Development and Democracy/Research

Data cooperatives offer an alternative to the enclosure of data in digitalized agricultural supply chains by large agri-tech platforms. Despite their potential, experiments in data cooperativism face challenges in a rapidly privatizing technopolitical ecosystem. In India, platforms addressing…

Over the past two years, there have been concerning instances of excess and malpractice by Big Tech, leading to serious social, political, and economic consequences. These include data extractivism, increased worker precarity, setbacks in gender justice, the domination of developing countries'…

In this policy brief, the authors examine the challenges that currently prevent Least Developed Countries (LDCs) from harnessing a capabilities-based approach to leveraging digital transformation for development.

The public release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot by OpenAI, in November 2022, percolated the public consciousness with the disruptive potential, both incredible and iniquitous, of emerging general purpose AI technologies. In the following months, AI has dominated the public discourse and…

DataSyn is a free monthly newsletter from IT for Change providing concise and relevant analysis on all matters concerning Big Tech. Building on our strong tradition of deep research and policy engagement on the digital economy with a focus on the Global South, DataSyn delivers quality analysis…

Through this policy brief, our colleagues ask us to think beyond the current exploitative digital paradigm & re-imagine the rules of development, distribution, & use of tech, based on a feminist social contract grounded in human rights, social justice, & gender equality.

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In this project, IT for Change, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and country partners will unpack how micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) participation in the global economy is increasingly shaped by the rapid deployment of digital technologies (e.g. ERP, RPA, platformized models),…

The context of society- and economy-wide platformization and an expanding spectrum of platform workplaces necessitates a re-think of labor rights at the intersection of data, data-enabled algorithms, and work process reorganization. This working paper takes stock of emerging debates in this…

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Tenure Guidelines on sustainable governance adopted by the Committee on World Food Security, FIAN International and the Working Group on Land and Territories of the IPC – a coalition of social movements working on food sovereignty and the Right to Food…

IT for Change has undertaken a project to frame gender-just design principles for the various components of information systems being used to implement public welfare schemes. This includes the design of citizen-facing applications, data sharing guidelines, and overall database design, among…

As ‘data’ grows to be more clearly recognized as the driving force of the economic transformations of today, and the structuring principle of the economic landscape of the future, discussions around the need for an adequate governance regime are starting to pick up steam. From breaking up Big…

This presentation seeks to outline preliminary insights in integrating gender equality considerations into the design and development of information and data architectures for government programmes, with NRLM's information system as a test case. It focuses on:

- What we know about techno-…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world faster than the world can mitigate intensifying geopolitical divisions and socio-economic disparities. As technological change outpaces regulatory policy, no common platform has yet emerged to coordinate a variety of governance approaches…

This policy brief takes stock of the current multilateral approaches to new 'Digital Public Goods' (DPGs), and provides critical reflections, chalking out some future directions for global and national-level actions, in line with the vision of inclusive development in Agenda 2030.

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The Indian Parliament is currently in the process of overhauling the country’s labour laws. Unfortunately, this exercise has sidestepped platform workers, a constituency whose needs and challenges have become…