ICTD InfoBank: A Knowledge Sharing Portal on ICTD for the Asia-Pacific region

Written by policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, the book’s 21 chapters emphasize that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic provides an opportunity to build education systems that are stronger and more equitable. The book discusses closing the digital gap, improving learning assessment, financing technological innovations, providing students with access to hardware, and ensuring teachers and students know how to maximize the technology.

UAS technologies such as drones are increasingly being used to automate the planning, building, and maintenance of energy facilities around the world. The effectiveness of UAS and digital technologies are transforming energy sector operations to be faster, safer, and more cost-efficient. This working paper introduces UAS and discusses the latest technological developments, current applications, and potential for adoption in ADB’s developing member countries.

In an increasingly digitalized economy and society, the security and accountability of data transactions are critical elements for creating trust and enabling breakthrough innovations in the digital world. In this regard, blockchain technology could be a game-changer, with the potential to revolutionize processes from finance to pharmaceutical industries, from government public services to humanitarian work and development aid. The blockchain serves as the base technology for cryptocurrency, enabling open (peer-to-peer), secure and fast transactions.

The Commodities and Development Report 2021: Escaping from the Commodity Dependence Trap through Technology and Innovation starts by exploring the extent to which commodity dependent developing countries are trapped into commodity dependence and, as a result, how their economic structures are weakened by this situation. What the role of technology could be in helping commodity dependent developing countries to diversify their economies and escape from the commodity dependence trap is then analyzed.

Although still considered frontier or emerging, the eight technologies covered by this report offer real and innovative solutions to meet the needs of the world’s population, while addressing some of the needs of our planet. Introducing these technologies could bring about concrete results for city authorities and for local populations. Furthermore, ensuring the affordable and wide-scale deployment of AI and IoT in particular will spur further advancements in and wider adoption of all other frontier technologies to combat climate change.

Digital solutions have been the signature of Southeast Asia’s response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). Technologies used during the crisis have helped address a wide spectrum of problems, supporting public health efforts, public communication, and economic and social policies. This policy brief explores how ASEAN countries have leveraged digital technologies to fight COVID-19 and investigates the roles of governments, local technology ecosystems, and citizens in deploying such solutions.

The document is intended to provide guidance on designing and developing e-learning-based solutions for trainers and instructional designers who are new to e-learning design. The guide also provides basic concepts and information on the processes and resources involved in e-learning development, which may be of interest to human resource (HR) and capacity-development managers.

While the six member countries have made impressive gains in recent decades, much remains to be done to close the gap with the world’s most advanced economies. The GMS needs to further integrate into the global economy, significantly upgrade production and exports, enable cities to be engines of growth, and improve the quality of road infrastructure and connectivity.

Soon after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments began extending financial and other forms of support to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and their workers because smaller firms are more vulnerable to negative shocks to their supply chain, labor supply, and final demand for goods and services than larger firms. Since MSMEs are diverse, however, the severity of the pandemic’s impact on them varies considerably depending on their characteristics.

In this current era of the fourth industrial revolution, both the negative and positive effects of financial inclusion raise the question of whether digital finance can be a solution for financial stability by attaining sustainable economic growth or not.