Climate action:
Amid the lack of e-waste regulations, statistics show that Bangladesh generates 2.8 million tonnes of e-waste per year.
The Filipino company Globe Telecom has set up over 100 e-waste collection points in the Philippines.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) announced collaboration to develop a digital meeting platform for climate change events.
Development:
Egypt’s Benya Capital and the Congolese Post and Telecommunications Company (SCPT) signed an agreement to install 16,000 km of optical fiber across DR Congo.
The European Union will allocate €82.5 million for six digital and space technology programmes in Africa.
The International Trade Center’s (ITC) report Business and Policy Insights: Mapping E-Marketplaces in Africa explores the potential of Africa’s e-commerce landscape, and guides policymakers by targeting and shaping their efforts on online marketplaces.
According to Statista, the highest e-commerce penetration rate in 2020 was in the UK. Some 84% of the UK’s population made at least one online purchase last year. The USA and Japan follow suit with 77% of their respective populations having used online purchasing. Countries from the Global South feature at the lower end of the scale with less than 50% of the population in Brazil and India having used e-commerce services in 2020. Differences in e-commerce take-up can also be observed across Europe, with western European countries, namely Germany (74%) and France (71%), performing better than southern European countries such as Spain (60%) and Italy (55%).
Digital health:
Kenya has announced the launch of the Trusted Travel platform that allows for verification of COVID-19 test results.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched its online SMART Guidelines in order to speed up the application of recommended health interventions in the digital age.
E-governance:
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a five-year e-governance financing project estimated at US$10.9 million in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The government of Benin plans to hire contractors to initiate its ePassport project.
Food security:
The German agricultural company BASF Digital Farming, together with VanderSat, is the first company to provide the agricultural sector with access to scalable, daily biomass satellite images.
Delhaize Serbia and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched the digital platform Plate by Plate to facilitate food donations.
World Bank released a new report ‘What’s Cooking: Digital Transformation of the Agrifood System’ that addresses how digital technologies could help improve food systems and presents a roadmap for countries to boost their efforts on digital agriculture.
Gender equality:
The African Development Bank issued a grant of US$320,000 to the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) in order to mainstream gender in the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) core digital financial services regulatory frameworks.
CNN has initiated a three-year digital project ‘As Equals’ to tackle gender inequality issues including period poverty and online abuse in developing countries.
According to a Roland Berger study conducted in 82 countries, digital inclusion is highest in Singapore, followed by two Scandinavian countries – Sweden and Denmark. Basing itself on four variables, namely, accessibility, affordability, ability and attitude, the survey highlights that socio-economically disadvantaged individuals stand the greatest risk of digital exclusion. Regional breakdown as per the four categories shows that Europe, with a score of 78/100, ranks first in terms of digital inclusion. North America and the Asia-Pacific follow suit with 77 and 68 respectively. Digital inclusion is lowest in the Sub-Saharan African region where the overall score was estimated at 45.
Humanitarian:
Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, in collaboration with Microsoft and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) launched a digital learning platform ‘Learning Passport’ to facilitate access to education to displaced and refugee children.
Migration:
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Somalia has initiated a project that supports the deployment of ‘telemedicine’ in Somalia’s health system for migrants and host communities.
The German civil rights group Society for Civil Rights stated that the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) breached the right to privacy of thousands of asylum seekers by analysing their cell-phone data.
Mixed Migration Center (MMC) has developed a portal ‘4Mi Interactive’ containing data on refugee and migrants’ experiences of COVID-19.
Water management:
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), together with the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, developed an open online course on programming for geospatial hydrology applications.