The Conversation We Should Be Having

Technology is the single most important driver of change in the world. So why aren't technology companies and development organizations finding more ways to work together?

We all agree that technology is a powerful and positive disruptive force in the developing world. But the question is, how do we activate technology's potential to drive the kind of change we know is possible?

Civil society, the amorphous third space between private and public, is underrepresented in places where it should be up front and center, like the World Economic Forum's high profile events, for example.

Few discussions are held around how NGOs or NPOs can learn from the private sector and it is never made clear how they, in turn, can leverage the access and intelligence of development organizations. Yet that rich intersection is exactly where the unifying theory of technology's disruptive power can be tested, refined, and put to work.

Broadband access is as close as we get to panacea. Like clean water and waste removal, broadband access changes everything for individuals and communities who connect to it. Government, education, human rights, healthcare — all are made infinitely more stable and more effective when utilizing reliable and widely available Internet access. Connectivity transforms the way people farm. The way people manage their health. The way people are educated. The way they treat disease. The way they use energy and manage resources.

In short, all the work that NGOs do every day is made easier and more impactful by the appropriate application of web-enabled technologies. Reciprocally, so many of the problems technology companies are seeking to unpack — from the future of mobile money and the oversight of micro-lending to the intricate management of big, rich data — can be addressed through partnerships with NGOs that are working in environments that comprise the perfect laboratories for such technologies to contribute. 

Through lively anecdote and fresh research, Lauren Woodman discusses strategies for collaboration between technology companies and developmental organizations that will activate the potential of emerging technologies to buttress the efforts of humanitarian organizations and address our most exigent global dilemmas.