ICT4D | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

By Omondi Peter, GDDF Ambassador – Kenya

Being a sports enthusiast, Covid – 19 meant no team sports, and this was frustrating to me. I spent much of my time indoors building and testing online Life Skills Challenges for my students which I found interesting and consoling in some way.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, TechChange was looking for volunteers to help facilitate Happy Hour Sessions during the Our Future Our Voices Youth Summit under International Youth Foundation.

I signed up for the role and I was accepted. This role gave me an opportunity to learn and connect with a wide range of professionals from across the globe. My favorite moment though was the points segment whereby contributing and engaging on discussion threads earned one points. I emerged the top point winner for the Summit, and I felt so nice about it.

Since then, I kept following TechChange events and in 2022 I saw an open call for participation for Global Digital Development Forum to which I signed up.

My main aim here was to be the most active platform user and contributor on discussions that I felt were relevant. My goal was to earn the most points and win. I attended nearly all the live sessions, breakout sessions, listened to all the lightening talks, attended most the tech demos, and had my nose in nearly every virtual room of the GDDF 2022. Turned out to be the top point winner with 1852 points, followed very closely by Wayan Vota who came in second with 1631 points. Again, I felt motivated as I had found my niche and field of play.

Being a Top Point winner, I had a number of offers to choose from, I selected a 30 minutes 1 – 1 coaching session with CEO TechChange Nick Martin, our meeting was facilitated by Kristen Weymouth and I met Nick Martin who hinted to me about the Hybrid Pilot projects regarding the GDDF and asked if I would be interested to be part of that, I said to Nick, “By all means, bring it on.” True to his word I was recruited as an Ambassador for the Frontiers of Digital Development Forum in 2022, where my role was to organize and facilitate a hybrid watch Party in Nairobi.

Come 2023, TechChange again was looking to roll out a hybrid pilot for the Global Digital Development Forum and I was asked if I would be interested to be an Ambassador for the GDDF 2023 to which I accepted. This time I had two goals, to lead one of the best Watch Parties and to be the top point winner on the GDDF TechChange Platform.

GDDF 2023 Watch Party at Palladium’s Nairobi offices

I can proudly say I did both and felt really good about it. By being part of the first ever hybrid version of GDDF, leading a watch party that brought 29 participants and seven major organizational representatives in one room to engage on real issues affecting their local communities, the following are some of the lessons I learnt going through the process.

TechChange has a working model that is already transforming the convening landscape starting with Tech players and industries and more partners and stakeholders need to join in.
We do not have to travel to New York City etc for conferences to engage on issues affecting us locally, we can just be empowered to organize our local sessions and synchronize that to the main event happening anywhere around the world.
Building partnership is key for such projects to thrive, thank you to Palladium; Make it possible for believing on the idea and sponsoring and hosting the Kenya Watch Party.
Young people are a powerhouse of change, all they need is a clear direction and tools to realize their full potential.
The pandemic has transformed the way people view things especially the education and convening models and the hybrid mode approach is the way to go.

The Kenya watch Party event was unique, as it involved both local and international guests, with the most enticing element being the Team Project at the end where participants were divided into 4 groups, each group was tasked to come up with a project they will undertake post the GDDF 2023 to help mitigate Climate Change issues in Kenya.

With TechChange providing an open space for the ambassadors to create their own models to meet their own needs made the whole concept more interesting and fun as it allowed flexibility and creativity resulting to diverse outcomes.

With the firm foundation established for the future GDDF, the team is now building their own momentum focusing on the 2023 Kenya Watch Party Theme “Tech4ClimateChange” both online and offline looking forward to the GDDF 2024.

By: Sacha Robehmed, FDDF Ambassador (Jordan), and Partner, Digital at Expectation State

With the new year often comes transformation. A calendar flips to a new page, resolutions are proclaimed, new habits get made. But transformation of the digital sort is more ongoing – perpetual, even.

Several weeks ago, TechChange and partners hosted the first-ever Frontiers of Digital Development Forum (FDDF), a two day hybrid conference to consider more aspirational technologies and their practical utility (or lack thereof) for large-scale humanitarian and development objectives. TechChange worked with Ambassadors to host watch parties in locations across the world–in Kenya, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania–to make the FDDF 2022 a truly hybrid experience and to ensure that conversations about digital development were happening in the places where digital development is taking place.

In the Jordanian capital, TechChange and Expectation State screened one of the flagship sessions, “What is Digital Transformation Anyway?” on the morning of November 2nd at Impact Hub Amman. A group of professionals whose work spans the humanitarian and development sectors, tech startup ecosystem, and digital rights, joined the breakfast event for a lively discussion. At Expectation State, as development practitioners living in the countries where we work, we believe that context is vitally important – which was underscored when a locally contextualised understanding of digital transformation came to the fore during the FDDF Amman discussion.

A decade ago, ‘digital transformation’ was the purview of government digital services in countries like the UK and Estonia. These models of digital transformation were held up as examples and shared with Majority World countries in a “top down”, often one-size-fits-all, way. But a decade on, and in our FDDF conversation we saw something quite different, showing how far ‘digital transformation’ has come. We covered everything from virtual reality and the metaverse, open source intelligence, humanitarian cash transfers, and education during COVID lockdowns. Compared to the ‘digital transformation’ of a decade ago, it was striking how rich, informed, and diverse the conversation in Amman was around digital transformation today – perhaps reflecting the diversity of views and understandings of digital transformation that we see from different countries across the digital development ecosystem. What emerged was an understanding of digital transformation unique to Jordan, and very much rooted in the context here.

*FDDF watch party at Impact Hub in Amman on November 2, 2022*

We’d like to share four takeaways from the Amman discussion on digital transformation:

1. Education as a local example of COVID-19 digital transformation – that wasn’t inclusive

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation globally. In the FDDF session, Rachel Sibande from the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) shared how countries with existing digital infrastructure were able to make faster payments during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In Jordan, the example of education shifting online was a key topic in our digital transformation discussion. With technology hardware not widespread, this example of digital transformation left people behind. While school classes were shown on TV to try to overcome the hardware gaps, in families with four of five children this wasn’t enough – how were they all meant to watch their classes at the same time on one device? While there were some initiatives giving laptops in an attempt to bridge the hardware gap, what about connectivity and data costs? In this very local example of digital transformation of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite best intentions the most vulnerable were not included.

2. Digital transformation has been called other names

*Whiteboard activity at FDDF Amman watch party*

Our discussion took on a historical perspective, reflecting on digital transformation as the most recent in a long series of buzzwords over the last two decades, which all have a similar meanings. From “e-government” and “going paperless,” to “smart organisations/smart cities” and “the fourth industrial revolution” – just how different is digital transformation anyway? We also reflected on the concerns around digital transformation historically, such as government workers fearing that computers would take their jobs when they were first introduced to ministries, but the efficiencies and advantages that digital transformation has created – we definitely don’t want to go back to the paper-based processes of the past. Looking at digital transformation from a historical perspective highlighted how far we’ve come, but also that many of the challenges and risks of new technologies are similar to those of past and present technologies.

3. Big tech giants – the view from Jordan

Meta and big tech giants featured heavily in our discussion. We talked about the power tech companies have, not only in our individual lives in terms of their data capture, but at a geopolitical level, such as the conflict around 5G technologies. The dominance of big tech in the future landscape was of particular concern, epitomised by the renaming of facebook to Meta as we move towards Web3 technologies and the metaverse. We talked about what the future might hold – if it was one where big tech grows increasingly powerful, or if the monopolies of big tech are broken up through regulation, and interoperability and decentralised alternatives emerging from outside the US will offer a different future. To what extent might digital transformation enable the building of digital products based on available talent and existing needs in Jordan, versus offering more regulatory space for big tech in the country?

4. Rights-based digital transformation means non-digital alternatives

As Jordan is host to the “second-highest share of refugees per capita” according to UNHCR, our understanding of digital transformation in Jordan was heavily informed by this. We talked about individuals being more or less vulnerable depending on their awareness of privacy and personal data protection. If individuals were unaware of their rights and just signed up to get a service, this wasn’t seen as meaningful digital transformation. Providing individuals with non-digital options in order to offer inclusive services, and to give the option to “opt-out” of digital services, was key to this rights-based approach to digital transformation offered by humanitarian actors during the discussion. At the same time, they acknowledged that digital has made changes for the better, for instance, increasing efficiency in cash distribution, compared to paper-based processes of the past. We also talked about power dynamics, identifying and mitigating risks of digital transformation, and discussed practical measures that should be taken such as identifying technology partners with similar values.

From a rights-based focus on digital transformation emerging from the high refugee (and humanitarian agency) presence, to the inclusiveness of digital transformation during COVID-19, the history of ‘digital transformation (by other names), and the dominance of US big tech in the Majority World; the Amman FDDF watch party had a rich and varied discussion about digital transformation. Which leaves us wondering – what might digital development actors elsewhere identify with and learn from our conversation? And what might we learn from similar discussions in Nairobi, Lagos, and in your city?

We’re looking forward to continuing these conversations at next year’s FDDF! In the meantime, please share your thoughts in the comments.

By: Jessica Swann, Director of Partnerships for Education

As TechChange’s new Director of Partnerships for Education, I have been in learning mode this week at the Global Digital Health Forum, catching up on what my peers and new coworkers have been working on in this vital and fast-moving space.

In preparing for the conference, I dove into TechChange’s wealth of materials within the Digital Health space, and I want to share an animated video that caught my eye as a high-quality, easy to understand instructional aide: “Standards and Interoperability in Digital Health: Explained.” It really helped me to understand these complicated concepts.

I’m an education generalist, with a rather eclectic range of experiences. Yet across all my previous roles, whether I’ve been writing about in-depth topics on database administration, or leading a program to strengthen capacity for virtual teaching amongst university lecturers from the Peruvian Public Sector, I’ve seen the importance time and time again of distilling complex concepts into digestible, engaging educational assets. This video is a great example of that – the clear narration, illustrative graphics, and storytelling bring these digital health concepts to life.

Storytelling to illustrate real-life problems

The video takes us to the fictional country of Onesa, where the government is implementing a national vaccination campaign. We meet Lucy, the National Immunization Officer, and Isaac, a health officer from one of the more rural districts. They share a goal of vaccinating children against disease, but are quickly faced with challenges that arise from multiple systems tracking key pieces of information such as the number of children who need to be vaccinated and the number of vaccines that are available.

This is exactly the kind of dilemma faced by healthcare leaders in countries around the world as they struggle to manage resources effectively.

Lucy and Isaac consider integrating the systems manually, but this quickly becomes too complex and costly to manage. Lucy has a whole country to manage for the immunization campaign, and Isaac has the other health issues in his district to consider. They can’t afford to spend all their time doing manual, error-prone integration. The systems need to talk to each other in a way that’s efficient and cost-effective.

Enter the concept of interoperability.

What is ‘interoperability’ anyway?

Interoperability is the ability for multiple applications to communicate with one another by accessing, exchanging, and making use of data in a coordinated manner.

In the context of digital health, this means that health information systems like OpenIMS and DHIS2 can communicate directly and exchange data. As the video does a great job of explaining, standards help to achieve this.

What are the different kinds of standards?

The video shows us that there are two different sets of standards to consider for interoperability:

Semantic standards – that help applications establish a common vocabulary; and

Syntactic standards – that allow applications to share a common grammar to communicate meaning.

It’s amazing how much this sounds like language acquisition! In order to communicate and share information, systems have to have to understand the words and ways of putting them together…just like people.

*We tackle interoperability in our Architects of Digital Health board game*

Countries can invest in a health information exchange, which is enterprise architecture that bundles all digital health applications together to provide guidance to software developers on how to manage interoperability between them. It stores lists of terms and concepts, and maps how they relate to each other. Kind of like the Rosetta Stone of digital health tools.

These terms can sound abstract, but in practice, standards and interoperability of digital health systems help save lives. Careful, systematic implementation of these concepts allows policymakers and decision makers to see population-level trends and make time-sensitive decisions that impact the lives in every locality, in every age group, and at each point in the health journey.

Accessible knowledge for all

So there you have it, interoperability in a nutshell. And you don’t need to be a software developer or digital health expert to understand the importance of this concept.

I love that the video makes it easy to understand the stakes and goals of digital health applications and makes simple the complex concept of interoperability.

In my role, I get to work with our partners to develop assets just like this, which can help explain complicated concepts and share knowledge across diverse learner communities. Indeed, at this very moment, we’re working with IFAD on creating a digital agriculture course, to help policy makers and extension workers understand how concepts like interoperability have a role to play in the design and application of agriculture and environmental policy.

You see, standards and interoperability are just as important within digital agriculture as they are within digital health. Systems need to communicate with each other in order to help stakeholders manage information and make timely, evidence-based decisions to maximize yields and get food products to market.

I’m looking forward to flexing TechChange’s amazing creative skills and instructional design muscles now and into the future, creating new videos and other web-based educational tools to help our partners to communicate all manner of complex ideas in ingeniously simple ways, and seeing the impact of this work in their programs.

This video was created by TechChange as a part of the Digital Health: Planning National Systems Course to support the training on standards and interoperability, funded by Digital Square, a PATH-led initiative funded and designed by the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a consortium of other investors.

By: Nick Martin, CEO

As TechChange’s CEO and someone who finds great joy in bringing people together to discuss topics that matter, I love pushing the envelope on how we convene. On reimagining what a conference or event can be, and what it can mean for the people who participate.

And after nearly three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the distance that it necessitated, people are hungry for connection. The kind that gets brain cells stimulated, but also the kind that you can feel in your bones. We believe TechChange’s hybrid event model brings together the best of virtual technology and in-person experiences for a new kind of convening that is accessible, inclusive, and downright fun.

With some help from our founding sponsors USAID, Chemonics, and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), exactly one month ago, we put our hybrid model to convene the first-ever Frontiers of Digital Development Forum to explore the role of frontier technologies in international development. This two-day conference took place online and in Washington D.C., with nearly all in-person elements available to virtual participants and even more virtual-only content and networking opportunities. More than 600 people joined us from 55 countries– because conversations that impact the whole world shouldn’t just take place in D.C.

What went well

1. Virtual participants felt “centered.” There is such a temptation with hybrid events to focus on the in-person experience. The food, the drinks, the lighting, the seating charts… it can be all-consuming. But we tried hard – super hard – to focus our attention equally on the in-person AND the virtual experience. We wanted to create a hybrid conference that made our virtual participants in Kenya, Jordan, Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, Argentina, and everywhere else feel like they matter just as much as those who could be in-person with us in DC. And I’m happy to report that FDDF participants online resoundingly felt exactly what we intended for them: that the virtual experience far exceeded their expectations. In fact, 84% of participants who joined virtually reported FDDF improved their opinion of hybrid events.

*TechChange producers kept the Main Stage content flowing so participants felt engaged, which was evidenced by a robust participant chat throughout.*

2. Diversity of content types: For a nuanced topic like this, we knew that we needed to look at the subject matter from different angles. For FDDF, we had 25+ engaging and robust conversations, tech demos, breakout sessions, and networking activities that dug into aspirational, frontier technologies and their practical utility for large-scale humanitarian and development objectives.

3. Surprising session formats: For Day one’s kick-off, we tried a new session format, “The Long Conversation.” This unique Smithsonian-inspired approach staged timed two-person dialogues on frontier tech skepticism, aspiration and progress with luminaries from USAID, Google, and more from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. No moderator, no speeches, and no slides. Just interesting conversations on stage between two people at a time. You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Soundcloud to check it out.

*We livestreamed 2-minute interviews from our Pop-Up Studio in between sessions to participants around the world*

4. The Pop-Up Studio: One of the goals of hybrid is to break down the barriers between in-person and online participants. One of the ways we do this that allows online participants to dig into the energy of the conference is the Pop-Up studio. I’m biased, but this was easily my favorite part of FDDF22. I got to interview speakers fresh off the stage for their impressions and hot-takes, and talk with conference goers about what they’re thinking about all the material. Our on-site production team streams these interviews out to virtual participants like TV news. This allows people at home on their computers to get a back-stage view of the conference, and get a taste of the energy of the day.

What didn’t go so well…

No event is perfect. We had an honest conversation with our organizing committee about what went well and what we’d improve next time. Here are a few:

1. Timeline: I gave the team a deadline that was nearly impossible– under three months to envision, build, and execute a brand-new hybrid event from scratch. And yet they rose to the occasion to meet it. I’m still amazed they pulled it off – and didn’t even once try to kill me in the process!

2. Lack of a content czar: Next time, we’ll build in a longer lead time, and have a content Czar whose job it is to oversee the overall narrative of the conference and make sure all of the dynamic pieces fit together holistically. This is also something some of the partners we support may also want to consider.

*Experimenting with improv comedy at a serious conference = worth trying!*

3. Improv comedy is great, but not without some serious preparation: We tried something wild, y’all: we invited comedians to be part of our event. And not to just do some stand-up entertainment at the opening and closing plenary. We wanted them to sprinkle it in throughout the event. Does that sound nuts? Maybe it was, a little?! While we heard positive feedback on the comedians’ prepared sets, we gave them the pretty impossible task of doing improv – on camera – throughout the entire day. But we’re excited to keep exploring ways to make global development content more innovative, accessible and entertaining with more creative partnerships like this.

4. Not quite enough on-stage controversy: FDDF was meant to explore the boundaries of frontier technology within digital development, not shying away from tough conversations. And we did that – through sessions on the information war in Ukraine, the pros (and cons) of partnering with tech firms, and a feminist, Global South critique on AI. The topics were hard-hitting, but we think we can do more to set the stage for difficult and important conversations in the future. We’ll be exploring the role of anonymous inputs, and crowd-generated content, in order to further engage new voices in each conversation.

At TechChange, we don’t just put on hybrid events for our partners, and sit back and watch. We are actively involved in putting on our own events, where we have skin in the game and a major role in planning and organizing. These events are our own R&D labs. They help us test out the technology we’re offering to partners, and always keep an eye on opportunities for improvement. Not only that, it keeps us empathetic to the stressors and joys of conference planning. When we say we’ll be the partner that does more for your hybrid event, we mean it. We’ve been there, and we want to put our lessons learned to work for you. From recommending ways to keep global participants engaged from afar to project management suggestions around timeline, our team can help you shorten the learning curve to engaging, inclusive, and fun hybrid events. We love this stuff!

By: Ariel Frankel (Director of Public Health), and Alex Paone (Program Manager, Public Health)

Just in time for the upcoming Global Digital Health Forum on December 5-7, TechChange added several new videos to our Global Goods video series, developed in partnership with USAID and PATH/ Digital Square, that explain the basics of several digital health public goods. As TechChange’s Director of Public Health, I’m excited that these short, dynamic videos will help promote the benefits of using global goods software to digital health stakeholders, from NGO practitioners to national health officials.

What are Global Goods anyway?

Global goods are software systems with multiple funding sources that are used across different countries to address a wide variety of challenges. Importantly, they have free and open-source software and documentation to make customization simple. Moreover, they are built to be interoperable with other digital health software systems. Learn more here.

What problems do these Global Goods videos help solve?

My background with digital health interventions in the informal settlements of Nairobi and at a refugee clinic in Tel Aviv, showed me the importance of using tools that are widely supported and built for interoperability, rather than “reinventing the wheel” each time and perpetuating fragmentation in the digital health ecosystem. Each Global Goods video uses a common set of concepts and visuals such as animations from user perspectives, ministry official interviews, and software demos that allow viewers to understand each global good independently, as well as how they can fit together and support interoperability. This is a complex and important topic– but at TechChange, we pride ourselves on making easy to understand guides to complicated materials and concepts.

Global Goods Video Series is for all Digital Health Practitioners

These videos on OpenSRP, RapidPro, and iHRIS will join the line-up of course materials in our Digital Health: Planning National Systems course, which has taught more than 250 ministry officials and digital health stakeholders from Chile to the Philippines to design and implement interventions to address national health systems challenges . As one of the course facilitators, I can attest that the material has helped participants advocate for adoption of these software systems within their own national governments. But the Global Goods videos aren’t just for our own students – they are available on YouTube for public use in training and capacity building.

Let’s take a look.

Better Data Through OpenSRP

In the OpenSRP video, which was supported by Ona, we see perspectives from frontline health workers and policy makers on how the open source mobile health platform helps with data tracking and decision making. This tool allows continuity of care at the community and facility level.

OpenSRP provides decision support to health workers to guide them through health encounters, allowing for rapid data entry and follow-ups based on the patient’s specific care plan. The software can be used as an off-the-shelf integrated health system in places transitioning from paper to digital or in the process of replacing stand-alone, single-focus applications. As we see in the video, the adoption of this global good system can lead to faster launches of digital systems including health service applications and dashboards.

Leverage and Track Mobile Services with RapidPro

In the second video, which was supported by UNICEF, we see how RapidPro workflow logic software helps organizations and systems run mobile-based services. From managing mobile users’ contacts, to analyzing data from multiple communication channels, RapidPro provides a mobile or web-based platform that public health workers can use to send or track a wide variety of information.

TechChange videos always include real-life applications of any new tool, so that practitioners can immediately see how it might be applied. In this video, we see how health worker Wendy uses RapidPro to help manage her vaccine resources and roll-out. She inputs her data, which national decision makers can then use to help track roll-out across locations and fill in gaps. The adoption of RapidPro can help health workers and leaders respond in real-time to specific public health needs and threats.

Managing a Health Workforce through iHRIS

The third new video, supported by IntraHealth International, details the basics of iHRIS, an open-source human resources platform to track and manage a country’s health workforce. Users can make evidence-based, effective plans for deploying human resources where they’re needed most.

To fast track understanding of a tool, it’s important to show features and use- cases, such as iHRIS’s user-friendly interface and powerful data dashboards. By using iHRIS, decision-makers can understand the current status of their health workforce including which healthcare workers are currently employed, those who are qualified but not employed, and those who are in training. Centralized data can help leaders predict specific population needs and proactively solve workforce constraints.

These three videos are the tip of the iceberg on learning about global goods. You can watch all nine global goods videos in the Global Goods Series playlist (including the first three that we’ve translated to French) here.

We hope that these educational videos are useful to you and your teams. Feel free to share widely – just be sure to attribute and link to TechChange, USAID and PATH/ Digital Square. Thanks for watching!

By: Emma Sakson

Do emerging technologies such as crypto and AI have a place in international development? How do we balance the risks of untested tools with their potential rewards, and impact?

Throughout my time working in ICT4D, I’ve tended to be a skeptic when it comes to the promise that frontier technology can improve development outcomes and, most importantly, people’s lives. Rather than fixate on the newest technology on the scene, I’ve tended to focus on basic tools deployed in ethical and effective ways. At the intersection of technology and development, there are no “magic bullets,” but new tools can unlock exciting ways for people to connect and collaborate with one another.

TechChange believes deeply in that power. To put our values into action, we convened the first-ever hybrid Frontiers of Digital Development Forum (FDDF) to bring technologists, development practitioners, and thought leaders from all over the world together for exciting, tough, and necessary conversations about the role of emerging technology within development.

We used our innovative approach to hybrid events to ensure that these debates, conversations and demonstrations were accessible, inclusive, and dynamic. Compared to a traditional DC event, the hybrid nature of the Frontiers of Digital Development Forum allowed for critical voices from outside of Washington D.C. to be heard. Overall, over 600 people across 55 countries participated in the forum either in-person, virtually, or both.

FDDF Day 1

For Day 1 of the conference, 190 people representing more than 60 organizations convened in DC’s historic Capitol Turnaround hall to discuss topics such as the role of technology in humanitarian response, digital transaction of carbon credits, and how crypto can democratize development.

As a new TechChange employee, I was thrilled that FDDF did not shy away from polarizing topics, and I was struck by how fresh and inclusive this event felt compared to many conferences I’ve participated in the past. In addition to select virtual-only sessions, all of the in-person sessions were live-streamed to virtual participants, who could also engage with discussion boards, Pop-up Studio interviews, and virtual networking experiences.

Our amazing FDDF ambassadors led local watch parties and conversations in Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Jordan. It was exciting to be a part of a new model for convening in this globalized, digital age, and engage with ICT4D practitioners all over the world.

*TechChange CEO Nick Martin engages with Nairobi watch party organized by FDDF Ambassador Peter Omondi*

FDDF Day 2

Day 2 of the conference utilized the TechChange platform for an entirely virtual experience. As one virtual participant from Kenya said, “FDDF2022 was one of the greatest events I have attended. The quality of discussion, unique topics, great panelists exchanging ideas, insightful audience– this was an eye opener.”

*One of the most-watched sessions featured Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation*

The user-friendly features of our platform provided not only unfettered access to content but multiple ways to engage with speakers and other attendees. The platform recorded over 32 hours of content featuring 97 speakers, and participants were buzzing with energy– over 1,000 in-session chat messages were sent throughout the forum.

That’s our favorite thing about hybrid conferences- there’s something for everyone. And when gathering together to discuss emerging technology, isn’t it appropriate that we should use an innovative approach that leverages the best of conference tech to ensure a diverse collection of voices are at the table?

At TechChange, virtual participation isn’t just an afterthought, it’s an integral part of how we make connections and build community. We’re looking forward to applying the lessons we’ve learned to our hybrid events in the future to make them even more engaging and inclusive. This is emerging technology I can get behind.

As we settle into 2018 and launch a variety of new courses, workshops, and ways to innovate our approach to online learning, we’re thankful to you, our TechChange community, for your unwavering support! In the last year, we’ve trained over 7,000 people from 155 countries on our platform alone.

Check out a few of the cool things we were able to do in 2017.

We’ve released new features on our online learning platform!

Frontend editing: Course administrators can now type directly into the platform section that you would like to update or add information to. The new inline editing feature means easy access to editing/updating content, a cleaner design, and a direct way to see real-time updates of changes that you’re making to your course content.

Completion tracking: Course administrators can now track module completion with our new rules feature. By simply setting “rules” for each slide, submodule, and module, learners will be alerted with a green check mark if they have completed the appropriate section.

Progress view: Course administrators can now view the progress of their students holistically with the new progress view. Based upon the rules of each course, the progress view details where students are in relation to course completion, when they were last active, and which modules have been completed.

We’ve developed informative interactive modules!

IFC Gender Course: TechChange partnered with IFC (International Finance Corporation) to create a multi-module course on the business case for gender smart solutions. The course is customized with three different industry tracts that users can choose between depending on what is most relevant to their work.
Jhpiego MCSP: The Faculty Development Program represents a major accomplishment for the Instructional Design team over the summer and fall seasons. The program is centered around best practices for medical practitioners and is meant to improve educational quality and teaching skills for practitioners in Liberia and beyond.
CCAP: TechChange built a self-paced course for the Coastal Cities Adaptation Project of Mozambique that focused on the basics of climate change, adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and urban resilience. The course featured many video interviews (filmed by TC staff) with important stakeholders involved in climate change management in Mozambique.

We’ve created some beautiful content!

Making Cents International Report: An exciting collaboration between the Instructional Design and Creative Teams for The Rockefeller Foundation & Making Cents resulting in a youth-oriented toolkit for demand-driven training. Click here to view the report and here to view the interactive website!
DCA animation and pamphlet: USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) uses loan guarantees to increase access to finance and promote growth in developing countries. The creative team was tasked to create multiple short animations to explain how the Development Credit Authority works and its benefits to those in developing countries. Click here to view our whiteboard style explainer video and click here to view our mobilizing local wealth for entrepreneurs around the world animation .
DIAL animation: We had the pleasure of working with DIAL (Digital Impact Alliance) to explain the Principles for Digital Development and its importance to the digital development community. The team was tasked with creating a 2 minute explainer animation that is both attractive and informative. Assets and animation was spearheaded by our senior illustrator & animator John Kim. Click here to watch the video.
mPowering animation: The Creative Team worked on a beautiful animation for mPowering’s OpenDeliver, a mobile-enabled delivery system for health resources that includes a feedback loop to supply analytics. Click here to watch the video!

We’ve hosted interesting workshops and traveled to many places!

Mozambique for CCAP: In January 2017, Shannon, Emily, and John traveled to Maputo and Pemba, Mozambique to record interviews with key stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts across the country. The interviews were incorporated into the four-module self-paced course built to empower individuals with the fundamentals of climate change, preparedness, and urban resilience.
Maine for PopTech: In October, the TechChange team headed to Camden, Maine for the 2017 PopTech Conference: Instigate, where we provided tech support, photography, and conference marketing support.
Boston for Connected Health Conference: In October, Chris, Yohan, and Meronne went to Boston, Massachusetts to provide event support with photography and video interviews.
Qatar for WISE: Chris and Austin traveled to Doha, Qatar for the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE Summit) for a series of plenaries and workshops on the future of education.
Washington, D.C. for the World Bank Youth Summit: Nick gave an interactive workshop on blockchain for international development.
Instructional Design Workshops: Throughout the year at TechChange Headquarters, Isabel lead different instructional design with Articulate 360 workshops. Click here to sign up for the next one!
TechGirls 2017: For the fifth year in a row, we’ve had the honor of hosting two brilliant young leaders from the TechGirls State Department program. This year, Passant Abu-el-Gheit and Reem Saado shadowed the various teams hard at work making online courses in the TechChange office, and contributed a few creations of their own. Read the full blog post here!

We’re launching new online courses!

TC116 Blockchain for International Development: This four-week online certificate course will attempt to cut through the hype and evaluate the potential of this technology on everything from remittances to supply chain management, voting practices, smart contracts, land titling, educational credentialing, health record storage, and more. Learn about the course here!
TC310 The Future of Digital Health: This four-week online certificate course will explore how a range of emerging technologies — blockchain, artificial intelligence, drones, sensors and Internet of things, wearable devices, and more — are contributing to patient care and management, disease tracking, point-of-care support, health education, remote monitoring, diagnostics, supply chain management, and logistics.The course will also take a hard look at complexities surrounding patient privacy and security, limits to access, training and capacity building challenges, interoperability issues, regulation and policy hurdles, and more. Learn about the course here!
TC301 Artificial Intelligence for International Development: This four-week online certificate course will cover the basics of artificial intelligence from natural language processing and object differentiation, to comparative facial recognition and more. It will draw from a variety of case studies, particularly in financial services, education, and healthcare. It will also explore challenges to adoption that exist around automation, hype cycles, ethical concerns, security, sustainability, and more. We will also explore machine learning, a narrower subset of AI that focuses on data analysis and building algorithms that reduce the need for human intervention. Learn more about the course here!
TC101 Online Learning for International Development: This four-week course will include a number of innovative case studies as well as demos of our favorite emerging technologies to support and enhance learning. Over the past 8 years, TechChange has built 500+ online courses on all kinds of topics for a variety of audiences and in a range of formats. In that time, we have had to contend with every imaginable hurdle: diminished attention spans, bandwidth constraints, translation issues, security challenges, and more. This is why we’ve decided to package all of this experience into an online certificate course. Learn more about the course here!

As we continue to build and create beautiful courses, we’re excited to start licensing our online learning platform to organizations and continue building our expertise in online learning. A recent study on capacity building done by the Global Knowledge Initiative listed TechChange as the number one cited source individuals and organizations used most to improve curriculum design, further teaching pedagogy, develop online modules, and build presentation and facilitation skills. We look forward to continue building our online learning skill sets.

We hope to see you online, in person, or in a course!

What stories would you tell with data from your daily life?

In September 2014, two award-winning information designers living on different sides of Atlantic, Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, collaborated on a year-long project to collect, visualize, and share information about their daily lives. Each week they would hand-draw representations of their activities and thoughts as part of a process to use data to become more humane and connected on a deeper level. The end result is Dear Data: an award-winning project to make data artistic, personal, and open to everyone.

(Watch starting at 6:45)

In Spring 2016, we asked online students in our Tech for Monitoring and Evaluation Online Diploma Program to try their hand at a similar month-long project and send postcards to one another. As we have 110 students in 35 countries, many of whom had only just met in the preceding weeks, this provided an excellent opportunity to recreate some of what made Giorgia and Stefanie’s project so special. And it gives me great pleasure to share some examples of their work.

For one project, two of our students (Madison and Ann, who both work with Health Policy Plus), sent one another postcards every week on the following four topics:

Daily activities
Social media
Food
Emotions

These postcards are presented without commentary below, so that you can see the postcards as they did.

When asked for their reflections as part of the exercise, both Madison and Ann claimed that the process made them mindful of issues and habits that they had previously ignored, and that they were able to discern larger patterns when looking at their week as a whole. Though neither were professional information designers, their work improved over multiple iterations, as well as became a fun, inclusive process.

“Our different styles quickly became apparent and added to the reflective learning. Apparently Madison is calm and cool, and Ann is, well, a bit excitable,” said Madison.

“The involvement of friends and family was an unplanned bonus. Visualization and art attracts attention…they got drawn in (especially Ann’s 10 year-old son Harry) and got a kick out of seeing what arrived in the mail,” said Ann.

And both agreed: “Overall it was a fun challenge—we highly recommend it. Many thanks and acknowledgement to Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, the Dear Data creators”

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can better collect, visualize, and make decisions based on data, check out our 16-week Tech for Monitoring and Evaluation Online Diploma Program and enroll today. First course in the track starts September 12th.

Week 1: Days in My Work Week

Week 2: Social Media

Week 3: Food

How do you make the invisible visible? How can we keep up with our ever-changing world, and how can we utilize the technologies of our time? Upon the completion of TechChange’s Mapping for Social Good course, we have found that some answers lie within the realm of digital mapping and geospatial data collection.

From Theory to Practice

The course features four weeks of case studies and real-world map applications, a diverse set of guest speakers, and innovative tech tools to invoke critical spatial analysis with social and environmental perspectives. Each new week introduced a set of social and environmental themes. Issues such as Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene required an advanced geographic understanding of land use and climate patterns to produce meaningful maps, and cutting edge tools such as CartoDB, Mapbox, and Leaflet empowered our understanding through spatial analysis.

In search of balance, participants discussed the necessary steps in designing an attractive, efficient, and safe urban infrastructure in Abu Dhabi, and discovered the complexity of the plan. Taking into account population, available surface area, and the availability of funds and resources, the course discussion forums were flooded with professional expertise and insight in how to build infrastructure that reflects the city’s urban lifestyle.

But Data Considerations Aren’t Only About Tech

A discussion on ethics can often be overlooked in this technical environment. But in Week 3, Nathaniel Raymond of The Signal Program on Human Security and Technology led a talk that highlighted recurring challenges associated with technology and humanitarian efforts. In doing so he introduced the concept of Demographically Identifiable Information (DII) – a close relative to that of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). His message put forth “Do No Harm” caution to humanitarians, encouraging critical thought and consideration for the most vulnerable populations in our world, remembering that we both hold, yet lack, so much power with technology.

Engaging Formal and Informal Institutions

Of note was the interaction between the global volunteer community of mappers and major donor institutions. A team of geographers and cartographers from the State Department’s Humanitarian Information Unit joined the class to discuss Mapgive and Imagery to the Crowd, a program that provides satellite data to global volunteers during times of crisis, and shows just how far the digital humanitarian community has come in the past decade.

Interactivity in Online Education

Throughout the course, participants presented their digital maps, addressing fundamental questions like, “what is the purpose of this map?” and, “will it give us exactly what we need, or simply what we think we need?” We’ve seen land-use maps of Washington, DC, conflict maps tracking violence against civilians in Libya using QGIS, and district density maps using the CartoDB application.

Upon completion of the TechChange course, “Mapping for Social Good,” we hope that participants feel well-equipped with some of the best mapping resources of our time, and that they have taken their professional experiences to new and challenging levels.

About the Authors
Madeline is a student at James Madison University, where she studies Political Science, Humanitarian Affairs and Geographic Information Systems, with a special interest in Conflict Resolution and International Landmine Prevention. In her free time, she loves to bike, paint, and eat chocolate pie while listening to Dave Brubeck.

Greg works on training and analytics with the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the US Department of State. He has spent his career working at the intersection of conflict resolution, technology, and the arts. Trained as a mediator, he also worked with the Northern Virginia Mediation Service and the US Institute of Peace. As a technologist, he has leveraged Geographic Information Systems for health interventions, humanitarian response, and conflict analysis purposes. He holds an MA in International Studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Featured image credit: Andy Miah Creative Commons License

Today we had the opportunity to chat with Steve Ollis of D-tree International, who will be a guest expert for our Mobile Phones for Public Health course. Below, he discusses his experience working in the mHealth field!

Can you tell us about your background and experience in mHealth?

I came into mHealth and global health in a somewhat non-traditional way. I actually started off as an accountant and management consultant with BearingPoint, working with various US government military branches on their accounting systems. I moved into IT consulting with a focus on program management for the next six years, working at progressively smaller companies, bringing web applications to state and federal agencies and addressing issues like help desk, user training and support, and change management needed to introduce and sustain new applications in large organizations.

My career in mHealth and global health started with a few short volunteers stints in Kenya and South Africa followed by a position with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (now Clinton Health Access Initiative) for two years in Tanzania, working in pediatric HIV, commodities, lab systems and Prevention of Mother to Child (PMTCT) programs.

With this exposure to the global health world and my background in information technology, I was intrigued by the possibility of working in the mHealth space and joined D-tree International in Tanzania six years ago. I have been fortunate to work on cutting edge mobile decision support tools focusing on design, development, deployment and support. I have seen projects grow from 1-2 facility to over a hundred facilities, and 5-10 community health workers to thousands of health workers. Over the years I have also seen a dramatic price drop for Android phones from $650 t0 $80. I have worked in Tanzania, Benin, Malawi, Kenya, Sri Lanka and India as part of small and large teams, and have worked at both the community health worker and Ministry of Health levels.

How is mHealth incorporated to your work currently?

D-tree International is a health NGO that uses mobile technology to improve the care provided by frontline health workers. We are working at the government, donor, implementing partner and ground levels to develop applications and systems that support decision makers at all levels, from the community health worker and nurse level to health systems supervisors. We focus on providing mobile decision support tools to health workers, and creating health systems to provide them adequate support. We use mobile technology to improve health outcomes by developing supervisory applications, dashboards, mobile money integration for transport, vital events tracking, and point of care diagnostics.

Why do you think mHealth is important / what impact can learning about the use of mobile phones for public health have on development projects?

It is amazing to think about how we can do things more effectively and efficiently using mobile devices, including data collection, applications, closed user groups and telemedicine. At a higher level it is useful to think about how these innovations can be introduced, scaled and supported in order to create significant impact and change.

What are your thoughts on the future of mHealth, and where you think this field is heading?

We’ll see continuing availability of smartphones at all levels of society and the prices will come down further. The price of data and sms will also be reduced and connectivity will increase at greater bandwidth. These forces will allow for increasingly complex mHealth systems to be developed where data, images and video may be able to be shared even in the most remote areas. Point of care diagnostics will continue to evolve, where the prices and power requirements for certain tests will drop to a point that they become more feasible to deploy at the community level. Mobile money, vouchers and mobile insurance will also play a role as the health workers and clients become more familiar with their use in their day to day lives. Power and lack of unique identifiers will remain significant challenges, but innovative solutions should be available soon in areas where we work.

We believe mHealth skills have the potential to make a huge impact in your work. Why do you think taking this class is important, and who would you recommend it to (public health professionals, field workers, etc etc).

This course provides a great overview of different types of mobile technologies and mHealth projects in addition to providing a unique opportunity to connect with a community of implementers and experts in the field. It will also provide some guidance around processes and structures required to include a successful mHealth component to a project. I am a firm believer in the potential of mHealth to radically transform the current state of healthcare. Everyone from policy makers to healthcare workers need to think about how we can use these tools to save lives and help people live healthier, happier lives.

Any advice for someone who wants to make a career in mHealth?

There are many opportunities available for people from all backgrounds. There is a need for people not only with health and technology skills, but also with sociology, anthropology, finance and business, project management and analytics skills. I think it’s important to be conversant in the technology, but to keep exploring these other areas which are critical to the work we are all doing to introduce and support game changing innovation in health systems for the good of the communities we serve.

About Steve
Steve is D-tree’s Chief Operating Officer with over 20 years experience in management consulting, information technology and public health. Steve holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from The American University and a Master’s in Business Administration in Information Systems and Finance from the University of Maryland. He is also a certified Project Management Professional. Prior to joining D-tree, Steve worked for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative in Tanzania directing programs in Pediatrics, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, and Rural Care and Treatment.