Category: Empowerment

Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto

We are delighted to announce the launch of our web-pages for Tim Unwin’s new book, entitled Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto, being published by Routledge in 2026. These contain:

Order your copy direct from Routledge here

Podcasts and audio

Many of the authors have contributed audio recordings of their vignettes. These are available here, but are also being shared on a regular basis through our blog and our podcast over the next six months. Do follow us on Apple Podcasts to listen to these inspiring examples of how digital tech can be used constructively by some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people, but also the reasons why most such initiatives fail sufficiently to serve their interests.

Pre-order

This important book can be pre-ordered from Routledge using the link above, and for those who respond quickly there is a 20% reduction if you order before 23rd October 2025.

Shaping the Future: Join the Dialogue on Inclusive Digital Transformation at the Global Development Conference 2025

The ICT4D Collective is delighted to be assisting The Global Development Network (GDN) deliver its flagship Global Development Conference (GDC) 2025, taking place October 28-30 in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and virtually. Co-hosted by FERDI and CERDI, this year’s conference focuses on “Inclusive Digital Transformation – Bridging the Gap Between Promise and Reality.”

As ICT4D researchers and practitioners, we know technology holds immense potential for development, but we also see the risks of deepening inequalities and reinforcing existing power structures. GDC 2025 aims to foster a critical, evidence-based dialogue that moves beyond the hype. We’ll explore the complex interplay of social, economic, political, and ethical forces shaping our digital world, with a strong emphasis on learning from diverse global experiences, particularly within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Get Involved Now! Call for Papers: this is the chance for researchers to share original research on digital inclusion, governance, the digital economy’s impact on social development, or technology for climate action. Contribute your evidence to inform policy and practice! Deadline: May 16, 2025.

What to Expect: GDC 2025 will feature inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking plenary discussions, and engaging, practical sessions designed for interaction. It’s a prime opportunity to connect with fellow researchers, policymakers, civil society representatives, and practitioners from across the globe.

Registration Coming Soon: Interested in attending, either in person or online? Participant registration will open shortly!

Stay updated and find all details on the official GDC 2025 website: conf2025.gdn.int

Do join us in Clermont-Ferrand in October

Image of Clermont-Ferrand from https://www.okvoyage.com/post/clermont-ferrand-incontournables/

New social media resources in Brazilian Portuguese on cybersecurity for people living at the peripheries and in the favelas

We have been working since 2020 with partners across the world to develop basic cybersecurity resources for migrants, especially in Nepal and South Africa (funded by UKRI GCRF) , and have more recently extended this work to other countries (with funding from ESRC Social Impact Accelerator, Reseaerch England ODA, and Social Purpose Funding throigh Royal Holloway University of London). One of the most exciting of these new initiatives has be the collaboration between G. “Hari” Harindranath and Tim Unwin from the ICT4D Collective, and Dr. Heloisa Meloni in Brazil. This has focused mainly on developing localised versions of our basic training materials originally developed in Nepal into Brazilian Portuguese, focusing especially on advice that would be useful to those living nas periferias and in the favelas.

These resources were originally launched at a workshop on 12th September 2024 at the Casa Resistências in Maré, Rio de Janeiro, with a specific focus on how they could be used by the LBT community living there. Since then, the basic slide deck been subdivided into 16 short video clips by J Lo and Heloisa Melino and these can be shared on social media or used in many other ways to disseminate the advice on safe, wise and secure use of digital tech, especially for the LBT communities living in Brazil’s favelas. Some additional material is also included in clips 12-16 on topics such as deepfakes and using digital tech in violent contexts. Click on the links below to watch and listen to the videos:

  1. Créditos
  2. O que são tecnologias digitais
  3. As tecnologias digitais tem grande potencial positivo
  4. Necessidade de começar com as tecnologias digitais
  5. O uso seguro das tecnologias digitais
  6. Elementos-chave para o uso das tecnologias digitais
  7. Elementos-chave para se manter seguro – tecnicos
  8. Lembre-se dos contextos em que você usa as tecnologias digitais
  9. O uso das tecnologias digitais com sabedoria
  10. O uso das tec digitais com privacidade
  11. Lembretes Finais
  12. Reconhecendo Notícias Falsas
  13. Evitando Golpes por E-mail
  14. Deepfakes – Ameaças
  15. Recomendações Específicas para sites do jogos de azar e apostas (bets)
  16. Recomendações específicas em contextos de ameaça ou risco de violências

They have also prepared 51 separate images of different parts of the original booklet, so that these can easily be posted on social media (scroll through the slide show below to see them; they can also be accessed individually through links from https://ict4d.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1.png to https://ict4d.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/51.png):

We very much hope that these are helpful in many more Portuguese speaking contexts than just that for which they were original designed. They are made available under a Creatoive Commons BY SA license so they are free to use and adapt providing that new versions continue to be made available using the same license and appropriate credit is given.

Measuring research outcomes rather than just outputs

Many research (and practical) projects finish when the funding finishes; researchers and organisations quickly move on to the next source of funding, and new ideas. Even those who have the best intentions to measure real outcomes, rather than just outputs, very often do not have the time or funding to do so. As part of the UKRI GCRF funded MIDEQ initiative (2019-2024), members of the ICT4D Collective were from the beginning eager to try to work differently in their research with migrants on how digital technologies might be used to reduce inequalities. Some of our discussions around this have been published in our working paper Unwin, Casentini, Harindranath and Lorini (2023), but funding from a Research England Block Grant, the ICT4D Collective, and our own personal resources has recently enabled “Hari” Harindranath and Tim Unwin to return to South Africa in September and October 2024, eight months after MIDEQ funding had ceased, to meet with organisations and migrants in Johannesberg and Cape Town to learn from them about the outcomes of our work so far, and what lessons we mght learn from our engagement together, so that we can improve similar work that we might undertake in the future. Our findings are briefly summarised at https://ict4d.org.uk/technology-inequality-and-migration/zaoutcomes/, which includes some encouraging and inspirational videos from the migrants with whom we worked.

It is evident from their comments that our research-practice has indeed had many positive outcomes on their lives, interestingly not necessarily direly to do with digital tech, but more in terms of self-confidence, knowledge sharing and community building. However, the number of migrants with whom our team (Maria Rosa Lorini, Tim Unwin and “Hari” Harindranath) actually worked together was relatively small. The challenge remains as to how we can continue to support them to extend this work on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech more widely, thereby making it more sustainable into the future. It is clear that nothing works without some funding, and relying on volunteers is rarely ever sustainable.

For our free resources on the safe, wise and secure use of digital tech on different themes and in multiple languages, see: https://ict4d.org.uk/sws/.

Research-practice update South Africa, August 2023

Tim Unwin visited Cape Town between 23rd and 30th August to carry forward our work led by Maria Rosa Lorini with migrants in South Africa as part of the MIDEQ Hub. This visit focused especially on dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, and training skills, but it also provided an excellent opportunity to work with other colleagues in MIDEQ from the South African lead team at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and also the work package on creative resistance and well-being from the University of Glasgow

We held two workshops at the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town with the group of migrants who have been trained in video production and in the safe, wise and secure use of digtital tech through our MIDEQ intervention. The first of these concentrated on ways through which these videos can be disseminated more widely, as well as the importance of rigorous monitoring and evaluation for us to understand the impact of these videos. Key ideas to emerge from the workshop were: that it is better to produce something of, say, 60% quality, rather than aiming to produce something of 95% quality but failing to deliver anything; the ways that short videos on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can be used to direct other migrants to their Fusion Avenue videos on YouTube; and the need for individuals in any loosely knit organisation to take responsibility for some aspect of its work. We also explored the top five tips on Instagram success that Michelle Carlin had suggested.

The migrants had recently held a training workshop on safe, wise and secure use of digital tech for other migrants at Rugby, and so our second workshop was to draw out lessons from this and provide them with additional advice on how to train others. This involved them in delivering short training segments and having feedback from each other on what went well and what aspects they might try to improve.

As part of our dissemination strategy and in order to help make our work sustainable beyond the duration of funding from the UKRI GCRF, we also used the opportunity to have very productive practical discussions with organisations working at the interface between migration and digital tech about ways through which the migrants’ skills in video production could be used to make further videos for these organisations in the future. Among the organisations with whom we explored future collaboration on a range of modalities are the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, the Adonis Musati Project, the University of Cape Town’s Refugee Rights Unit, Cape Town TV, Phillipi TV, Africa Unite, Ubunthu-Betu in Samora Machel and JL Zwane in Gugulethu.

Finally, this visit provided an excellent opportunity to work together with colleagues from other work packages within MIDEQ, namely our South African country lead team ked by Dr. Faisal Garba at UCT, and Dr. Gameli Tordzro from the Univeristy of Glasgow. Gameli is a highly engaging and charismatic artist and musican whose research is in creative arts and translating cultures, language and education with a focus on African diaspora music, video film production, story and storytelling. He was in Cape Town working with about 25 migrants at Africa Unite to weave a story in words, music and culture about the experiences of African migrants, and it was truly humbling to watch them develop their very moving collective story and performance.

Our new identity as the ICT4D Collective

As of 1st August 2023, the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London has reverted to its original identity as the ICT4D Collective. We are a group of very diverse researchers and practitioners from across the world, bound together by our commitment to the highest possible quality of research-practice relating to the use of digital technologies in the interests of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people.

Meeting staff and students at the NIC's ICT and Electronics Innovation Lab in Pokhara, Nepal, July 2023
Our last engagement as members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D: meeting staff and students at the NIC’s ICT and Electronics Innovation Lab in Pokhara, Nepal, July 2023

The Collective and the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D

The original ICT4D Collective was created in 2004, and evolved through an agreement in 2007 between UNESCO and Royal Holloway, University of London into the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development). UNESCO Chairs are groups of researchers in specific institutions undertaking work of direct relevance to UNESCO’s fields of competence, and they promote “international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work”. Members of our UNESCO Chair have been very proud to have been associated with UNESCO for the last 16 years, and to have collaborated closely with many good friends in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters and field offices. We were also honoured that Houlin Zhao, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) between January 2015 and January 2023, and Jean Philbert Nsengimana, former Minister of Youth and Information and Communication Technology (MYICT) from Rwanda, were our Honorary Patrons.

The following are some of the things we have particularly enjoyed engaging in over the last 16 years:

  • Working together collegially in a truly multidisciplinary context, involving colleagues from Computer Science, Geography, Information Security, Law and Managament at Royal Holloway, University of London.
  • Creating one of the largest groups of postgraduates completing PhDs in the field of ICT4D during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
  • Crafting an extensive partnership network involving governments, the private sector and civil society, and sharing the lessons we have learnt about making partnerships successful.
  • Contributing our experiences in global discussions around the role of digital tech in international development, especially in the UN’s WSIS process (since its origins in 2003), and UNESCO’s many gatherings relating to education and technology.
  • Playing a leading role in the World Economic Forum and UNESCO’s Partnerships for Education initiative.
  • Working on the ground in support of diverse groups of marginalised people, especially those with disabilities, out of school youth, women in patriarchal societies, and migrants and refugees.
  • Being recognised as the 7th most influential global think tank in science and technology in the Go To Think Tanks Index Report for 2015 (we remained 15th in the 2020 index)

Quick links to aspects of our new identity

We are now re-energised as the ICT4D Collective, with 22 founding members drawn from 13 countries – we welcome new members who share our aims and principles. Quick links to our research and practice are available below:

An exciting future…

We all look forward to continuing the work started by the original ICT4D Collective almost 20 years ago, although we remain very sad that the new leadership team at Royal Holloway, University of London did not see value in the institution continuing to have a UNESCO Chair. Perhaps we represented voices from the past; perhaps we have been too critical and anarchic; perhaps we have just been honest and spoken truth to power. Whatever the reason, we will continue to have fun working together, we will continue to challenge the status quo, we will continue to point out the many harms caused by the use of digital tech, and we will continue to work with and support the world’s poorest and most marginalised peoples.

What migrants want: digital tech, inequality and migration’ – MIDEQ WP9 convenes thematic workshop at WSIS 2023, Geneva.

Following the success of our online thematic workshop held during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2022 meeting, the MIDEQ WP9 (digital tech, inequality and migration) team convened a hybrid thematic workshop at the WSIS Annual Forum 2023 in Geneva on 17th March examining ‘what migrants want’ in relation to the use of digital technologies as opposed to the numerous apps that are supposedly designed for them. Building on our ongoing research (see https://ict4d.org.uk/technology-inequality-and-migration/ and https://www.mideq.org/en/themes/digital-technologies-and-inequality/), we explored how co-design with migrants can help craft digital interventions that can usefully address migrant-defined inequalities.

The session, which aligned especially with SDG10 and WSIS Action Lines C3, C4, C5, C7(iii, iv,v), C8 and C10, was structured around our digital interventions from Nepal and South Africa using a series of short-form videos ‘created by migrants for migrants’ as a framing device for the discussion. The contributions highlighted many inequalities faced by migrants and how digital tech can meaningfully address them as well as how digital tech can support personal life choices, offer networking opportunities, and become a peer-to-peer learning tool. The overarching theme was the need for all actors at the interface of digital tech and migration to be mindful of the need to ensure the safe, secure and wise use of digital tech by migrants.

Despite increasing evidence of the challenges to the beneficial use of digital tech by vulnerable migrants, actors such as tech companies, international and local organisations continue to design technologies aimed at migrants without due regard to their unintended consequences. International organisations and fora such as WSIS that are at the forefront of digital inclusion must recognise not just the opportunities offered by digital tech for migrants but also the risks and harms associated with them. This is especially important given the pervasive structural inequalities and limited digital capabilities that characterise many migrant contexts.

WP9 co-lead Prof G Hari Harindranath led the session with Prof Tim Unwin and Dr Maria Rosa Lorini while Bryce Hartley from GSMA (online) and Julien Varlin from ILO Geneva served as discussants. The highly interactive hybrid session was attended by senior government officials and representatives from international organisations, CSOs and tech companies as well as researchers.

We also used the in-person WSIS Forum in beautiful Geneva as an opportunity to discuss pathways to impact for our work with colleagues at IOM and ILO.

Prof G. ‘Hari’ Harindranath

20/3/2023

Members of UNESCO Chair in ICT4D pledge commitments to Partner2Connect

The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D accepted an invitation in 2021 to join the UN’s Partner2Connect Coalition (P2C), which has been created with the aim of being “a leadership level platform to engage all stakeholders to mobilize and announce new resources, partnerships, and commitments to achieve universal and meaningful connectivity”. The ITU is the overall convener of the Coalition, working in close collaboration with the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), and line with the UN Secretary General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.

The Coalition has four Focus Areas, and having participated actively in its meetings over the last six months, we are focusing our engagement primarily on the second of these: how the poor and marginalised can empower themselves through the use of digital technologies.

We are delighted to report that our pledge to Partner2Connect has now been validated. This is to advise, engage and involve Partner2Connect partners in delivering effective and empowering interventions with the world’s most marginalised people and communities.

We are offering the Coalition and its partners three main things:

  • An opportunity to engage directly in and contribute to our ongoing and future initiatives working with poor and marginalised communities and people who choose to use digital technologies for their empowerment. This will focus on five main areas:
    • Our work with migrants (especially in Nepal and South Africa as part of MIDEQ) to craft digital interventions that will reduce the inequalities associated with migration (led by Hari Harindranath and Maria Rosa Lorini)
    • Our work with people with disabilities, especially with our partner the Inter Islamic Network on IT throughout the Islamic world (led mainly by Akber Gardezi and Tahir Naeem)
    • Our work through TEQtogether on changing men’s attitudes to women and digital tech, especially in patriarchal societies (with the support of ICT4D.at, and led by Tim Unwin, Liz Quaglia and Paul Spiesberger)
    • Indigenous peoples and small island developing states (SIDS), especially with our partners RC-DISC at the University of Canberra and ISITI at the University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) (involving Roger Harris and Ahmed Imran)
    • Work on entrepreneurship. This has mainly been focused since 2018 in Kazakhstan and Central Asia on empowering creative local start-ups with entrepreneurship skills for growth and development (led by Endrit Kromidha)
  • Contributing expertise in research and practice to the further conceptual development of Focus Area 2 so that all activities are developed in accordance with the latest understanding of inclusive, equal and safe access and use of ICTs for all. We recognise that there are many differing views about empowerment, and we relish the opportunity to engage with other partner organisations to develop shared understandings of benefit to P2C and to the world’s least connected peoples. 
  • Offering training in empowerment theory and practice to partners within P2C. We look forward to the opportunity to engage actively with other P2C partners through workshops and other forms of tailored training to share our experiences of delivering digital interventions with and for the most marginalised, focusing especially on the notion of empowerment that lies at the heart of Focus Area 2.

We are one of the few academic entities yet to pledge commitments to Partner2Connect, and look forward to continuing to engage with and contribute to its actitivites, especially helping to ensure that the world’s poorest and most marginalised do indeed benefit from the increased global connectivity that the Coalition seeks to provide.

Please use our Contacts Page should you wish to find out more or to work with us in driving these pledges forward

UNESCO Chair in ICT4D signs partnership with the University of Canberra

Paddy Nixon, Vice Chancellor and President of the University of Canberra, signing the MoU with Tim Unwin, Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London

The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D signed a partnership Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Canberra on 28th March during the International Symposium on Digital Inequality and Social Change (ISDISC) convened by the University’s Research Cluster for Digital Inequality and Social Change (RC-DISC), led by Dr. Ahmed Imran, who is also an Affiliated Member of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D.

The MoU provides the basis for extensive collaboration between the two research groups, focusing particularly on:

  • Research collaboration
  • Workshop and conference convening
  • Research visits and exchanges, especially for early career researchers
  • Collaborative grant applications
  • Implementation of practices to reduce digital inequalities
  • Policy recommendations

This closely reflects the University of Canberra’s interests in developing research in the field of ICT4D, building its transnational networks, and increasing its reputation in digital inequality research and practice, while also reinforcing the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D’s commitment to crafting partnerships with cognate bodies, developing new ways to reduce digital inequalities, and developing collaborative research activities. It will also provide opportunities to build closer collaboration between colleagues from other disciplines in both institutions.

ISDISC was a hybrid event held at the Univeristy of Canberra and brought together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines across Australia, with many virtual contributions also coming from elsewhere in the world.

The International Symposium on Digital Inequalities and Social Change being opened by the Executive Dean of the Univeristy of Canberra’s Faculty of Science and Technology, Prof. Janine Deakin, with Dr. Ahmed Imran in attendance.
Participants at the ISDISC conference held at the University of Canberra, 28th-29th March 2022

Tim Unwin’s keynote address at ISDISC on Marginalisation and empowerment: exploring digital inequalities is available here.