Together with actors from the field of digitalization and health, GIZ launched the project Digital Innovation in Pandemic Control (DIPC). Initially, Digital Pandemic Preparedness Assessments (DPPA) will be conducted in five countries to capture digital tools in pandemic control. Based on this, a COVID-19 digital health accelerator will be set up together with the WFP Innovation Accelerator to support initiatives in scaling up and implementation. In addition, a COVID-19 Coordination and Advisory Unit (DICE) will be established in cooperation with international partner and donor organizations in the health sector. 

Via a digital platform, the start-up iDocta aims to provide vulnerable parts of the population in Cameroon with access to healthcare services. Especially in times of COVID-19, telemedicine offers a much-needed solution with distance diagnostics and information. BMZ's develoPPP programme supports the local telecommunication enterprise Ringo SA in scaling the start-up and idea of iDocta to sustainably strengthen the health sector in Cameroon. To date, develoPPP successfully implemented over 2000 public private partnerships in developing and emerging countries.

In Kenya, only 1% of the 4 Mio. people with disabilities have a permanent job. At the same time, IT companies often lack qualified personnel. In the Bridge Academy project, GIZ’s Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) programme and the NGO Sightsavers train young people with disabilities in cybersecurity. Qualified graduates are placed as interns in IT companies such as Safaricom.

As part of the Promoting Innovative Financial Inclusion Programme (PIFIP), KfW is supporting digitalisation in the financial sector in Indonesia on behalf of BMZ. The programme uses a variety of digital approaches to support the inclusion of previously disadvantaged population groups in the Indonesian financial sector. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help crop forecasts contribute quickly and reliably to food security in Africa. However, for accurate AI-based crop forecasts, models need to be trained by and fed with special data sets. That is why BMZ is working with the Radiant Earth Foundation to improve access to local AI training data in Africa. To do so, open satellite data of agricultural and crop land will be combined with local site observations. Thus, the wealth of satellite imagery can be used for sustainable development.

“The Orange Digital Center contributes to Ethiopia's digital transformation while creating local employment prospects for young people. It demonstrates Germany’s and the EU’s commitment to promote inclusive and human-centred digitalisation worldwide”, said German Ambassador Stephan Auer at the opening of the center in Ethiopia. Supported by BMZ's develoPPP programme, Orange Digital Centres will be set up in fourteen countries in Africa and the Middle East by the end of 2021. The goal is to train, coach and mentor 20,000 young people in digital skills and to bring them into jobs.

A new publication by the World Bank Group investigates how digital technologies can accelerate the transformation of the agrifood system and shows how the public sector is needed to maximize the benefits of this process while minimizing its risks.

Digitalisation is creating new civic spaces online. Here, human rights such as freedom of expression can be exercised when they are suppressed offline. However, these online spaces are also increasingly under pressure. A recent report analyses the techniques behind the openings and closures of online civic spaces in ten African countries.

The UNCTAD Technology and Innovation Report 2021 reveals that the world’s least developed countries are unprepared to tap into the $350 billion frontier technology market – a challenge that needs to be addressed to prevent widening existing inequalities.

In this report, the UNCTAD eTrade for all group (eT4a) assesses the impact of the pandemic on e-commerce in various regions of the world – and points out how e-commerce can play a positive and powerful role in national and international recovery efforts.