital technologies have become essential tools for climate and environmental action. But according to Nora Lindström at Catholic Relief Services, the growing use of digital technology is also causing some significant environmental challenges — and the “Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)” sector must address them. She discusses several ways to increase the tech industry's sustainability, focusing on three key elements of ICT: generative AI, broadband access and electronic equipment.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology, Telecommunications, WASH
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In Pursuit of a Cashless Africa: Learning from Nigeria’s Struggle to Accelerate its Transition to Digital Finance
The use of cash for payments is dwindling globally, while the electronic payments industry is burgeoning. As Osahon Akpata at Ecobank points out, this growth is also happening in Africa, though cash still remains king. He highlights several factors that are driving both the growth of digital finance and the ongoing usage of cash on the continent, exploring how African countries can accelerate their transition to a cashless economy — and what they can learn from Nigeria's struggles in that area.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Progress in Bridging the Digital Divide: Key Mobile Industry Innovations that are Bringing Internet Access to Developing Countries
More than a third of the world’s population have never used the internet, and closing this digital divide is an increasingly urgent global development priority. But as Andy McLean at Analog Devices explains, there’s more to the digital divide than a simple lack of internet access, as the problem is driven by other factors like affordability, users’ knowledge and skillsets, and access to electricity and reliable identification. He explores how the mobile industry is innovating to address this multifaceted challenge in developing countries.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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The Global Digital Health Monitor: A New Resource Advances the Digital Transformation of Global Health Systems
COVID-19 catalyzed the scaling of a variety of digital health interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). But as Patricia Mechael at HealthEnabled points out, this has not translated into the sustained digital transformation of healthcare in many of these markets. As broader technological advancements create a strong enabling environment for digital health in LMICs, she explores how a new resource, the Global Digital Health Monitor, can help these countries strategically advance their digital health transformation.
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- Health Care, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
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