Week in Review

Hi all,

This week’s highlights include: both sides of the ICT4D story, birth control as a human right, the impact of Sandy on GDP in the U.S. and a number crunch on the aging population.

Disruption at the Intersection of Technology and Human Rights (Forbes 12.11.2012)
The growing field of ICT4D (D standing for either development or democracy) has received a lot of attention in recent years, particularly in relation to the Arab Spring. This article focuses on the interesting cross-section of digital media and human rights.
Interested in ICT4D? Tweet us your thoughts @Wikiprogress

It’s Not about the Technology, It’s about the People: Evaluating the Impact of ICT Programs (World Bank Blog 15.11.2012)
On the same note but from a different point of view to the Forbes article, this World Bank blog challenges the technological determinist argument put forth by those from the ICT4D crowd and argues that is is the people, not their technology, that are the change makers

United Nations: Access to contraception a human right (Examiner 14.11.2012)
This week, the United Nations declared access to contraception as a universal human right. The announcement accompanies the release of the 2012 The State of the World Population 2012 report, entitled “By Choice, Not By Chance.” According to the report, 222 million girls and women in developing countries do not have the means to delay or plan their pregnancies.

How Sandy Reveals the GDP's Twisted Logic
In his last annual economic report, President Barack Obama concluded that the nation must move beyond GDP and develop "new indicators of societal well-being." This Huffington Post blog aims to discover whether Hurricane Sandy revealed one of the many flaws of the GDP as an indicator of national growth.

Number Crunch
By 2050, nearly 1 in 5 people in developing countries will be over 60. Source: Aging in the 21st Century

That’s all from me this week. Hope to see you again next week.

Yours in Progress,
Philippa