Why should you attend the 12th ICT4D Conference?

The 12th ICT4D Conference is coming to West Africa April 21 – 23, 2020, Abuja, Nigeria.

Here’s why you should attend.

The ICT4D Conference is where the global digital development community builds the future.

Since the inception of the ICT4D Conference, thousands of participants have used this forum as an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day details of their own programs and projects to showcase their work and learn from colleagues’ experiences while engaging in cross-sector discussions on innovation in digital development.

For 2020, the 12th ICT4D Conference will bring together 800+ development and humanitarian professionals – program and country managers from myriad disciplines, technical experts, representatives of governmental, non-governmental and private sector organizations, and individuals from countries across the globe. See more detail about the audience profile here:

Global tech, local good.

The conference, which for past several sessions has taken place in low or low/middle income countries as defined by the World Bank, offers a variety of session formats to promote interaction and learning. Take part in sessions to help develop local leadership and capacity building where speakers and attendees share tales of success and failure in open and enthusiastic discussions. Attending the ICT4D Conference helps bring deeper analytical insight to assist decision making in your organization to plan response and assess interventions.

Nora Lindstrom, Global Lead for Digital Development at Plan International and Track lead for Digital Development and Diversity observes, “The ICT4D Conference brings together practitioners. It’s about really diving into what works – and what doesn’t – on the ground, in the field, where access to electricity is patchy and access to the internet often even worse. What can tech do in these circumstances? How do we use tech in these contexts? And how to we empower locals to benefit from tech in low resource settings? The ICT4D Conference is a fantastic opportunity for those engaged in these very practical, real questions to share and learn from each other.”

A good example is how tech is helping to close the finance gap for smallholders in agriculture. Shaun Ferris, Technical Director Agriculture and Livelihoods, Catholic Relief Services, lead on the Agriculture track explains, “Smallholder farmers across the world are always seeking ways to improve their production and market access to raise incomes. But, there is a significant hurdle to jump, farmers can’t finance new production methods. Tech is enabling more farmers with links to markets but MUCH more needs to be done to enable farmers to access affordable, tailored finance. In the Ag Track at the ICT4D conference this year, we want to explore how different agencies, companies and NGO’s are using tech to de-risk agriculture, and make agriculture a more attractive investment opportunity.”

The 12th ICT4D Conference takes place in Nigeria, West Africa where many programs and end users are based. This year’s conference offers a unique, hands-on opportunity to:

• Participate in multisectoral and cross functional learning to help you accelerate progress toward the SDGs and apply the Principles for Digital Development
• Hear from 200+ speakers and enhance your ICT4D skills, tools and resources
• Select from 150+ sessions, including high level plenary sessions, technical discussion groups, case studies, and training workshops
• Make an impact – engage and collaborate with 800+ colleagues from civil society, public and private sectors to promote sustainable change, and build community and organizational capacity
• Take away your own action plan to help you get digital technologies to program participants
• Build a network for ongoing sharing of expertise and good practice
• Explore ICT4D innovations and technologies including digital ID, data privacy and ethics, Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality, measurement and evaluation tools.

 
Conference tracks for 2020 include: Agriculture, Digital Diversity (Gender and Disability), Digital Financial Inclusion, Education and Digital Literacy, Health and Nutrition, Humanitarian Response and Resilience, Responsible Data and Information Security, Supply Chain Management, Water Security and WASH.

Last year almost 1000 attendees from over 80 countries attended the 11th ICT4D Conference in Kampala, Uganda. In his closing remarks , the Honourable Frank Tumwebaze, Uganda’s minister for Information and Communication Technology & National Guidance of Uganda called for better collaboration to make technology affordable to everyone: “How do we best reduce the cost of IT (Information Technology) services to accelerate development in Africa especially IT Infrastructure and Internet? Can the cost of internet be made affordable like a bottle of water?”

Scott LeFevre, Director of Health, Social Services & Education at Catholic Relief Services says, “The power of digital solutions to increase efficiencies, strengthen effectiveness and scale up services is changing the landscape of healthcare delivery to poor and marginalized households we serve around the world. It is essential that we strengthen our learning, dialogue, coordination and decision-making, and the ICT4D conference serves as a key space for healthcare leaders, public officials, experts, private sector actors and practitioners to exchange ideas, learn from one another and strengthen and form new relationships.”

The 12th ICT4D Conference takes place under one roof in the Sheraton Abuja Hotel. Once you arrive onsite you will have easy access to all the conference sessions and networking activities without having to leave the venue. Take time to explore the exhibit area where international sponsors mix with local and regional entrepreneurs. Discover the demonstration stage where presenters are challenged to highlight the key features of their ICT4D innovation in 8-minute ‘bites’. Dive deeper into key challenges in small, informal discussion groups and roundtables.

You may also register for the separately bookable Training Day sessions taking place on April 24. Gain in-depth based updates and insights to complement and enhance your existing skillsets. Proposed training workshops will include: Advanced CommCare training, Data Protection and Information security, DHIS2 and interoperability of HIS, AI training and more. Details to follow soon.

We look forward to meeting you and your colleagues in Abuja, Nigeria in April 2020!

Led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Conference is co-organized by international and regional partners, including: Chemonics, DAI Global, DT Global, Mercy Corps, NetHope, Plan International, Water and Energy for Food Grand Challenge (WE4F), and World Vision International.