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From Simple Fixes to Systemic Enablers: The Future of Digital Development

Brighton: Institute of Development Studies (IDS) (2018), 16 pp.

CC BY

"Far too often the implicit theory of change in digital developments, as with technology for development more generally, is that importing technologies can fix development. This does not acknowledge the political and social transformations that are needed to address and overcome economic and power asymmetries. Although understandable, the focus on simple fixes places too great an emphasis on the visible aspects of technology, which, at best, provide incremental gains in developmental terms. This leads to less attention on the less visible but fundamental aspects of capacity, skills and institutions, where arguably the potential for transformational development gains truly lie. The most significant digital development gains - as with technology for change more generally - have involved a dynamic interplay between technological developments and institutional change." (Page 15)