Technology for Development: Indo-Pacific State of Play

"Australia’s first International Cyber Engagement Strategy lays out three simple... goals to harness the opportunities of the digital age and accelerate sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific..."

From the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Caribou Digital, this document explains Australia’s International Cyber Engagement Strategy beginning with analysing  the current landscape with countries categorised as: Scale Leaders (examples - Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam), Fast Developers (Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), and Isolated Islands (Kiribati, Tonga, and Vanuatu).

Key digital building blocks enabling productive interventions are: "internet connectivity, digital financial services and digital identity... Across the Indo-Pacific, digital technologies have allowed humanitarian and development interventions to scale to larger populations with lower costs and to create the enabling environment for innovation...." Sectors that have benefited from digital innovation, including examples, are: 

• Education - for example, Indonesia's Ruangguru, which has a freemium (free for basic features, then paid for advanced features) "learning management system (LMS) that helps students prepare for exams using content tailored to the national curriculum, helps teachers to crowdsource educational content and distribute it to students. Their online marketplace for private tutoring has more than 27,000 teachers supporting more than 100 subjects"; 
• Health - for example, Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM), designed for care providers to help reduce maternal mortality rates through early monitoring and risk stratification;
• Economic empowerment - for example,  Dialog Axiata's digital payment platform across 200 villages in the Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Customers will benefit by gaining access to modern financial services including savings, loans and digital payment mechanisms;
• Agriculture and nutrition - for example, in Pakistan, mobile operator Telenor's Khushaal Zamindar, an agricultural valued-added service targeting small scale farmers using interactive voice response and SMS. Telenor provides location-specific weather forecasts along with contextual agronomic advisory information and tips for livestock management;
• Energy - for example, Village Infrastructure Angels' solar-powered mills and pay-as-you-go home power stations in rural villages across Vanuatu;
• Resilience in disaster response - for example,  humanitarian aid progrmmes' cash and digital financial services using the World Food Program (WFP)'s Building Blocks programme that has piloted "the use of blockchain  (a digital ledger of transactions that is distributed, verified and monitored by multiple sources simultaneously)....";
• Gender equality - for example, GSMA’s Connected Women programme which increases the number of women using technology, "whilst being aware of how digital culture can often be a difficult environment for women around the world to safely have a voice."

Innovations that have the potential to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include the Internet of Things (IoT - refers to the interconnection of physical objects embedded with low-cost sensors, actuators and communications technology), blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Innovations in internet connectivity, for example: satellite; white space broadband ,which can reach up to 10 kilometres and penetrate buildings and forests; and  interconnected radio nodes that form a wireless mesh, can boost internet affordability and availability, as can innovative business models, language diversity on the internet, and increased digital literacy, including breaking gender barriers. Also digital financial systems and  digital identification systems "could give citizens more power and control in society", though security for these systems is seen as essential.

"[This] regional overview presents opportunities for action in order to optimise the use of technology for development outcomes in the Indo-Pacific region. These include approaches to: stimulate innovation in development-enabling technologies, enhance inclusion through inclusive programming and improved infrastructure, increase efficiencies through catalytic investment in capacities, and support a free, open and secure Internet."