DCA Digital Digest: Mobile Technology in Africa: Advantages and Progress

1. Mobile Technology in Africa: Advantages and Progress

The power of mobile technology ranges from more accessible online schooling to improved communication within SMS messaging. More developing nations are embracing internet services and providing communities with work and economic improvements. Advancements in mobile technology in Africa increase the availability of healthcare and education and allow for a quicker response to COVID-19. READ ON>>

2. Pandemics Beg The Need for Tech-Forward African Cities

There’s one prediction that evokes the fear of what would happen in the next possible pandemic: by 2050, almost three-quarters of the world’s population will live in cities. Burgeoning urbanisation is progress, but infrastructural challenges have made the coronavirus outbreak a thing of worry and strife. Smart-city platforms and solutions will help African governments to effectively but responsibly reduce the spread of infections by leveraging data and AI-based sensors. READ ON>>

3. Rush to digitization during the COVID 19 Crisis Should perpetuate financial exclusion

The economic effect of the current global COVID-19 lockdown will be severe. An essential focus for supporting the economic rebound is to invest in efforts to deepen economic integration and further lower trade costs. Digitization, and the creation of specialized ecosystems, will be the single most efficient approach to reduce trade cost on a global scale, which will benefit all countries currently impacted by COVID-19. However, in a rush to digitization, we must be careful not to perpetuate a new kind of financial exclusion. READ ON>>

4. Equitable tech: Companies pause facial recognition, but major questions remain

In recent weeks, protests calling for police and criminal justice reform continue to sweep the Untied States. These demonstrations have also spurred conversations surrounding flawed, racially-biased technologies used by law enforcement agencies, namely facial-recognition systems. Now, as calls for institutional reform grow, some of the biggest names in tech including Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft are pulling their facial recognition products from the market outright or banning law enforcement from using the technologies altogether. READ ON>>