Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, minister of finance of Indonesia; and Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of Econet, joined forces on Thursday Jan 25th to launch Pathways for Prosperity: Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development.
The launch, which took place at the Nairobi innovation space iHub, coincided with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where global leaders gathered to discuss the importance of creating a “shared future in a fractured world.” The commission emphasized the need for the global conversation to include the role of technology in driving progress and inclusion in developing countries.
The new commission, led by the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, brings together a diverse range of leaders from government, business and academia to focus on the impact on developing countries of frontier technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, energy generation and storage, and biotechnology. The commission will provide evidence and analysis, along with concrete policy recommendations, to help developing country governments navigate this rapidly evolving landscape.
“As an entrepreneur, technology underpins everything I do, and I am fascinated by what is coming down the line. But I know that there are also potential pitfalls and risks,” said Strive Masiyiwa. “This commission gives us a way of working together to understand how to harness technology for good, use it to enhance opportunities for all and drive inclusive growth.”
The Blavatnik School’s Stefan Dercon, former chief economist of the UK Department for International Development (DfID), and Benno Ndulu, former governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania, will lead the commission as its academic directors. Other commissioners include Kamal Bhattacharya, CIO of Safaricom; Shanta Devarajan, senior director for development economics at the World Bank; Minister Sigrid Kaag, minister for foreign trade and development cooperation of the Netherlands; Nadiem Makarim, founder and CEO of Go-Jek; Maria Ramos, CEO of Barclays Africa Group; Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT; and Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO of Tala.
The commission the launch was the first of several events that will be held around the world over the next two years. Each meeting will focus on different thematic issues and countries, with the common aim of helping governments in developing countries take advantage of the opportunities technology brings.
“The world has made incredible progress over the past 25 years, with the number of people living in extreme poverty being halved to about 800 million,” said Stefan Dercon. “Whether this positive trend continues depends in large part on how we respond to the new forces shaping our world, specifically rapid technological change.”
