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There are 4.8 billion active internet users worldwide today, which makes for 61 percent of the global population. [1] Tools such as Google, WhatsApp and social media in general are being used to engage, gather information (or misinformation) and/or make a living.
Almost every day we witness a new technological innovation trying to establish itself as the next game changer. In this context, this essay will briefly present the 4th industrial revolution and its possible implications for the development sector. It will then move on to approach two emerging technologies and their use in development: Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) and drones. It will conclude by assuming that innovation can indeed be useful in the development sector, but it is still early to say if it the development sector will radically benefit from it.
Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also called the 4IR or Industry 4.0, builds on foundations laid by the first three industrial revolutions. The first one saw the advent of the steam engine in the 18th century, allowing production to be mechanized for the first time and driving social change as people became increasingly urbanized. In the second industrial revolution, electricity and other scientific advancements led to mass production. In the 1950s, the third industrial revolution took place and the world saw an emergence of computers and digital technology. This led to the increasing automation of manufacturing and the disruption of industries including banking, energy, and communications. [2]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a term coined by Klaus Schwab in the context of the 2016 World Economic Forum: “Like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world.” Schwab is the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. He also suggested that the 4IR could lead to greater inequality, with a potential to disrupt labor markets which could escalate social tensions.
Technologies that are driving change as part of the 4IR include, among others, artificial intelligence, block chain, faster computer processing, virtual and augmented reality, biotechnology, robotics, internet of things, and 3D printing. [3] They have a major impact on businesses that will need to ensure they have the right mix of skills in their workforce to keep pace with changing technology. If businesses continue in the current trajectory, they will most likely not benefit the majority of the world.
One challenge that we can foresee is that the introduction of new technologies makes it cheaper and more effective for machines to do some of the jobs that historically have been done by humans. To put it simple, machines could replace humans at certain jobs. In 2019, Amazon added machines to their warehouses that pack orders, replacing humans who traditionally did the job and removing 1300 jobs across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers. [4] The machines pack 600 to 700 boxes per hour, four to five times the rate of a human packer.
In South Africa, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator (Harambee) is working to break down barriers that traditionally exclude low-income youths from participating in formal employment using big data and machine learning algorithms. They work and learn from corporate employers, which skills are needed for a particular job and work to identify candidates who would be a good match. Harambee has helped more than 50,000 youths find their first job. It is one of the few examples where technology is adapting to humans and not the other way round (USAID, 2018).
A second challenge is equipping our education systems to provide the skills required for the 4IR and better prepare children and young people to have the agency and opportunity as they enter the workforce. A third challenge is cybersecurity, as the 4IR implies the free flow of data and information of consumers, which leads to privacy concerns and putting in place regulatory requirements to protect customers and businesses. The publication of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the European Union (EU) in 2016 introduced new regulations in EU law on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area. [5]
In 2021 Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service was fined nearly $270 million by Irish authorities on Thursday for not being transparent about how it uses data collected from people on the service, in a case that represents a big test of Europe’s ability to enforce its landmark data privacy law. [6]
However, predicting how the 4IR will impact the development sector and the global south remains difficult. For example, a basic indicator for the roll out of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could be the amounts of mobile phone subscriptions. By the end of 2016, around 66% of the world population had one (individual users, not sim cards). Furthermore, the amount of individuals that accessed the internet in 2021 has doubled since 2017, reaching 3.6 billion people today. [7]
While data is pivotal to estimate the changes we may be facing in the next few years, context remains a very important qualitative indicator that always needs to be considered. For example, on a global level, women are 10% less likely to own a phone than men, while this situation differs in some regions: In South Asia, for example, women are 26% less likely to own a mobile than men, and 70% are less likely to go on the Internet. Multiple factors, including race, gender, religion, class, can be considered responsible of limiting access in a given context. [8]
Keeping in mind the above core challenges, businesses, governments, civil society need to think of investing in preparing children and young people for the fourth industrial revolution. The aim is to improve living standards and job opportunities. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is radically disrupting almost every sector and, in short, emerging technologies are proving to have a significant value proposition, and some of them are already being tested in the development sector. For example, Blockchain (a distributed ledger technology) has created the way for decentralized markets, featuring digital assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) to be used as fundraising opportunities and drones are being exploited to transport goods in remote areas or to help in the fight of Covid-19 in developing countries.
NFT and Drones
NFT are unique digital assets, that include jpegs and video clips. They are represented by a code recorded on a blockchain. These codes become a decentralized digital ledger, which can be sold and traded. They mostly represent real-world objects such as art, music, in-game items, and videos. [9] They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos. [10]
But what does NTF have to do with the development sector? For Chouliaraki, the rise of new media technologies and Web 2.0 applications has been one of the driving forces behind shifts in aesthetics and discourses of “post-humanitarian” communication and engagement. [11]
In India, a digital artwork was auctioned as NFT to raise funds through crypto as a donation for covid reliefs efforts. As a result to it, a total of $15 million were raised through the auction, which were then donated to UNICEF to purchase 160 million syringes. Similarly, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, donated the meme coin Shiba Inu ‘Doge’ (worth $1billion) to India’s Covid relief fund. [12]
The concept of “meme” was first coined in 1976 by biologist Richard Dawkins, as part of his broader theorization of cultural evolution. The term has entered popular culture with creators of digital content, explicitly referring to images, videos, animations, catchphrases, and #hashtags as memes. [13] However, only a tiny percentage of memes will “go viral” and become popular. Shiba Inu meme became popular through the sharing behavior of users and the platform or search engine algorithms that facilitate such spread. [14]
NFT today are providing an opportunity to people to offer their digital assets for sale and also for social good. In September 2021, OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, saw over $2 billion in transactions, with some individual NFT collectibles selling for millions of dollars. [15] On the other hand, NFT are also offering an opportunity to create an improve social economy, rather than just individual economic benefits. The most common way NFT are being used for social good is through fundraising.
In December 2020 UNICEF leveraged NFT and blockchain-based technology for the first time for charity fundraising: The Sandbox Gaming Virtual World. All proceeds of the auction were donated to support UNICEF’s Crypto Fund, contributing to fund open-source technology benefiting children and young people around the world. [16] It is maybe too early to understand which main use NFT could have in the development sector, but the fundraising potential seems high.
Another innovative technology that has recently seen drones or ‘unmanned aircrafts’ have become a critical technology for governments and businesses. Today it is being used to overcome transport challenges for health care workers in remote areas, supplying medical necessities and emergency items or scanning a remote geographical area.
The use of drones in development has emerged as a field a few years ago in sectors such as transport, energy, water, and urban development projects. The energy sector uses unmanned aerial technologies to survey and inspect renewable sources. Drones equipped with thermal cameras can detect heat coming off an array, which indicates which solar panel is not working. It can also take three-dimensional (3D) pictures and videos that check for damages on wind turbines. [17]
In 2017 UNICEF Pacific Islands used drones to improve vaccination coverage and save lives through the delivery of vaccines to inaccessible remote areas and outer islands in Vanuatu with the Ministry of Health. [18] The use of drone technology has also been useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 UK government and GAVI used drones to collect coronavirus test samples in Ghana. Drones also delivered 13% of Ghana’s initial shipment of COVID-19 vaccine in just 3 days. [19][3]. They are also being used to deliver immunisation kits to protect children from diseases such as diphtheria and measles. [20]
There are several opportunities in both public and private sector for greater adoption of drone technology. In addition, there are potential barriers standing in the way, in particular due to legal issues, such as cyber security and privacy, or trust in communities and public perception.
Conclusion
Keeping in mind the above core challenges, governments, civil society and the development sector need to think of investing in preparing all stakeholders for the 4IR. Hence, the ultimate aim is to improve living standards and provide job opportunities for all, trying to avoid exacerbating the differences already perceived in the development realm. How do you think challenges should be addressed, in particular in the development sector?
Could NFT disrupt the traditional donor – recipient country relation and offer an alternative path to a decolonized funding structure, no longer depended on old colonial power relations originated from a troubled past? Will drones enhance the capability of logistics and allow for better resilience and preparedness in case of natural disasters or health crises?
It remains to be seen how innovation brought about by the 4IR will impact the development sector, but there are, at least, some promising prospects.
Reflections on the blog exercise
The blog exercise has thought me a lot on planning, group work and on how to adapt my writing to different audiences.
Planning has been at the core of the exercise, and I am glad to see that our group managed to deliver on time all the required assignments. It has been very difficult to adapt schedules of five members of the group, all working full time in 3 different time zones, but with the help of technology we were able to meet at least once a week and monitor our progress and discuss the design and the structure of the blog.
The communication plan was a great way to start and made us reflect on what to do and who would been responsible for what. Retrospectively, we should have focused more on a timeline and internal deadlines, to avoid rushing towards the end of the assignment and having more time for other groups and external audiences to engage with our content.
Due to the past year in the Com4Dev master’s, I am now used to an academic style of writing that may not be the most appropriate one for a blog. It was a very interesting exercise to try to use a simpler language than in an academic paper and avoid referencing only academic texts, being free to quote a much broader spectrum of material and sources.
While working on our group post, we recorded a podcast discussion, commenting on how digital development was approached by world leaders at the latest UN General Assembly. It was extremely challenging to try to put into practice one of the core readings (Choppen, 2020) and the lecture that was dedicated to podcasting.
References
Choppen C. (2020), Podcasts: Where Next? International Broadcasting Trust.
Chouliaraki L. (2010), Post-humanitarianism: Humanitarian communication beyond a politics of pity. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(2):107-126.
Knobel M. & Lankshear C. (2007), Online memes, affinities, and cultural production in a New Literacies Sampler (pp.199-227), Peter Lang.
USAID (2018) Reflecting the Past, Shaping the Future: Making AI Work for International Development, Washington, DC: USAID.
Walsham G. (2017), ICT4D research: reflections on history and future agenda, Information Technology for Development, p. 37.
Zwitter, A., Gstrein, O.J. (2020) Big data, privacy and COVID-19 – learning from humanitarian expertise in data protection. Int J Humanitarian Action 5, 4.
[1] https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview
[2] https://www.salesforce.com/blog/what-is-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-4ir/
[3] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/
[4] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-automation-exclusive-idUSKCN1SJ0X1
[5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/business/facebook-whatsapp-privacy-fine.html#:~:text=Facebook’s%20WhatsApp%20messaging%20service%20was,its%20landmark%20data%20privacy%20law.
[7] Walsham G. (2017), ICT4D research: reflections on history and future agenda, Information Technology for Development, p. 37
[8] Walsham G. (2017), ICT4D research: reflections on history and future agenda, Information Technology for Development, p. 37
[9] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/12-year-old-coder-made-6-figures-selling-weird-whales-nfts.html
[10] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/nft-non-fungible-token/
[11] Chouliaraki L. Post-humanitarianism: Humanitarian communication beyond a politics of pity. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 2010;13(2):107-126.
[12] https://inc42.com/buzz/crypto-relief-donates-15-mn-to-unicef-india-to-procure-syringes/
[13] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305119888655
[14] Knobel, Michele & Lankshear, Colin. (2007). Online memes, affinities, and cultural production.
[15] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/fans-can-buy-a-fraction-of-original-doge-meme-nft-owned-by-pleasrdao.html
[16] https://www.animocabrands.com/investors
[17] https://reliefweb.int/report/world/how-use-drones-development-projects
[18] https://www.unicef.org/innovation/drones/technology-for-vaccine-delivery-vanuatu
[19] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/the-bright-future-for-drones/
[20] https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/uk-aid-backed-drone-technology-supports-ghanas-coronavirus-fight