In seven chapters
Chapter 1 Notes from the Underground
This introductory chapter outlines the purpose of the book to understand why interventions aiming to use digital technologies to implement development outcomes continue insufficiently to serve the interests of the poorest and most marginalised people and communities, and what needs to be done to change this so that their impact is more equitable. It presents four ‘notes’ that share insights into why this might be: ‘the global geopolitical framework’; ‘the “me” syndrome’; ‘corporate explorations in “darkest” Africa’; and ‘just because you can do something does not mean you should do it’. These are complemented by a case study of the Imfundo initiative in the early 2000s that created partnerships to use IT to enhance education and learning in Africa. The concluding section provides an introduction to the ensuing chapters that address the problems arising from the issues summarised in this opening chapter, and in the light of these adopt a normative stance about what should be done in the future.
A draft .pdf version of the introductory chapter is also available here.
Chapter 2 Shifting the balance: from growth to equity
This chapter explores why global rhetoric around the contribution of digital tech to development needs to shift from a focus on growth to one on equity. It begins by emphasising the importance of being clear in our use of language, especially relating to absolute and relative poverty, and the meanings of words such as marginalisation, inequality, equity, empowerment and emancipation. The second section explores how and why the design and use of digital technologies increases inequalities at all scales, using as an example why the widely used notion of ‘bridging the digital divide’ is so problematic. This is followed by an analysis of the powerful contribution of digital tech to economic growth, following which it is suggested that arguments for economic growth need to be balanced by increasing the importance given to an equity agenda in using digital tech for development.
Chapter 3 A UN system co-opted by the interests of global capital
This chapter focuses on why the influential UN processes relating to digital tech that have been put in place since the early 2000s have paid insufficient attention to the interests of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people. It argues that much of the reason for this is because these processes have been co-opted by the major digital tech companies in their own interests. The first section challenges taken for granted assumptions that the SDGs and the human rights agenda are necessarily positive for the least privileged. This is followed by a critique of multistakeholderism, which argues that we need instead to focus on explicitly multi-sector models that articulate the specific responsibilities of the public sector, the private sector and civil society. The third section then explores power struggles within the UN system and their expression in the Summit of the Future and Global Digital Compact in 2024. It concludes with five main recommendations for how the UN must change in its approach to digital tech if the poorest are to benefit. There is regrettably little sign that under the present leadership these are likely to happen.
Chapter 4 The ‘me’ syndrome
Chapter 4 suggests that an excessive focus among those in the digital tech sector on themselves (the ‘me’ syndrome) rather than on ‘we’ is one of the main reasons why the poorest and most marginalised do not sufficiently gain from the potential benefits of these technologies. This applies at all scales and levels within government, the private sector, and civil society. The chapter begins by exploring whether ‘doing good’ and making large amounts of money through digital tech are compatible by examining the wealth creation of leading figures within the sector, and it focuses especially on the themes of neurodiversity and altruism. The second section examines the lack of self-critique and over-confidence underlying the ‘me’ syndrome, before the following parts of the chapter reflect on the implications of these in the private sector, the UN system, and civil society. The chapter concludes by arguing that there needs to be a fundamental shift in thinking towards the ‘we’ rather than the ‘me’ if there is to be any hope that the poorest and most marginalised can indeed benefit from their use of digital tech.
Chapter 5 The innovation fetish
This chapter traces the rise of innovation in the 2010s and 2020s as a dominant theme associated with the use of digital tech in the practice of international development, particularly within the UN system and among bilateral donors. Such innovation is invariably seen positively, but it rarely benefits the poorest and most marginalised. Every new wave of digital innovation for development, from incubators and smart cities to M4D, Blockchain and AI for Good, repeats the same mistakes of past initiatives, primarily because they are designed mainly to serve the interests of those promoting them. The chapter explores why there has been such a failure in learning from past mistakes in digital tech for development interventions, and argues that donors need to shift their focus away from innovations that mostly fail towards extending known good practices so that the most marginalised can benefit from them.
Chapter 6 On freedom and digital enslavement
This chapter argues that increasingly the owners of large global corporations, mainly headquartered in the USA and China are, in effect, enslaving the world’s people in their pursuit of profits and power. It begins by developing in further detail some of the arguments in Chapter 3 around balancing individual rights with responsibilities, particularly around communal interests, and includes discussions on the Free and Open Software movements, Open Educational Resources and Creative Commons licences, as well as the exploitation of Open Data. This is followed by a section on Freedom and Nature, which argues that digital tech is being used increasingly to separate humans from engaging directly in Nature with harmful effects, and suggests that there needs to a much more comprehensive and holistic approach to understanding the impact of digital tech on the physical environment. The final two sections develop an argument that digital tech is increasingly being used by the Digital Barons to capture as many people as possible in a form of indentured labour.
Chapter 7 Towards Emancipatory Responsibilities and Actions
This concluding chapter provides a framework for considering the responsibilities of individuals and organisations that responds to the challenges outlined in the previous chapters and examples of actions that would enable the world’s poorest and most marginalised to benefit from their use of digital technologies. It suggests that emancipation begins with ourselves, and that everyone committed to serving the needs of the poorest and most marginalised needs to re-evaluate their actions so that there is a shift of rhetoric and reality from growth to equity, from ‘me’ to ‘we’, and from rights to responsibilities. The body of the chapter then summarises the main responsibilities of governments, the private sector and civil society that are required to achieve these ends. It concludes that the most urgent task is to forge our freedom from the enslavement into which we have been seduced by the Digital Barons. This is still possible, but we need to do so before the world becomes dominated by cyborgains and Artificial SuperIntelligence.
Vignettes
Read and listen to the 31 vignettes written by a rich diversity of people with deep practical knowledge of delivering digital tech for development initiatives here
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Page created 11 August 2025
Updated 5 October 2025
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