Technological innovation for social change in the Global South

AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE ON ICT4D
Social networks to empower human rights activists, mobile phones to support health workers, digital maps to respond to humanitarian crises, solar power to produce energy purchasable with mobile money. Are you avid to learn how to use technologies to improve lives? This is the course for you: apply now! Scholarships and discounts available.

*English will be the working language.

The last decade has seen a proliferation of initiatives aimed at leveraging technological innovations to tackle development issues. The aid-for-development sector can benefit a lot from the use of ICTs, not only to speed up the process of social change in the Global South, but also to become more efficient, effective and transparent. However, technology is not a silver bullet and development actors need to be aware of ICTs’ potential advantages and disadvantages, as well as of the facilitating and hindering factors to their fruitful exploitation. The high rate of failure of ICT4D projects testifies how challenging it is to integrate all these aspects effectively in a sustainable way.

The online course Technological innovation for social change in the Global South aims to assist NGOs and civil society organizations in understanding:
1. why ICTs are important for development initiatives
2. how they can be an integrated in them, both strategically and practically.

The course revolves around the following topics:
– conceptual frameworks to understand the role of information and of ICTs in the development process
– appropriate and sustainable ICTs
– e-capacity development and human-centered design
– ICTs for agriculture and water
– ICTs for health
– ICTs for education
– ICTs for humanitarian emergencies
– ICTs for democracy & online activism
– ICTs for mapping (i.e. GIS & GPS technologies)
– ICTs for monitoring & evaluation
– ICTs for financial inclusion (i.e. Mobile banking)

The course will benefit anyone operating in international settings in development, humanitarian aid and human rights: development practitioners, researchers and students. There are no formal prerequisites for this course, nevertheless proof of a strong and pragmatic interest in ICT4D will be requested to all candidates, who will undergo a thorough selection process. English being the working language, all participants are required to understand spoken English as well as read and write it comfortably.

The course consists of 12 modules, with a variable number of sessions per module. Every session lasts about 90 minutes.

You will be required to attend live online sessions (also called webconference or webinar), during which you will have the opportunity to interact with the webinar leader and other participants via chat, webcam and microphone.

Webinars will be conducted by a highly qualified ICT4D expert for each of the course topics. Such experts are practitioners and academics from different countries, who will remain available for asynchronous interactions via email on a ad hoc Google+ community.

At the end of each module there will be a summary session moderated by a course facilitator to discuss the exercises and share thoughts about the module.

Modules are divided into two learning elements. Specifically, they provide participants with:

1. conceptual frameworks to understand the role and the effective impact of ICTs in the development process

2. knowledge and tools to help in the effective planning, development, implementation and management of ICTD initiatives.

The course has a strong collaborative nature, including activities such as peer-reviews and discussion groups to facilitate learning and knowledge exchange. In order to receive the attendance certificate by Ong 2.0 in collaboration with our partner academic institutions, participants will be required to plan an ICT4D project ideally applicable in their work environment, which will be evaluated by the relevant experts.

In partnership with:

Università degli Studi di Torino, University of Oxford – PCMLP, Politecnico di Torino – CRD PVS, Swansea University, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, GISMAP, CSP

Developed under the Ong 2.0 AID 10111 framework, thanks to the support of the following organizations: Foreign Affair Minister, CISV, ACCRI, ADP, CELIM, COPE, EsseGiElle, LVIA, OVCI. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this website are solely those of the promoters and do not necessarily represent those of the Foreign Affair Minister.