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Viewpoint: The Technology Space Is Rapidly Evolving in Africa, and It’s Not All Good News
The lack of technology policy and its poor implementation can lead to economic and political instability, and the effects of this are magnified in African countries with weak rule of law.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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City Possible: Mastercard Launches Global Network for Urban Co-Development
Sixteen cities are becoming founding members of the global City Possible network – representing a diverse mix of geography and size.
- Tags
- data, urban development
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The Digital Transformation: Four Opportunities and Three Threats for Traditional Financial Institutions
Digital finance can reduce the annual cost of serving customers by up to 80 percent – one reason why financial services providers are embracing it. As MicroSave founder Graham Wright sees it, this race toward digitization is creating a watershed moment for financial and social inclusion. The sector’s decisions now will determine whether it will contribute to truly inclusive economies – or create a growing digital divide. Wright explores four ways this transformation could help financial services providers and their customers – along with three major pitfalls they must avoid.
- Categories
- Finance
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Faster Energy Access Requires Better Data: This ‘Smart Platform’ Aims to Provide It
Despite the Sustainable Development Goals’ ambitious call for universal energy access by 2030, over 2 billion people still lack reliable electricity. Distributed renewable energy technologies could bridge this gap, but most countries suffering from energy poverty have yet to truly embrace them. One solution, say Rebekah Shirley and Monkgogi Otlhogile at Power for All, is for this fast-evolving sector to have more comprehensive and current data. To that end, the organization has built a free, open-access platform that helps users draw meaningful insights about energy access from the latest data. They discuss the platform and its benefits in this post.
- Categories
- Energy
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The Force Awakens: Artificial Intelligence Is Coming – And It Isn’t Going to Put Poor Countries Out of Work
On a scale of polarizing topics in global development, none comes close to artificial intelligence. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and the ongoing war-of-words has drawn in everyone from Bill Gates to Elon Musk. But according to Brinda Sapra, a researcher at the Institute of Financial Management and Research, these arguments tend to gloss over the nuances of AI’s likely economic impact. In particular, she argues that alarmists and “Luddites” have overhyped the valid concerns about AI’s impact on jobs in emerging markets. She makes the case for optimism in this provocative post.
- Categories
- Technology
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Africans Fear Trend Toward Taxes on Data, Mobile Money
The telecom companies say taxes on mobile payments introduced by a string of countries hurt their revenues and threaten much-needed investment in infrastructure.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Do We Define ‘Farmer’?: Why Outdated Perceptions are Complicating Data-Driven Agriculture
Who qualifies as a ‘farmer’? This sounds like a simple question for any agricultural intervention, but it is fraught with complexity. Sometimes farm owners live in the city, hiring caretakers to farm their land. Other times, women do most of the actual farming, but their husbands collect the income. Even the definition of ‘smallholder’ is often ambiguous. As efforts to digitize farming data gather momentum, Bobbi Gray at Grameen Foundation explores some ways to clarify this picture – and the challenges this will involve.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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PayPal And Village Capital On Financial Inclusion’s Data-Driven Future
When venture development organization Village Capital and PayPal look at the ever-expanding troves of data out there (financial data in particular), they see a special potential. All those financial data streams, according to Village Capital’s Managing Director Allie Burns, look an awful lot like the next great tool to be enlisted in the fight to expand financial inclusion in the U.S. and around the world.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- data, financial inclusion, fintech, startups
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