Posted by 
Sometimes in history, single events change human behavior patterns. For sure, the COVID-19 pandemic is one of these moments. When large parts of the global workforce were required to put in practice new ways of meeting and collaborating online, this also changed the way we talk with and listen to each other and the kind of stories we tell.
Also, the development cooperation sector was not exempt from this change, although it was not the first time that it was enhanced with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The promotion of “ICT4D” has already emerged since the mid-1990s – for better or for worse.
Digital technologies will likely go on changing the way we define development. Thus, as we have already seen during the last few decades, they make significant social change possible. Nevertheless, they also have the destructive potential to undermine participatory processes, re-enforce exclusion, disempower those affected by poverty, and produce results with little relevance.
In our blog, we want to explore the correlation of digitalization and development by contrasting new and traditional forms of communication for development, focusing on both the opportunities and challenges the application of digital tools and methods represent. We will try to critically assess how the development sector can benefit from these new technologies and present a few examples from the field of what we believe are the most promising ideas out there.