Third Annual Workshop on Increasing Research Impact: Inclusive Digital Development

From July 19 to 21, 2021, USAID and UKRI hosted a joint workshop that focused on identifying research gaps and questions to inform future research agendas and promote inclusive digital development. The workshop engaged experts in academia and in practice who identified areas where more translational research is needed to promote equitable and just digital development around the world. The workshop narrowed the potential workshop topics to three themes: Broadening Perspectives, Addressing Harms, and Identifying Levers of Change. These themes revealed that while there is substantial research on implementing digital technology for development, there are still crucial gaps in our knowledge of how to center people in this implementation and how to integrate public, private, nonprofit, and academic expertise in a manner that produces just and equitable outcomes while mitigating unintended harms. Under the Broadening Perspectives theme, the participants explored how cross-cultural differences in conceptions of fairness, inclusion, and equity shape digital ecosystems and the innovation that occurs within them. Key research topics discussed under this theme include reimagining inclusion, dimensions of digital inclusion, and public policy on inclusive digital development. Some of the key research questions identified under this theme include how communities can be included in decision-making and development, what factors drive self-exclusion, inadvertent exclusion, and deliberate exclusion, and what are the consequences of imposing outside notions of fairness on a community. Under the Addressing Harms theme, the participants explored how the use, experience, and consequences of digital technologies vary across intersecting marginalized groups and brainstormed solutions for maximizing benefits and minimizing harms. Key research topics discussed under this theme include inequality, ownership and inclusion of data, and digital resilience. Some of the key research questions identified under this theme include what approaches to digital technology interventions mitigate inequalities, are there types of technological interventions that are more society-friendly and humane, and how can research funders and project donors create incentives for genuine participatory approaches to understanding potential harms and inequities of digital technology. Under the Identifying Levers of Change theme, the participants considered how stakeholders in digital ecosystems—communities, civil society, researchers, private sector, and government—produce and use evidence for inclusive innovation. This could include norm-building, local capacity development, policy interventions, and implementation practices to increase inclusivity, transparency, and accountability vis-à-vis digital technologies. Key research topics discussed under this theme include facilitating participatory innovations and development practices and emerging challenges. Some of the key research questions identified under this theme include how communities can be effectively engaged and included in decision-making and development, how can we identify digital development outperformers and champions and diffuse their good practices, and how can we better understand donor incentives and shape their coordination mechanisms. The report recognizes that some of the research gaps and questions came up and are articulated in more than one category. The most significant area of crossover was in the critical need to engage with communities and groups that are the targeted population for digital inclusion. The other significant crossover research gap was in identifying key actors and their relationships in digital development and inclusivity. It was clear from this workshop that expertise and goodwill is in abundance, and there is robust existing research on digital strategies for development. However, with such a complex set of variables that are constantly changing, and the challenges inherent in international development, there remain key areas in need of mixed-methods research for positive impact. Furthermore, technological change is so rapid that ongoing evaluation and research will be needed to continue addressing inclusivity, the expansion of benefits, and the reduction of harm.