Igniting the Spark: Creating Effective Next Generation Boards

For family foundations and a growing number of donor-advised funds, preparing the next generation for involvement brings special concerns -- and exciting opportunities. Succession is reported to be the single most important issue facing family foundations, according to nearly half (48%) of respondents to the Association for Small Foundations 2011 Foundation Operations and Management Report. At the same time, there is a broad range of experience in families with regard to how next generation family members are involved in family philanthropy. According to the National Center for Family Philanthropy's 2011 study, Current Practices in Family Foundations, a near equal number of respondents "strongly agreed" (34%) or "strongly disagreed" (33%) with the statement "next generation members are playing a significant role in the foundation.

Barriers to Digital Services Adoption in Bangladesh

This report uncovered many barriers to digital services in Bangladesh with a particular focus on access to digital connectivity, digital financial services, e-health, and online education. The 5 As of technology access were used as a framework to uncover barriers across these areas as well as connectivity. The report found significant barriers to the use of digital services regarding availability, affordability, awareness, ability, and agency across connectivity and the three digital service areas. The findings of the 5 As analysis are summarised as follow. First, 97% of Bangladesh is covered by a mobile signal. However, not everyone has continuous access or access to the same speed (e.g. 2g, 3g, 4g). 97 % of Bangladesh is covered by a mobile signal. However, not everyone has continuous access or access to the same speed (e.g. 2g, 3g, 4g). Second, Mobile phone ownership and connectivity eat up a greater share of income for the poor. Although bKash, Bangladesh’s leading mobile money providers is inexpensive when compared to mobile money providers in other countries and does not burden the poor with regressive pricing strategies, people living below the poverty line are still less likely to use it. Third, 67% of people in Bangladesh do not have Internet awareness (LIRNEasia 2018). Awareness is also low for digital services. Fourth, not knowing how to use the Internet is the main barrier they faced by 67% of offline Bangladeshis. Fifth, women are less likely to be mobile phone owners and Internet users than men globally (ITU, 2017). This trend is especially pronounced in Bangladesh where 58% of women vs. 87% of men own mobile phones (a 34% gap) and 7% of women vs. 18% of men use the Internet (a 62% gap) (After Access 2018b)

Achieving Complex Development Goals Along China’s Digital Silk Road

This report is divided into four main parts. Section 2 summarises the general literature on ICTs and the SDGs to illustrate both synergies and potential trade-offs between accelerating ICT adoption and achieving complex development goals. It first identifies key SDGs that explicitly call for greater ICT adoption and access to ICT infrastructure, and then covers the literature in five key areas: (i) the relationship between ICTs and economic growth and using ICTs to achieve development outcomes; (ii) the relationship between ICTs and inequality and the “leave no one behind” (LNOB) agenda; (iii) digital barriers and inequality that go beyond the provision of infrastructure; (iv) ICTs and the future of work; and (v) ICTs and environmental sustainability. Although digital technologies could be a force for good and help achieve the SDGs, this trajectory is not automatic, nor is it a given, and in many regards current trends can lead to the contrary. Achieving the SDGs in an increasingly digital world will necessarily mean reversing negative trends and finding ways to deal with some of the challenges emerging from greater ICT adoption. This will require actions above and beyond building infrastructure from a wide range of actors. Section 3 covers the “digital Silk Road” and analyses it according to the literature on the interactions between ICTs and the SDGs covered in the previous section. It starts by covering some of the policy objectives of the digital Silk Road. It then lightly analyses potential SDG contributions and challenges on some of the main elements of the digital Silk Road including: ICT infrastructure, the growing market share of Chinese device manufacturers, the promotion of “inclusive globalisation” through e-commerce, the exportation of “smart cities” to countries along the BRI, the expansion of China’s internet giants, and the Digital Belt and Road Program Science Plan. Overall, Section 3 highlights that although Chinese actors in the BRI often frame their activities as having only positive SDG impacts, they fail to consider the potential challenges arising from a greater adoption of ICTs and digitisation including: the potential of increasing inequalities, the implications for leaving no one behind, energy consumption and e-waste among others. Section 4 concludes and provides policy recommendations for traditional development actors seeking to engage with the digital Silk Road. It suggests that traditional donors should: (a) use their convening power to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to work through the complexities of achieving the SDGs as ICTs continue to spread; (b) be honest knowledge brokers for developing country governments about ICTs and their synergies and trade-offs with achieving the SDGs; (c) work on providing offline channels so the unconnected do not fall further behind; and (d) focus on the future of work which largely gets overlooked in the digital Silk Road. However, direct partnerships in digital BRI projects may be risky for traditional development donors due to concerns that may not bode well with their citizens about the digital Silk Road spreading an unfree internet and technologies that could be used to empower governments while disempowering citizens

Blockchain for Development – Hope or Hype?

Blockchain technology has been heralded by many as the next big thing. The potential use of blockchains has attracted widespread attention from the media, the IMF, the UN, and the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor. Some argue that within 20 years, blockchain will disrupt society more profoundly than the internet has disrupted communication and media. With the reported potential to replace powerful financial institutions with a new form of cheap and secure banking globally, could it also transform development? It has the potential to offer new ways to track aid and tackle corruption, facilitate smart-aid contracts and cut costs for international payments, but experience suggests it is through adding value to existing development processes that it could have the most benefit

The Implications of Environmental Law and Latino Property rights on Modern-Age Border Security: Rejecting a Physical Border and Embracing a Virtual Wall

For many, the construction of a physical border is a rational solution to national security concerns at the southern border. However, there is much evidence indicating that the negative impacts of building a physical border wall far outweigh its benefits. Particularly, the border region’s eco-systems have much to lose in the form of extinctions, biodiversity reduction, and critical habitat destruction. On top of that, a number of Latino communities would be the victims of various eminent domain claims that would strip them of land that, in many cases, has been in their family for multiple gener- ations. The broad, almost unilateral, scope of authority granted to the President to build a physical border wall would eviscerate decades of environmental protection and cost the United States billions of dollars to build and upkeep the wall. Proponents of a physical border fail to acknowledge the shortcomings of the policy, as exemplified by their disregard of its environmental impacts. Proponents of a physical border also fail to see that there is an option that is much more effective and efficient. Abandoning the idea of a physical-border wall and embracing a “virtual wall”1 would provide effective border secur- ity, prevent further environmental degradation, and prevent the economic harm to Latino communities that would result from constructing a physical wall. This paper will proceed by explicating: (1) the statutory development of US border policy since 1996; (2) the impact that a wall would have on Latino land ownership along the U.S.–Mexico Border; (3) the economic and environmental impact of constructing a physical border; (4) the way in which the environmental impact may be used to prevent the construction of the wall; and (5) an alternative to a physical border that will promote national secur- ity and ensure the longevity of the border region’s ecosystems and economy

Anomalous Parallel Field Negative Magnetoresistance in Ultrathin Films Near the Superconductor-Insulator Transition

A parallel field negative magnetoresistance has been found in quench-condensed ultrathin films of amorphous bismuth in the immediate vicinity of the thickness-tuned superconductor-insulator transition. The effect appears to be a signature of quantum fluctuations of the order parameter associated with the quantum critical point.Comment: Revised content includes revised argument and new figures 3 and 4. Totals: 4 pages, 4 figure

The techno-centric gaze: incorporating citizen participation technologies into participatory governance processes in the Philippines

In recent years, government and civil society organisations have increasingly deployed digital tools in their efforts to increase the participation of citizens in various aspects of governance. The term ‘civic tech’ is often used to describe this at the city governance level; however, as this research also considers initiatives that aim to extend citizen participation in global, national and corporate governance, we use the term ‘citizen participation technologies’. Examples of such technologies include interactive government websites, open data portals, online participatory budgeting platforms and text and instant messaging tools. Much of the existing research on citizen participation technologies takes the technology as its starting point, focusing primarily the identification and analysis of technical barriers to adoption and assessing opportunities for technical improvements. The authors argue that this techno-centric gaze obscures non-use and the reasons that many citizens remain excluded. Instead, this research adopts a human-centric approach, selecting specific user groups as case studies rather than specific technologies, and identifying the contextual social norms and structural power relations that explain the use and non-use of citizen participation technologies. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and focus groups are interpreted through the five ‘A’s of technology access (availability, affordability, awareness, ability and accessibility) and the conceptual lens of the Power Cube, to ask: which forms of power, operating at what levels, and in what sorts of spaces, affect the use and non-use of citizen participation technologies?DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Predictive analytics in humanitarian action: a preliminary mapping and analysis

This rapid review research provides the most comprehensive mapping and analysis of predictive analytic initiatives in humanitarian aid to date. It documents 49 projects including a variety of novel applications (see Appendix for details). It provides a typology of predictive analytics in digital humanitarianism and answers a series of key questions about patterns of current use, ethical risks and future directions in the application of predictive analytics by humanitarian actors. The study took 14 days in May 2020. Forty-nine predictive analytics projects were mapped and analysed according to the main phases of the humanitarian cycle, type of predictions made, sector of application, geography of application, and technical approach used. Despite the limitations of rapid response research, some preliminary recommendations are made on the basis of the findings including: i) Governments, humanitarian agencies, funders and private companies should publish more open data in order to further extend the potential for predictive analytics; ii) Humanitarian agencies should apply the precautionary principle in data collection, data safeguarding and responsible data to protect vulnerable populations from harm; iii) To align practice with humanitarian principles and commitments, predictive analytics actors need to include affected populations in all aspects of the design and project cycle; iv) Funding of predictive analysis should be tied to risk assessment, risk mitigation and knowledge sharing on the ethics and downside-risks of predictive analytics; v) Funders should support the emerging ecosystem to develop geographical or thematic specialisms, convene knowledge-sharing events and produce ethical guidelines for practice; vi) Further research is necessary to build on this preliminary mapping and analysis in this crucial and rapidly developing area of humanitarian action vii) Primary research interviews with humanitarian agencies and key informants would make it possible to validate claims and establish the current status and future plans of initiatives; viii) A small number of case studies would improve depth of understanding about approaches being used and proposed pathways to scale; ix) Focus groups or a workshop would surface agency experience of risks and barriers not shared in publicly accessible documents and enable lesson learning

Integrating Sustainable Development: A Foresight Analysis of Interactions Among Competing Development Challenges

This report documents an exercise undertaken by development scholars based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University of Sussex (both in Brighton, UK) to explore the interactions among three key goals of international development policy and practice, namely reducing inequalities, accelerating sustainability and building secure and inclusive societies. Experts from a selection of relevant fields of study convened in three deliberative foresight workshops to explore these three themes individually and their interactions, using an adapted scenario-building methodology. The report describes the adapted scenario methodology used during the workshops, presents the future scenarios generated during each event, and analyses the insights emerging from the scenarios as well as the workshop discussions leading up to them. The analysis draws attention to potential tensions and conflicts, as well as complementary and mutually reinforcing dynamics, which may be expected to emerge between the three themes in the future

Leaving No One Behind in a Digital World

Emerging Issues ReportIn an increasingly digital world, relatively privileged people are able to use their access to mobile and internet technologies to access clear digital dividends including remote access to health and education information, financial inclusion and digital pathways to economic and political empowerment. However, already disadvantaged people have less access, agency and ability to reap these digital dividends, and are being left further and further behind. One third of the world’s population do not own a mobile phone, and 50% of the global population have no internet. A series of digital divides is adding new digital dimensions to poverty in the twentieth century. This is not a binary divide: new classes of technology access and connectivity experience are leading to a range of different digital inclusions and exclusions. These digital dimensions of poverty often reflect, reproduce and amplify gender, racial and caste/class divides. As the relatively privileged upgrade to the latest generation of smartphones and connectivity speeds, and as ever more aspects of social, economic, and political life move online, the digitally disadvantaged experience widening inequalities. Development professionals require new diagnostic tools to analyse the digital access and everyday technology practices of those being left behind in their area of work. New research is necessary to understand the development implications in this dynamic space, including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on governance and work automation on employment and growth