NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, March 8, 2019

Over 200 speakers from the Government of Uganda, International and Ugandan NGOs, private and civil society organizations have been confirmed for the annual ICT4D Conference, scheduled for April 30 to May 3, 2019 at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Uganda.

Founded by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and now in its 11th session, the conference is where the global digital development community comprising of hundreds of public, private and civil society organizations from across the humanitarian and international development community gather to share, learn and innovate.

The conference attracts a diverse audience of over a thousand technical advisors, executives, and others who offer a range of practical insights on applying technology to development and humanitarian challenges and also share how they have used innovations in technology to increase the impact of their work in Uganda and globally.

A global collaboration

Led by CRS, the Conference is co-organized by international and regional partners, including NetHope, Norwegian Refugee Council, Chemonics, DAI Global, ICRISAT, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, NUDIPU, Plan International, SOS Children’s Villages, UNCDF, and World Vision; and supported by sponsors including: John Deere, Salesforce, Microsoft, DIAL, Dimagi, Dharma Platform, RTI International, Tetra Tech, and QED Group.

A diverse cross-sector agenda

Highly interactive and hands-on, the Conference will feature over 300 sessions over 9 Conference tracks. Core disciplines include:

Within Agriculture, participants can join the debate on the extent to which social media may be an instrument for transformation. Speakers and attendees will examine and exchange experience on digitally powered innovations to assess soil health, and share lessons from mobile based advisory services.

In Digital Financial Inclusion speakers share visions and examples from actual experience of how digital technologies can revolutionize payments and inclusion of vulnerable and displaced people. The Humanitarian Response and Resilience sessions feature case studies and panels on disaster response communication and mapping technologies to monitor emergency projects and programs. Pathways to scale and digital innovation to improve and manage community level responses for maternal care, HIV response are just some of the topics covered in the Health and Nutrition track. How to create opportunities and overcome challenges to engage and take young people into the digital age is discussed in the Education and Digital Literacy panels and interactive sessions. And young Ugandans from initiatives such as the SmartUp Factory will showcase innovation in software engineering and examine how young people are proactively engaging with the ICT4D community in digital development.

In addition to building on these established themes the 11th ICT4D Conference incorporates and introduces emerging challenges of responsible data, digital diversity, supply chain management, and water security into the discussion.

The Responsible Data and Information Security track of sessions will explore this critical issue from a practical and ethical perspective, examining how to develop and implement policies and principles to protect personal data while maintaining collaboration and openness.

The new Digital Diversity track focuses on gender and disability and how innovation in ICTs is bridging the digital divide with a special focus on preventing gender- based violence and supporting better inclusion of disabled persons.

Last mile delivery, product authentication and pipeline visibility are ongoing challenges which will be addressed within the Supply Chain Management track.

Water Security is emerging as a critical issue as fresh water resources—for human consumption, agriculture, and hygiene—are impacted by pollution, over-extraction, and poor management. Sessions on both WASH and water resource management will foster further collaboration and partnership in digital water including open data and knowledge sharing and low cost IoT applications for remote monitoring.

An esteemed speaker panel

Speakers from Ugandan and international government agencies, charities, multi-lateral agencies, private sector, academia, and investors will share progress on designing and implementing of digital programs and how to measure their impact. Over 200 speakers have been confirmed so far, including:

• Jennifer Poidatz, VP Humanitarian Response, Catholic Relief Services
• Tillman Bruett, Director of Secretariat of the Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
• Jane Meseck, Sr. Director, Global Programs & Partnerships, Microsoft Philanthropies
• Lauren Woodman, Chief Executive Officer, NetHope
• Olive Birungi Lumonya, National Director, SOS Childrens’ Villages
• Leesa Shrader, Program Director, AgriFin, Mercy Corps
• Dr Revi Sterling, Director, USAID WomenConnect Challenge
• Kellie Bentz, Head of Global Disaster, Response and Relief, AirBnB

More speakers to be confirmed. Please visit ict4dconference.org for more information and updates, and register on http://www.ict4dconference.org/register-plan/registration to join the discussion on the ICT for development and humanitarian response.