Responding to New Technologies
To enable poor people to assess and respond to the challenges of new technologies, and to develop, adapt and adopt applications that improve their livelihoods. We will:
- Enable poor people to assess the opportunities and threats presented by new technologies
- Identify and test potential opportunities for poverty reduction presented by new technologies
- Ensure that policies, regulations and institutions are favourable to poor people and can be influenced by poor people themselves.
Nanodialogues
In 2006, researchers from Demos, Practical Action and the University of Lancaster (UK) collaborated on a process designed to engage Zimbabwean community groups and scientists from both the North and South in debates about new (nano) technologies. A stakeholder panel workshop was held in Harare, July 2006. The dialogue is one of four experiments, collectively referred to as the nano-dialogues, in public engagement with nanotechnologies, funded by the Office of Science and Technology’s Sciencewise programme. Sciencewise was created to foster interaction between scientists, government and the public on impacts of science and technology. More ...
More about Practical Action's international Responding to New Technologies programme
Completed projects
Second Voice
A cheap, but advanced piece of communications technology allows isolated communities to receive and share information simply and easily.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Sustainable Livelihoods
This project sought to help the small enterprise sector get access to business information. The study resulted in the setting up of a pilot project to make information accessible to the small-producer sector in the form of the Business InfoBus.
