Paper Scope and Limitations

Paper Scope and Limitations

This is a position paper rather than a theoretical assess-

ment or literature review. As such, its scope is limited to a discussion of new forms of intelligence derived from emerging uses of technology for the purpose of improving decision-making within development. It draws on dozens of use cases from across developing countries. Many, but not all, of the use cases we consider were deployed in French-speaking Africa, an important region for AFD’s work. It does not seek to offer a comprehensive analysis of the sociotechnical implications of technology for development or a summation of all recent publications within the field. We also acknowledge that there are other cultural, social and economic uses of digital technology, including within development, that do not fit within the intelligence paradigm.

The concept of emerging exists on a spectrum in

practice. Whether the use of a given technology is “emerging” is open to debate, and may vary considerably by context and use. Consequently, it could be argued that some of the cases described in this paper are not themselves emerging technologies, but practices that use mature technologies in novel ways for emerging purposes. For the sake of brevity, simplicity, and practical usefulness, we have chosen to include these emerging uses of technology within this paper.

Many development problems cannot be solved with

technology alone. As later sections of this paper discuss, technological determinism—an over-reliance on technology to solve problems—and technological solutionism—the belief that all problems can be addressed through technology—can lead to harms such as project failure, disempowerment, the perpetuation or deepening of existing inequities, and environmental damage. Until they are regularly used and a practice develops around them, technologies can be slow to produce results and difficult to adapt to specific contexts. As a result, the benefits of technology must be carefully weighed against the risks, and chosen only when they are clearly more effective than non-technological solutions.

Emerging Uses of Technology for Development: A New Intelligence Paradigm