Data can reveal local realities and empower development actors to drive positive change. However, the methods of data collection are crucial, especially when dealing with complex situations and vulnerable populations. In this blog post, we explore the data collection process behind a project developed by Data-Pop Alliance and UNDP’s Country Offices in the borderland region of Sierra Leone and Liberia—one … Read More
LWL #39 The Data Police: How AI and Big Data are Reshaping Crime Prevention
LINKS WE LIKE #39 Imagine being able to detect crime hotspots in your city, use facial recognition software to match camera footage from a robbery with a database of images, or even predict the likelihood of a crime (including time and location) before it occurs. While this might sound like science fiction (Minority Report, which came out 20 years ago, … Read More
LWL #37 The Future of Health? How Big Data and AI are Reshaping Modern Medicine
LINKS WE LIKE #37 Health care is one sector for which the massive amount of data produced daily holds great promise. Data from electronic health records, medical devices and health-related apps (and other sources) has grown so large that they exceed human capabilities for analysis. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into play. Through various modeling techniques, AI can … Read More
LWL #36 Crisis Data: New Technology and Humanitarian Emergencies
LINKS WE LIKE #36 Accurate data is pivotal to identifying and responding to the needs of those impacted by a variety of shocks, including violent conflicts, environmental disasters, epidemics, and other life-threatening emergencies. By gathering and processing personal, public, and geographic data, aid organizations, humanitarian workers and other relevant actors are able to not only deploy more targeted responses to … Read More
LWL#35 The Future of Financial Inclusion: How New Technologies are Reshaping FinTech
LINKS WE LIKE #35 Financial inclusion, or access to formal financial services, (such as bank accounts, credit, and loans) is one of the most valuable tools for breaking cycles of poverty. Unfortunately, an estimated 1.7 billion people worldwide remain “unbanked”, or lacking access to these services; half of which live in just 7 middle-income countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, … Read More
LWL #32 Facebook, the Promise and the Peril
LINKS WE LIKE #32 When speaking about the purpose of his company, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted as saying, “By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.” This leads to a very important question, is Facebook itself living up to this standard? According to a recent whistleblower, the answer is no. Considering Facebook’s … Read More
Africa’s Poverty Tsunami: Do Cash Transfers Work Best?
DISCUSSION PIECE Africa’s GDP is poised to grow exponentially in the next decade. According to the African Development Bank, GDP growth is expected to rise by 3.4% in 2021, an increase from 2.1% in 2020. Despite this anticipated gain, the continent still faces numerous challenges. Although hunger, malnutrition, extreme weather events, water scarcity, food insecurity, injustices, inflation, and conflicts remain … Read More