Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D led an exciting collaborative initiative between June and September 2020 to produce a Report on practical guidance for governments on using digital technologies to enhance their education systems once the immediate crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had passed (see Summary). The Report is (relatively) short, succinct and practical, and includes a series of brief Guidance Notes addressing the most important actvities that governments need to address to ensure the inclusion of some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. This work was funded by DFID (now FCDO) and the World Bank through their EdTech Hub and details of the process through which it was crafted are summarised here. A selection of audio files associated with this work is now being launched as podcasts by the ICT4D Collective. See more information about this project here.
Latest podcasts in the series
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair” –
ICT4D Collective » ICT4D
Ugo is co-founder/co-director of The Restart Project, a charity which promotes repair to change our throwaway economy. He’s a co-founder of Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for ambitious right to repair legislation. Ugo is a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in Italy, with 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector Full details … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
Following our impact activities in Brazil during 2024, Prof Hari Harindranath returned to Rio de Janeiro in June/July 2025 to work with our local research partner, Dr Heloisa Melino, and organisations there for a series of follow-on activities funded by Royal Holloway’s Social Science Impact Accelerator (SSIA). These included three main activities.
1. Amplifying the impact of our work through artistic means
Efeito Urbano, an arts organisation and social project, based in the Providência favela of Rio de Janeiro, showcased a creative performance on digital safety in the periferias which drew on SSIA-funded work previously undertaken by Collective members, Prof Harindranath, Prof Tim Unwin and Dr Heloisa Melino and the experiences of the artists themselves with social networks and digital technologies.
Efeito Urbano is the first professional dance company in Morro da Providência and has developed its own concept of creation and research, Dança Urbana Negra Periférica, based on the pillars of race, gender and territory as well as traditional and contemporary Afro-referenced dances, in addition to the diverse expressions and cultural manifestations of experiences in the favelas and peripheries
The dancers put on a stunning performance capturing the intertwining of physical and digital lives in the favelas of Rio (link here to a short video). Choreographer Juliana Mello explained that the performance was a starting point for their new residency aimed at reflecting, through the language of dance, how the peripheral body navigates, resists and reinvents itself in the digital environment, with its strengths, pitfalls and invisibilities. Producer Ellen Pereira da Costa talked about the importance of engaging young people through artistic means to spread important messages such as the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in their contexts which are often characterised by scams, identity theft and violence, both physical and online. Their aim was “to explore the potential of art as a languagethat activates different senses compared to textual narratives, by engaging the body and movement in the exchange of knowledge on a topic as urgent and necessary as this – particularly among vulnerable populations, who make up the core audience of Instituto Efeito Urbano”.
2. Extending our work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital technologies by vulnerable groups
This visit allowed us to extend our work on digital safety nasperiferias from our earlier focus on communities in the Maré favela of Rio de Janeiro to young people in the Morro da Providência favela and the surrounding areas. Following the Efeito Urbano performance, Hari and Heloisa led a workshop on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups with some of the artists and members of the audience. Participants were keen to share their online experiences with each other and through the creation of a series of short videos.
3. Evidencing the impact of our ongoing work
We undertook an Outcomes Meeting to gather qualitative feedback on impacts and outcomes from our activities during 2024 with our main partner organisation, Casa Resistências in the Maré favela of Rio. The team at Casa Resistências, an LBT advocacy organisation and a shelter for women fleeing violence and abuse, had previously collaborated with us on activities relating to the safe, wise and secure use of digital technologies nas periferiasincluding a workshop led by Dr Heloisa Melino and the creation of a range of beautiful resources on digital safety designed by local graffiti artist, JLo. These and related activities were aimed at helping activists and others remain safe online while they report on rights violations and undertake their advocacy campaigns. Hari’s visit offered the opportunity to reflect on our activities and their impacts and outcomes.
Kimberly Veiga from Casa Resistências explained that our collaboration had helped build capacity and enabled them to undertake further activities with local partners such as Fiocruz University on online safety for activists and others in the favelas. She spoke of the impact of online harms for people in her context including online scams, digital identity theft and violence.
This collaboration has allowed us to think about technology as a route to access rights and it has opened another avenue for us to obtain wider support… It has helped us connect with wider networks of support. We now exchange experiences and access support from across the country, including psychological and therapeutic care…Thanks to this collaborative work, we have now created a new agenda on digital for our organisation
Kimberly Veiga, Casa Resistências
Kimberly spoke of the cascading effect of our collaboration that led them to undertake activities relating to the challenges faced by lesbian mothers and the creation of trustworthy resources to support them, similar to the ones we helped create on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups in the Brazilian periferias. Fernanda highlighted the importance of our resources not only as a means to disseminate messages on online safety at all the events they attend but also as a means to enhance the visibility of the broader advocacy work being undertaken by Casa Resistências.
The visit also enabled Hari and Heloisa to meet with Voz das Comunidades, a community media organisation based in the Complexo do Alemão (Alemão complex of favelas in Rio) where they presented their ongoing work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in the peripheries. The team at Voz shared their experiences of working in the challenging context of the favelas and the importance of physical and online safety as they go about recording and reporting on community matters.
Voz das Comunidades and their Social Impact team expressed interest in working with us in the future. So, watch this space!
In summary, our impact agenda in Brazil funded by SSIA has allowed us to work with multiple organisations and communities in the peripheries of Rio to spread awareness on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech by vulnerable groups, helped build capacity of both individuals and organisations and reach a broader range of groups through engaging workshops and creative activities and multimedia outputs relevant to the local contexts in Brazil. Hari hopes to continue further collaborative work in Brazil with Heloisa given the interest and enthusiasm shown by local organisations.
Today, I had the privilege of delivering a session titled “Digitalisation of Labour Migration Governance: Inclusive Solutions or Digital Solutionism?” at the ITCILO Academy on Labour Migration. The session brought together an incredible group of nearly 40 participants from diverse regions – Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and Europe. This global audience included policy planners, government officials, workers’ and employers’ organisations, civil society representatives, activists, researchers, and journalists – all deeply engaged in the critical issues surrounding labour migration.
What stood out for me was the richness of the perspectives shared by participants on the role of digital technologies in this sensitive and complex domain characterised by huge power imbalances and varied digital capacities. Digitalisation of labour migration governance cannot be truly fair if it serves governments, employers and intermediaries and then disempowers vulnerable labour migrants, the very group it is meant to support. We must ensure that migrant voices are at the forefront of these efforts. Their experiences and needs are integral to shaping solutions that are equitable, inclusive, and just.
Let us keep working together to amplify and centre the voices of migrants in this important conversation.
The ICT4D Collective and Microsoft (UN and International Organisations UNIO) (supported by Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication, ICT4D.at, and YouthIGF) convened a very lively and interactive Session 360 this morning at the WSIS+20 gathering at Palexpo in Geneva. This began by recognising that digital tech will not be used successfully to deliver the SDGs (especially SDG10) by 2030, but then focused in a very positive way on what governments, the private sector and civil society can indeed do to try to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised can use digital tech to improve their lives.
The session built on an online survey conducted in advance of the gathering to explore what people in our networks consider are the most important actions that can be done by governments, the private sector and civil society (as well as international organisations and academia). This is summarised in the slide deck used to guide the sessions (the whole deck is also available by clicking the image below).
Lively introductory thought-provocations were given by Erica Moret (Microsoft), Bazlur Rahman (BNNRC), Paul Spiesberger (ict4d.at) and Yuliya Morenets (Youth.IGF), and the main focus of the session was then to create together a mind map from brainstorming by participants both in the room and also online (as well as using post-its). This generated a wide range of positive and constructive ideas for what we all need to do if we really care about helping the most marginalised use digital technologies to improve their lives. This discussion is summarised below (click on image for full sized .pdf file):
The session ended by participants re-committing themselves to doing something different in the interests of the poorest and most marginalised.
The multistakeholder digital tech communities associated with the UN system seem unlikely to deliver on the SDGs by 2030, despite the efforts of those involved in developing and implementing the Global Digital Compact (2024). In particular, SDG10 on reducing inequalities remains insufficiently addressed, with much emphasis instead continuing to be placed on maximising economic growth through innovation. All too often the most marginalised, especially those with disabilities, LGBTIQ communities, women in patriarchal societies, the elderly, ethnic minorities and refugees, are in practice made yet more marginal through the adoption of the latest digital tech by those more powerful and richer than they are.
UNDESA, ECOSOC/CSTD, many other UN agencies, and the IGF process are all conducting widespread consultations about the future of “digital and development” and the WSIS Process, but these have still not sufficiently addressed the tendency for digital tech to be used to increase inequalities, rather than to address issues of inequality and equity. Our interactive session is the culmination of a consultation process during the three months before the annual WSIS Forum through which people across our different networks have contributed their ideas to what the five highest priorities should be for governments, the private sector, civil society and the UN system in creating greater equity in the use of digital tech. The findings of this process will be presented during the session, and participants invited during the session to add to the recommendations through the interactive development of a mind map on marginalization that will provide a very specific output to feed into the wider ongoing debate within the UN system about digital tech and equity.
Please make your voice heard beforehand
Everyone is invited to contribute before the session through a short (max 10 minute) online survey available at: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/rhul/digital-equity-wsis2025. This will form the basis of our conversations in Geneva, and so even if you cannot attend in person please do copmplete this survey about what needs to be done to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised can indeed benefit from the use of digital tech.
We are delighted to share the news that Profs G. ‘Hari’ Harindranath and Tim Unwin have received the award for “Best Collaborative and Innovation Research Project” from Royal Holloway, University of London for 2025 at their annual Festival of Research on 19th June for their ongoing research-practice with many other organisations across four continents on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech in marginalised/peripheral communities, working especially with migrants and refugees. [The background to the image on the right is from one of their visits to the UNESCO offices in Nepal in 2023]
Their ‘project project was informed by social science research and resulted in the generation of interventions and training resources that were adopted by community groups and NGOs’ … To deliver outputs at scale, they have ‘engaged innovatively with international stakeholders, including third sector organisations (NGOs), international bodies (UNESCO, IOM, ILO) and key industry partners (community tech organisations). The sheer size, scale and duration of project activities are testament to the hard work’ they have invested. ‘Generating partnerships on such a global scale will not have come without its challenges, so [they] should be incredibly proud of [their] achievements in undertaking such a huge project’
Awards citation for research collaboration and innovation, Royal Holloway, University of London
More details of their work can be seen as follows:
Their main contributions on migrant use of digital tech within the UKRI GCRF funded MIDEQ project (2019-2024) can be fiund through these links:
Links to main work in Nepal (including freely available resources)
Guidance for small civil society organisations in English and Portuguese (for Mozambique)
Many organisations are contributing to this ongoing research, and full acknowledgement to them all is given in the links above.
A list of selected academic publications relating to this research:
Lorini, M.R., Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T. (2025) Responsible Digital: Co-Creating Safe, Wise and Secure Digital Interventions with Vulnerable Groups, Information Systems Frontiers, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10796-025-10611-4
Harindranath, G., Unwin, T., Lorini, M.R. (2024). The Design and Use of Digital Technologies in the Context of South–South Migration, in: Crawley, H. and Teye, J.K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of South–South Migration and Inequality, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39814-8_23
Harindranath, G. , Unwin, T. and Lorini, M.R. (2023) Rethinking digital tech policy for (and with) migrants, Chapter 8 in: UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and MIDEQ (Migration for Development and Equality) Migration and Inequality in the Global South: Evidence from the MIDEQ Hub, Geneva: UNRISD, 36-40.
Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T. (2022) Digital technologies, migration and the SDG agenda, in: Piper, N. and Ditta, K. (eds) Elgar Companion to Migration and the SDGs, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (in press)
Unwin, T., Marcelin, L.H., de Souza e Silva, J., Otero, G., Lorini, M.R., Anyadi, C., Gonçalves, D.M., Sato, D.P. and Harindranath, G. (2022) Uses of digital technologies by migrants from Haiti and to Brazil, Egham: UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London, Working Papers No.4.
Majidi, N., Kasavan, C. & Harindranath, G. (2021) In support of return and reintegration? A roadmap for a responsible use of technology, in: McAuliffe, M. (ed.) Research Handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 220-236.
Unwin, T., Ghimire, A., Yeoh, S-G., New, S.S., Kishna, S.S., Gois, W., Lorini, M.R. and Harindranath, G. (2021) Uses of digital technologies by Nepali migrants in Malaysia, Egham: UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London, Working Papers No.1.
Harindranath, G. and Unwin, T (2019), Digital technologies and migration: Reducing inequalities or creating new ones?, TREO Talk, International Conference on Information Systems, 15th December, Munich, Germany.
Harindranath, G. (2019) Digital technologies, migration and inequality, Presentation, Copenhagen Business School-Royal Holloway School of Management Joint Workshop, 16th September, Royal Holloway, UK.
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