61: Technology for good, bridging the digital divide: Heddy Ring, Telia Company and Lourdes Montenegro, World Benchmarking Alliance

61: Technology for good, bridging the digital divide: Heddy Ring, Telia Company and Lourdes Montenegro, World Benchmarking Alliance: "Digital technologies are accelerants, they are cross cutting enablers of sustainable development. It is not just one SDG that they can facilitate or hinder but it is all the SDGs. That is how central the digital system is” @Lourdes Montenegro, Lead Digital Sector Transformation at the WBA.

While the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies it has also widened the gap between the under-connected and the hyper digitalised. There are numerous examples of those that are being left behind. Across the world the lack of access to both remote and online learning is expected to perpetuate intergenerational inequality and poverty. In the UK there are harrowing examples of the people on the margins being further disadvantaged by the lack of access - this includes older people, those on low incomes or without jobs, the homeless…..

In this episode of The Elephant in the Room podcast my guests Heddy Ring, Lourdes Montenegro and I discussed the 2nd iteration of the WBA’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark. The benchmark aims to highlight industries and companies that are currently leading the way in fostering digital inclusion to trigger a race to the top, as well as holding underachieving companies accountable.

We spoke about trends, the COVID bump, impact washingπŸ‘‡πŸΎπŸ‘‡πŸΎπŸ‘‡πŸΎ

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ The surprising reality that progress on digital inclusion is very slow and most companies are lagging behind with very few demonstrating a strong commitment

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ The marked discrepancy in how companies disclose environmental data vs social and governance data

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ While Tech companies are gung ho on AI, they are failing to consider the risks. Just 19 of the 150 companies surveyed commit to publicly available principles of ethical AI. Given the human rights implications the numbers are chilling

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ Techno-solutionism and the fact that most tech for good initiatives are one-off projects

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ On an average, women make up just 23% if the technical workforce in the 150 digital companies assessed, highlighting the need for more women in tech roles.

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ And just 15 of the 150 companies disclose that they have the basic processes in place to identity, assess and integrate human rights risks and impacts in their business practices.

I was also surprised to not see any Indian telecom companies amongst the leaders, considering how innovative they have been in making mobile telephony accessible to the poorest and marginalised

If you would like to know more, listen here