Lessons Learned from the 10th ICT4D Conference

The 10^th ICT4D Conference took place in Lusaka, Zambia, on May 8-10, with 827 attendees from 79 countries who exchanged innovations and good practice in the use of digital technology in relief and development programs. The Conference included discussions around the shift from big data to responsible data, including the challenges of data security and ethics. Panelists and presenters also shared case studies of achieving excellence in the use of ICT4D, and debated how to design and implement new emerging technologies.

This webinar, part of an ongoing series around ICT4D, will summarize some of the lessons learned, key messages, and aims to continue the discussion. Specifically, this webinar will look at ICT innovations in agriculture, health, education, humanitarian response, and financial inclusion.

The conference partners will share insights on:

• Answers to the question: What are the main ICT trends and their impact/opportunities?;
• Exciting new innovations and initiatives;
• What makes an ICT4D project successful? Human-centered design, establish systems and not just applications, potential to copy or scale, partnerships and collaborations;
• What are the main barriers to using ICT4D? How are organizations (or the ICT4D community) addressing those?

Speakers

Moderator

Speaker Bios

Maria Berenguer, Global ICT4D Advisor, SOS Children's Villages International

Maria Berenguer has been working in SOS Children’s Villages since 2011 leading the area of ICT4D (information and communication technology for development). Responsible of the strategic development of this area, she is in charge of supporting the different SOS country offices in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of ICT4D projects. Her main goal: to drive the organisation in the integration of ICT to increase performance, optimize costs and positively impact the lives of children and communities globally. Now, she is also leading the global initiative, YouthLinks, which objective is to boost young people’s employability skills through the technology support. 
Maria worked during 6 years in Senegal closely supporting the countries in Africa and Middle East in project implementation and she also worked in the Spanish Embassy in the country as marketing and institutional communication advisor.

Uloma Ogba, Project & Knowledge Manager, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Uloma Ogba is a Project & Knowledge Management Specialist for the MM4P program of the United Nations Capital Development Fund based in Lusaka, Zambia. The program is focused on advanced digital financial inclusion through an ecosystem approach that simultaneously addresses the challenges and opportunities facing all the DFS stakeholders involved. Uloma has a B.Sc. in Physics from Benedict College and a M.Sc. in Medical Informatics from the University of Amsterdam as well as a Certificate in Digital Money from the Digital Frontiers Institute & The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. Prior to joining UNCDF, Uloma worked as a Research Analyst for a global health NGO, PharmAccess where one of her focal areas was studying how mobile technology could be leveraged to improve healthcare financing and delivery. Uloma is also the co-founder of the NGO Give Girls A Chance that is focused on improving access to quality education for girls from low-income communities across Nigeria.  A true global citizen that calls both Canada and Nigeria home, Uloma enjoys travelling, exploring new cultures and meeting new people.

Stephen Hellen, Director ICT4D & GIS, Catholic Relief Services

Steve Hellen has nearly 20 years of IT experience. He joined CRS in 2012 and leads the agency’s ICT4D and GIS practice. In 2016 he led an update of CRS' ICT4D strategy to focus on data analytics, scale and enabling programs & partners. Steve has supported a variety of large-scale digital initiatives at CRS. These include: leading the rollout of the agency’s worldwide project portfolio platform; implementing mobile data collection platforms used by hundreds of projects; supporting programs each using thousands of mobile devices; and assisting teams with advanced data analytics in programs serving hundreds of thousands to millions of people.

Prior to joining CRS, Steve served as an IT Director at Johns Hopkins University. He taught computer science courses at Loyola University and an undergraduate GIS course at Hopkins. He began his career at Accenture. Steve holds a Master’s in environmental science and policy, a Bachelor’s in engineering science and a graduate certificate in GIS.

Giacomo Rambaldi, Senior Programme Coordinator, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

Giacomo Rambaldi is Sr. Programme Coordinator ICTs at the Technical Centre for Agricultural & Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in Wageningen, NDL. He has 35 years of professional experience in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean where he worked for various international organizations including FAO and ADB and on projects funded by the Italian Aid to Development and the EC. He holds a degree in agricultural sciences from the State University of Milan, Italy.

At present Giacomo is coordinating CTA’s global project on ICT for Agriculture (ICT4Ag) and a stream of activities related to the deployment of drone technology in agriculture. Giacomo has been leading Social Media capacity building activities at CTA and earned worldwide recognition for his work as recipient of the 2013 WSIS Project Prize in the category E-Agriculture. He also leads activities in the domain of participatory GIS. One of his projects earned CTA the 2007 World Summit Award in the category e-culture.

Chetna Chawla, Technology Director, DAI Global Health

Chetna Chawla has more than 20 years' experience in technology consulting with experience in delivering high impact e-Governance programs. She has experience in health informatics solutions for USG, UNICEF, ADB and Word Bank programs. She served as Program Director to USG’s Health Information Policy and Advocacy Project in Cambodia, strengthening the quality and relevance of health data available for decision-making and supporting the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC)’s Decentralization and Deconcentration (D & D) initiative. Led various national level strategic and health initiatives in India in rural health, AIDS, leprosy, malaria covering program implementation, IT-enabled reporting and monitoring tools including HIS, dashboards, GIS and mobile interventions. Was involved with several Central and State Level Health Departments in defining their strategy, and roadmap and interoperability between various health systems.

Daniel Coughlin, Director of ICT, International Rescue Committee

Daniel Coughlin works with partners and colleagues across the International Rescue Committee to conceive, design, implement and support sustainable technology solutions for programs. Prior to joining the IRC in April of 2011, Daniel spent over ten years working in software product management. He has worked in Government, eCommerce, telecommunications, digital media, and mobile industries. He is deeply committed to using his expertise develop technologies that effectively respond to humanitarian needs and complexities.

Collateral

• Webinar_Slides_Lessons_Learned_from_the_10th_ICT4D_Conference.pdf