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), as well as the mediating impact of regulatory…
Development and Democracy
IT for Change's work in the area of development and democracy critically examines the digital paradigms of development and the opportunities and challenges it presents for deepening democracy, global justice and citizen rights. We believe that an equitable information society can flourish only through inclusive and informed debate, involving all stakeholders, especially from the global South. Given the prevalence of Northern perspectives and market-centric thinking in current ICTs for development approaches, we have consciously attempted to articulate alternatives through our research and policy engagement. Techno-architectures must be designed and governed for democratising power, so that countries, communities and individuals at the peripheries can renegotiate their place in the world. From concerns spanning e-governance, public information systems and data in governance to emerging policies in global trade, data governance and the very architectures of Internet policy, ideas of justice must be coded into the legal-institutional architectures of digital technology.
RECENT
With our societies getting increasingly digitalized and datafied if governments are to keep fulfilling their central societal role they too must get digitalized and datafied. But this must be undertaken in appropriate ways that protect and enhance people’s rights, requiring strong new institutional checks and balances, on one hand, and new…
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.
We're thrilled that this document was included in the…
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 across multiple national contexts. The concerns and…
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.
We wrote this as a science-policy brief on emerging…
IT for Change was part of 200 CSOs who have written to the Director General of World Trade Forum, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighting the importance and urgency to agree on a WTO TRIPSWaiver for diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.
Read the letter here.
RESOURCES
2021
IN THE MEDIA
Video
Policy frameworks for digital platforms-moving from openness to inclusion Project review meeting
