Digital transformation and development cooperation

Working together for a fair and sustainable digital transformation

Digitalisation can help us to better manage global crises: Pandemics can be tracked and contained using digital systems. Digital identities and electronic money transfers enable countries to provide financial support for their populations – and to react quickly in emergencies. In the fight against climate change, artificial intelligence can help to recognise impending droughts or extreme weather in good time and develop new solutions.

Digital technologies are also changing the way we live, do business and communicate with each other – and they are a powerful lever for realising the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The United Nations estimates that data and digital technologies play a crucial role in achieving at least 70 per cent of the 169 SDG goals. To date, 37 per cent of the world’s population, especially women and girls, have no internet access. German development cooperation aims to reduce these inequalities and access barriers – the so-called “digital divide”. The most important goal is to close the digital divide between the sexes: Only three out of ten women in the least developed countries, for example, have access to the internet. This means that they are also cut off from the opportunities of the digital transformation: access to knowledge, education, jobs and financial services.

We must also face up to the risks of digitalisation: Unequal access to digital technologies has a negative impact on the economic development of entire countries, regions and social groups. And digitalisation is already causing as much CO2 emissions as all air traffic worldwide, and the trend is rising – partly due to energy-hungry artificial intelligence. AI has the potential for ground-breaking changes as well as risks and dangers that are still hard to foresee: in the wrong hands, AI can shake democracies to their foundations and give autocrats a free hand for disinformation and manipulation. As the BMZ, we therefore have a duty to help shape a technology now in the interests of our partner countries that is perhaps more disruptive than anything we have seen before.

We can only do this by further strengthening and supporting our partner countries on their path to digital transformation and making them offers that build on our European values.

Our goals

As German development policy makers, we are committed to an international digital politics that enables a fair balance of interests based on European standards and universal human rights. We involve our partner countries in a globally open, secure and inclusive internet and fair data markets and consciously distance ourselves from both a purely state-centred model as well as a purely market-centred model.

Our commitment is closely aligned with the priorities of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The focus is on using the potential of digitalisation and data to reduce poverty and hunger worldwide. In doing so, we combine green and digital transformation – for example by converting energy-intensive data centres into sustainable, green data centres with a neutral carbon footprint.

Digital solutions can also make a contribution in the healthcare sector: Their targeted use makes it easier to prevent or control the spread of diseases and enables inclusive medical care for people in remote regions.

With our commitment, we also want to make an important contribution to feminist development policy: digital learning opportunities for girls, women and other marginalised groups should reduce the gender digital divide.

Anyone who wants to shape the digital transformation must live it themselves. That is why we at the BMZ are leading by example: we are strengthening data expertise at the BMZ and expanding our database to enable us to make evidence-based policy decisions. We are also modernising the flow of information with implementing organisations, funding recipients and partner organisations.

Our implementation

In order to achieve the greatest impact, we have clearly defined the digital policy areas of action in which German development policy wants to set priorities. The BMZ implements political initiatives in these fields of action that support partner countries in achieving their digital development goals:

To ensure a uniform approach with our national and international partners, we are joining forces in the European multi-stakeholder platform D4D-Hub and in our [digital.global] network.

D4D-HubNETZWERK

We have created a physical venue for networking – the digilab. We regularly bring stakeholders and partners together for a cooperative exchange in these modern premises.

Together with our partners, we want to exploit the enormous opportunities of digitalisation and prevent the risks. In doing so, we are primarily guided by the sustainable development goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. At the same time, the Strategy for an International Digital Policy of the Federal Government serves as a compass for shaping digitalisation worldwide.

In our concrete planning and implementation of effective digital approaches, we are guided by the Principles for Digital Development, which are based on the broad experience of international development partners. The aim is to design digital solutions that are sustainable and people-oriented.

Our solutions at a glance

On our dialog platform digital.global, we present the digital policy measures of the BMZ and the broad digital policy partner network – in articles, success stories and current news. We want to pool our strengths, present our joint work for the global digital transformation and invite you to get involved. Find out more about our polical initiatives here:

POLITICAL INITIATIVES