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Ten years after the emergence of MERL Tech, I thought it might be fun to share some observations of the evolution of the space, from the early days when people were first thinking about digital data collection to today when...
Personally identifiable data in humanitarian contexts is like nuclear fuel – it has immense power to do good, enabling us to reach millions with life-saving aid, but it’s inherently dangerous. Like nuclear...
The US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) has the mission of promoting democracy and protecting human rights globally.
DRL supports programs that uphold democratic principles, support...
A recent conference session on Responsible AI called for the creation of an ethical data use framework to guide international development practitioners as they adopted artificial intelligence solutions.
I am not sure we...
Yesterday, USAID published its 1st Quarter Business Forecast. It covered many procurement themes for the world’s largest bilateral donor organization. Today, we are going to focus on one of the most important themes...
Edutainment is powerful. Nollywood proves we can use edutainment for behavior change. Yet we don’t often use multi-channel communication to empower audiences with the knowledge and agency to take action.
Edutainment through...
With over 4 billion people (71% of whom are 15-24 year olds) and 1 in 3 children with Internet access, children’s lives are being shaped behind a screen. Digital technology provides children and young people with wider...
If you believe the GenAI hype, then you should not be surprised by the viral New York Time article, A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness, where doctors who were given ChatGPT access along with conventional...
USAID implementing partners can use many tools to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New research shows marked improvement in health outcomes when organizations focus on two related aspects of digital development:
Investing in...
Diabetes is a global issue. 537 million people have diabetes in the world – 24 million people on the African continent today and 55 million by 2045. Anywhere from 2-9% of Zimbabweans have type 2 diabetes, with the...