Access to digital innovations – from SMS advice services to digital networks that connect women in agribusiness – is enabling women to participate in formal agricultural value chains and improve their livelihoods. SPORE is the quarterly magazine of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), offering a global perspective on agribusiness and sustainable agriculture. CTA operates under the Cotonou Agreement between the countries of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union and is financed by the EU.
Measuring the Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for the Future provides new insights into the state of the digital transformation by mapping indicators across a range of areas – from education and innovation, to trade and economic and social outcomes – against current digital policy issues, as presented in Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives.
Almost all economies have, or are at least starting to, understand the significance of examining and mainstreaming gender issues in the world of work. Sociocultural evolution and various other factors have helped these developments, but there is still so much more work to be done. Technology has played a substantial role in decreasing the gender divide as more households than ever before have access to technology, and the revolution of access to information across most societies has become gender neutral and empowering. While technology can hold the potential to significantly expand the job market and open opportunities for all job seekers, questions surrounding automation and availability of jobs and the accessibility to secure the necessary qualifications and education needed to fill paid jobs rage on, especially when examining those who are typically marginalized. Gender Perspectives on Industry 4.0 and the Impact of Technology on Mainstreaming Female Employment discusses gender perspective and its impact on the fourth industrial revolution, particularly in the realm of employment structure, and analyzes the impact of technology on mainstreaming women in paid employment. In the present environment, organizations are beginning to realize the importance of looking more critically at their workforce and structure and how to better cater to the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement while also productively managing the advancement of new technologies. Covering topics such as sustainable development and the future of work, it is ideal for policymakers, practitioners, professionals, consultants, managers, researchers, academicians, educators, and students.
In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.
This report aims to identify the different scenarios where the process of digital transformation is taking place in agriculture. This identifies those aspects of basic conditions, such as those of infrastructure and networks, affordability, education and institutional support. In addition, enablers are identified, which are the factors that allow adopting and integrating changes in the production and decision-making processes. Finally identify through cases, existing literature and reports how substantive changes are taking place in the adoption of digital technologies in agriculture.
There are fewer grounds today than in the past to deplore a North‑South divide in research and innovation. This is one of the key findings of the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030. A large number of countries are now incorporating science, technology and innovation in their national development agenda, in order to make their economies less reliant on raw materials and more rooted in knowledge. Most research and development (R&D) is taking place in high-income countries, but innovation of some kind is now occurring across the full spectrum of income levels according to the first survey of manufacturing companies in 65 countries conducted by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and summarized in this report. For many lower-income countries, sustainable development has become an integral part of their national development plans for the next 10–20 years. Among higher-income countries, a firm commitment to sustainable development is often coupled with the desire to maintain competitiveness in global markets that are increasingly leaning towards ‘green’ technologies. The quest for clean energy and greater energy efficiency now figures among the research priorities of numerous countries. Written by more than 50 experts who are each covering the country or region from which they hail, the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 provides more country-level information than ever before. The trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy and governance between 2009 and mid-2015 described here provide essential baseline information on the concerns and priorities of countries that could orient the implementation and drive the assessment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the years to come.
An inclusive, digitally-enabled agricultural transformation could help achieve meaningful livelihood improvements for Africa’s smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It could drive greater engagement in agriculture from women and youth and create employment opportunities along the value chain. At CTA we staked a claim on this power of digitalisation to more systematically transform agriculture early on. Digitalisation, focusing on not individual ICTs but the application of these technologies to entire value chains, is a theme that cuts across all of our work. In youth entrepreneurship, we are fostering a new breed of young ICT ‘agripreneurs’. In climate-smart agriculture multiple projects provide information that can help towards building resilience for smallholder farmers. And in women empowerment we are supporting digital platforms to drive greater inclusion for women entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains.
The development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to expand opportunities for the achievement of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including gender equality. Taking a closer look at the intersection of gender and technology, this collaboration between UNESCO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) examines the effects of AI on the working lives of women. This report describes the challenges and opportunities presented by the use of emerging technology such as AI from a gender perspective. The report highlights the need for more focus and research on the impacts of AI on women and the digital gender gap, in order to ensure that women are not left behind in the future of work.
This report identifies seven policy dimensions that allow governments – together with citizens, firms and stakeholders – to shape digital transformation to improve lives. It also highlights key opportunities, challenges and policies related to each dimension, offers new insights, evidence and analysis, and provides recommendations for better policies in the digital age.
Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process causes (or may cause) the autonomy of various labor functions, and its impact in creating (or stymieing) various job opportunities on the labor market. This book also seeks to illuminate what actors/groups are mostly benefited by the digitalization/digital transformation and which actors/groups that are put at risk by it. This book takes its point of departure from a 2016 OECD report that contends that the impact digitalization has on the future of labor is ambiguous, as on the one hand it is suggested that technological change is labor-saving, but on the other hand, it is suggested that digital technologies have not created new jobs on a scale that it replaces old jobs. Another 2018 OECD report indicated that digitalization and automation as such does not pose a real risk of destroying any significant number of jobs for the foreseeable future, although tasks would by and large change significantly. This would affects welfare, as most of its revenue stems from taxation, and particularly so from the taxation on labor (directly or indirectly). For this reason, this book will set out to explore how the future technological and societal advancements impact labor conditions. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching and controversial take on how various aspects of the labor market can be (and are) affected the ongoing digitalization trend in a way that is not covered by extant literature. As such, this book intends to cater to a wider readership, from a general audience and students, to specialized professionals and academics wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the possible future developments of the labor market in light of an accelerating digitalization/digital transformation of society at large.
