Today is American Thanksgiving, and I’d like to give thanks to Tony Roberts, for his post from 2016: Let a Thousand ICT4D Blogs Bloom. It looked at the leading digital development blogs of that time.
Reading that post recently, I was stuck by how many of those blogs no longer published and how those that still do (like this one) have changed in the last few years. So I looked around for who is still publishing and who started in the 9 years since that post.
Top 15 Digital Development Blogs
These 15 blogs collectively demonstrate that effective digital development in 2025 requires navigating tensions between innovation and safeguards, universal platforms and local contexts, optimism and critical analysis.
Who did I miss? Tell me in the comments!
The most influential voices combine deep domain expertise with willingness to question assumptions, challenge power structures, and center marginalized voices.
For example, ICT4D leaders need to:
- Read ICTworks for new trends and effective approaches, but also read Appropriating Technology’s critiques of those same concepts.
- Follow the World Bank blog for institutional priorities, yet engage with Linda Raftree, who challenges overly vague frameworks.
- Track LIRNEasia’s rigorous policy research alongside GenderIT’s feminist analysis of who controls infrastructure.
As a community, we’ve moved beyond naive techno-optimism to grapple with complex questions about power, inequality, and whose interests technology serves. We evolved toward critical reflexivity, systems thinking, decolonial perspectives, and responsible innovation represents maturity.
| Blog name | Focus area | Audience | Frequency |
| ICTworks | Broad coverage of digital development: education, health, agriculture, innovation, AI, with practitioner case studies and critiques | NGOs, donors, implementers, policy-makers, academics | 3 posts/week |
| LIRNEasia | Digital policy, Asia Pacific | Policymakers, researchers | Weekly |
| GenderIT | Gender, ICT4D, internet rights | Feminist, inclusion advocates | Weekly |
| World Bank Digital Development | Infrastructure; broadband; cybersecurity; global economic and policy frameworks; digital resilience | Governments, large donors, policy analysts | Bi-weekly |
| ICTs for Development | Academic, policy, digital development trends | Researchers, analysts | Monthly |
| Appropriating Technology | Critical ICT4D, decolonial politics | Academics, activists | Monthly |
| Ken Banks | Grassroots ICT4D, mobile tech, ethics | Field practitioners, innovators | Monthly |
| ICTlogy | Digital divide, digital rights, open data, ICT readiness, theory & critique | Academics, thinkers, deeply reflective practitioners | Irregular |
| Tim Unwin | Critical policy, global governance, ethical issues, digital diplomacy / digital rights | Senior practitioners, policymakers, researchers | Irregular |
| Linda Raftree | Digital development, equity, youth, gender | Practitioners, advocates | Sporadic |
| iRevolutions | Crisis mapping, humanitarian tech | Humanitarian, tech experts | Sporadic |
| Timbuktu Chronicles | African innovation, entrepreneurship | Africa/innovation followers | Sporadic |
| Social Media for Development | Social media, elections, civic spaces | Development communicators | Sporadic |
| Crisscrossed | ICT4D policy, project learning | Researchers, practitioners | Sporadic |
| Many Possibilities | Telecom policy, African connectivity | Telecom, policy, advocates | Sporadic |
3 Themes Dominating ICT4D Discourse Today
Analysis of the 15 most influential ICT4D blogs reveals three dominant meta-themes reshaping the field in the last few years. None of these topics should surprise long-term ICTworks readers:
- Responsible AI deployment and governance
- Digital public infrastructure as foundational systems
- Critical power analysis challenging digital colonialism
This evolution reflects our field grappling with both unprecedented technological possibilities and urgent questions about whose interests digital development truly serves.
1. An artificial intelligence reckoning.
Nearly every major ICT4D blog now wrestles with AI. Not as a distant possibility but as an immediate implementation challenge demanding governance frameworks.
- ICTworks reports that generative AI emerged as the third most-discussed theme in 2024, with posts on AI applications receiving exceptional engagement.
- LIRNEasia launched the Global Index on Responsible AI with regional reports
- ICTs for Development explores AI adoption barriers in LMICs through frameworks like “digital belonging” rather than mere digital inclusion.
- Appropriating Technology offers perhaps the field’s most critical voice, publishing “Ten reasons not to use AI for development” and questioning whether AI projects reproduce patterns of inequality rather than address them.
2. Digital Public Infrastructure shifts to systems.
DPI has become an organizing framework for digital development, encompassing digital identity, payment systems, and data exchange platforms.
- The World Bank’s dedicated DPI analysis notes that 210 countries now have DPI deployments, while major donors including the Gates Foundation prioritize DPI investments.
- ICTworks identified DPI as a top theme, with posts explaining why donors invest in foundational digital systems rather than standalone applications.
Yet contrarian voices emerge here too.
- Appropriating Technology questions whether DPI represents colonial technology
- Tim Unwin critiques the UN’s Global Digital Compact as serving the rich and powerful rather than the marginalized.
3. Critical views on power, inequality, and digital colonialism.
The most striking evolution in ICT4D blogging is the rise stinging critiques. The field’s willingness to question its own assumptions and failures.
- ICTworks’ most popular posts challenge blockchain pilots in humanitarian relief, critique AI in education, and examine the Gates Foundation’s influence.
- GenderIT.org centers feminist analysis often absent from mainstream discourse, questioning who funds and controls digital infrastructure.
- Appropriating Technology’s “Digital Inclusion as Anti-Politics: a confession” offers remarkable reflexivity, with Tony Roberts questioning whether his 40 years promoting digital inclusion obscured structural inequality rather than addressing it.
This critical turn represents maturity. Our field is moving beyond techno-solutionism toward honest engagement with power dynamics.
6 Types of Digital Development Blogs in 2025
Digital development blogs now span practitioner hubs, research powerhouses, critical voices, innovators, and specialists to provide essential navigation tools for this more complex, more honest, more justice-oriented ICT4D landscape.
1. Practitioner hubs bridging policy and implementation
ICTworks remains the undisputed hub of digital development practice, serving 25,000 email subscribers globally (majority from the Global South) with each post averaging 10,000 readers. Over 16 years and 1,680+ posts, it has established itself as the sector’s record of practice.
The blog’s 2024 meta-analysis reveals seven key themes dominating practitioner attention:
- Updated Digital Principles,
- National digital policies,
- AI policies across African governments,
- Solution showcases,
- How-to guidelines,
- Generative AI applications,
- Critical sector critiques.
ICTworks’ influence stems from its action-oriented approach—practitioners seeking funding opportunities, implementation guidance, and critical analysis of what works and what wastes money.
The World Bank Digital Development Blog translates institutional priorities into practitioner guidance, representing perspectives of one of development’s largest financiers.
With World Bank digital transformation lending reaching $274.4 million in 2020-2024—an eightfold increase—the blog shapes policy in client countries worldwide.
Research powerhouses advancing theory and evidence
Richard Heeks’ ICT4D Blog stands as the field’s premier academic voice, operating continuously since 2003 with exceptional consistency and scholarly rigor. Heeks, Director of the Centre for Digital Development at the University of Manchester with 34,829+ citations, uses the blog to introduce foundational theories including the Design-Reality Gap Model and ICT4D 3.0 paradigm.
LIRNEasia, the Colombo-based think tank, brings unmatched regional expertise on South and Southeast Asia with rigorous policy research directly influencing government decisions. As a pro-poor, pro-market organization, LIRNEasia conducts nationally representative surveys and experimental research testing intervention effectiveness.
A recent impactful post, “The Shift in AI Data Work: From Gig Platforms to Professional Expertise“, examines how AI data annotation has transformed from low-wage gig labor to high-paying professional expertise, with companies like Scale AI earning $870M in 2024. The analysis addresses the irony of experts training systems that may automate their jobs and explores democratization of specialized fields through AI assistance.
ICTlogy (Ismael Peña-López) represents the longest-running ICT4D blog (since October 2003), combining public administration, e-governance, and ICT4D with remarkable comprehensiveness. ICTlogy maintains extensive bibliography with thousands of citations, wiki resources, and timeline visualizations.
Critical voices challenging orthodoxy
Tony Roberts’ Appropriating Technology offers perhaps the field’s most consistently critical perspective, applying justice frameworks to digital development and questioning fundamental assumptions. Roberts, who spent 40 years as a digital inclusion practitioner before completing his PhD, brings unusual depth and willingness to examine his own complicity. The blog challenges mainstream narratives about digital development and technology solutionism.
Professor Tim Unwin provides boldly critical, philosophically grounded analysis unafraid to challenge powerful interests. Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D and former Secretary General of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, grounds critique in critical theory (Habermas), ethics, and 25+ years experience chairing UK government ICT4D initiatives. Recent focus includes digital enslavement, the Global Digital Compact, digital barons and corporate power, and critique of Bill Gates and philanthropic foundations.
GenderIT.org serves as feminist think tank and resource site, centering gender, sexuality, and internet rights with explicit Global South focus. Part of the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Programme, it provides 17 Feminist Principles of the Internet covering access, freedom of expression, sexuality, privacy, and online violence. The site publishes multimedia content including articles, podcasts, videos, and comics through four annual thematic newsletters.
Practitioner innovators bridging grassroots and global
Linda Raftree’s Wait…What? has evolved into a leading voice on digital ethics, responsible data use, and AI governance in humanitarian and development contexts. Through Technology Salons convening senior practitioners and organizing the MERL Tech Conference, Raftree creates spaces for critical dialogue. Her work developing the Responsible Data Maturity Model with CARE provides concrete frameworks bridging theory and practice.
Patrick Meier’s iRevolutions focuses on humanitarian technology, crisis mapping, and emerging technologies for crisis response. Meier, internationally recognized as a digital humanitarian pioneer who co-founded Ushahidi’s crisis mapping efforts, is the author of “Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data is Changing the Face of Humanitarian Response”. His blog has received over 2 million hits and been cited by New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, The Economist, Nature, and other major outlets.
Ken Banks’ Kiwanja represents practitioner wisdom from ICT4D’s pioneer generation. Creator of FrontlineSMS, one of the most influential mobile messaging platforms for development, Banks brings 25+ years implementing grassroots technology projects. After a six-year hiatus while working at Yoti, the blog reopened in May 2024 as Banks launched social impact coaching services and his “Apathy to Action” project combining Buddhist thinking with global activism.
Specialist voices providing deep domain expertise
Steve Song’s Many Possibilities stands as THE authoritative source for African telecommunications infrastructure analysis. Song maintains the most comprehensive publicly available maps of undersea and terrestrial fiber optic infrastructure in Africa—continuously updated since 2009 (now Version 57). His annual reviews provide unmatched historical perspective, containing links to over 500 articles covering the year’s developments.
Christian Kreutz’s Crisscrossed combines consultancy expertise with critical analysis, offering technical depth from someone implementing digital government projects across Africa and Asia for KfW Development Bank, UNDP, GIZ, World Bank, and German municipalities. The blog provides comparative global analysis while curating extensive resources on digital transformation principles, standards, and frameworks.
David Girling’s Social Media for Development examines the intersection of social media and international development with academic rigor and practitioner focus. As Associate Professor and Director of Research Communication at University of East Anglia, Girling brings 25+ years marketing and communications experience to analysis of NGO social media strategy, ethical storytelling, and political processes in developing countries.
Foundational voices documenting movements
Emeka Okafor’s Timbuktu Chronicles, while less active recently, remains influential for establishing frameworks for authentic African innovation discourse. Okafor brought global attention to African innovators before it became mainstream. He helped launch careers of innovators like William Kamkwamba (“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”), showcasing paradigm-breaking technologies when the global tech community largely ignored the continent.
