Category: Governance

  • ICTs and Development Theories – II

    ICTs and Development Theories – II

    Linking ICTs to development External researchers and experts poking for the first time into ICTD might assume that the field has, 30 years after its birth, a cohesive theory on how ICTs impact development. Unfortunately, that is not the case. If ICTD was a digital platform, we could conclude that its middleware seems to be…

  • ICTs and Development Theories – I

    ICTs and Development Theories – I

    ICTD overview The field of ICTD first saw the light over 30 years ago1 Selected references are provided at the end of the 2nd part of this post. Its overall scope is ambitious as it covers several sectors and thematic areas. Indeed, ICTD comprises three core elements: ICTs, development – yet another large and complex…

  • State Capacity and Digital Technologies – I

    State Capacity and Digital Technologies – I

    To the Moon and Back It was my elder sister’s 25th birthday when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. We watched the unprecedented event on B&W TV  – our grandma openly expressing total skepticism. We then went out for a family celebration. Funny, I still vividly remember the restaurant where we dined, which, needless to…

  • Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – II

    Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – II

    Regulatory frameworks are usually perceived as counter-productive and even nefarious by innovators, pundits and followers. Together they will go out of their way to stop them, arguing that their impact on innovation is lethal, as discussed in a previous post. One could say that such a view finds more ground on ideology than on actual…

  • Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – I

    Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – I

    Over ten years after its creation, the hype on Blockchain Technology (BCT) continues to dominate the scene compared to actual implementation. However, that does not necessarily imply it has remained immune to change. At the very onset, Cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, were the main attention magnets. Not surprisingly as, after all, the goal of its…

  • Digital Government and Social Leaders

    Digital Government and Social Leaders

    As part of an online course on Digital Government for Social Leaders, I was asked to develop a script for a five-minute animation where an Avatar will introduce the topic and entice the leaders to embrace it as part of their political agendas. The animation introduces the short course and is complemented by a more…

  • AI National Policies – III

    AI National Policies – III

    Policy Evolution Comparatively speaking, AI national policies and strategies have evolved much slower than other digital strategies such as ICT, Digital Government, and Open Data. That might seem paradoxical given the systemic benefits and risks of the revived and now resurgent technology, undoubtedly more significant than any previous innovations. Nevertheless, in the early days, skepticism…

  • AI National Policies – II

    AI National Policies – II

    As mentioned in the previous post, policymakers should skip over the dominant technology-centered AI perspective and instead position AI as a multi-dimensional structure cutting across all sectors. Indeed, national AI policy effectiveness depends to a large extent on the AI vision policymakers adopt. Unfortunately, for many policymakers in low-income countries, AI appears almost irrelevant, given…

  • AI National Policies – I

    AI National Policies – I

    National policy development on new digital technologies has become a staple since the emergence of the Internet in the early 1990s. It has certainly not been limited to most advanced countries. Nations in the Global South have also climbed the same steep and now long policy slopes, albeit rarely being leaders in emerging areas. Catching…

  • AI Topography

    AI Topography

    For the last 30 years, the seemingly endless number of so-called technology revolutions invading our expansive yet decaying landscape has been accompanied by a proliferation of wide-ranging publications, usually playing catch-up while trying to predict the future on the spot. That has certainly been the case since the official birth of the Internet. In the…

  • Vaccine Inequality

    Vaccine Inequality

    Already under siege in many quarters, Globalization has now added the seemingly unstoppable spread of the Corona Virus to its already dubious credentials. As expected, not one single country has been spared, rich and poor suddenly standing on the same level playing field – a milestone economic globalization never accomplished despite mainstream media coverage tirelessly…

  • AI and Development Policies

    AI and Development Policies

    Strongly supported by behemoth tech companies, the “ethical and responsible” AI discourse has almost completely overshadowed the relevant conversation on the potential socio-economic impact the resurgent technology might have in developing countries. While such discourse’s subtle agenda, apparently now failing, is essentially aimed at avoiding any government regulation by promoting “AI for good,” research on…

  • Greater “AI for Good”

    Greater “AI for Good”

    The proliferation of top, best, fails and prediction posts on almost any topic is now a staple of the annual transition from one year to the next. As the new year starts seeing the light of day, we seem compelled to take stock of the previous 365.25 days and poke more in-depth into the short…

  • Digital Government Governance Models

    Digital Government Governance Models

    Governments should fully understand the scope and reach of the various Digital Government (DG) institutional functions described in my previous post and their proper sequencing before they embark on comprehensive digital transformation processes. The policy units’ actual institutional location leading DG processes should result from the analysis of the various functions, not the starting point.…

  • Digital Government Revisited – III

    Digital Government Revisited – III

    Institutions matter, more so for the development and implementation of Digital Government (DG), whose core target is public institutions’ transformation. On the one hand, public institutions should have an array of capacities to ensure public investments in digital technologies are effectively managed from beginning to end. In many low-income countries, such capabilities are exiguous or…