ICTworks

Digital development solutions have become pervasive around the world, including within resilience, environment, and food security development efforts supported by USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS).

Globally, reliance on digital solutions to do everything from looking up a weather forecast on a smartphone to automating the analysis of complicated datasets through cloud computing is set to increase further over time. However, the ongoing digital revolution has also created new and unintended consequences. In the context of sustainable development this can manifest in unequal geographic spread, accessibility, usability, and benefit from digital solutions.

Athena Infonomics, together with Genesis Analytics, have been supporting USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) to develop an inclusive digital design toolkit.

The USAID Toolkit for Inclusive AgriTech Digital Solution Design provides guidance to USAID staff and implementing partners on how to design inclusive digital technology interventions in Feed the Future activities. This toolkit emphasizes support for marginalized groups, intersectionality, and robust local engagement. By prioritizing these factors, the toolkit guides users in fostering positive outcomes in alignment with USAID’s locally led development vision.

USAID Toolkit Target Users

This toolkit is for those that are just starting an activity design or implementation exclusively aimed at developing a new digital tool in Feed the Future activities, or those that are simply planning on using existing digital technology within development programming, .

This toolkit has been designed to assist USAID staff and implementing partners to design and implement activities that:

1. Understand that potential users have complex realities that alter their ability to use, engage with, and benefit from digital tools.
2. Overcome the digital divides of access, digital literacy, and offline benefit1 through inclusive digital design and program activities.
3. Utilize a Digital Inclusion Framework to assess and iteratively improve digital inclusion efforts.

The toolkit provides guidance to USAID staff and implementing partners on how to design inclusive digital technology interventions in Feed the Future activities. The toolkit pays specific attention to achieving positive outcomes through digital technology interventions, considerations of marginalized groups and intersectionality, and engagement with relevant local actors in accordance with USAID’s locally-led development objective.

This toolkit includes foundational frameworks on digital inclusion, interactive activities which can help guide programme designers on their digital inclusion journey and case studies included that serve as an example of where inclusive digital design has been thoughtfully incorporated.