4IR, AI and Digitalization Projects

Background Paper “Industry 4.0: Opportunities Behind the Challenge”

UNIDO brought together international leaders from the private sector, governments, and academia for an elaborate series of technical discussions on Industry 4.0 and its global implications from November 17th to December 1st, 2017. TIV was integral in laying the contextual foundation for the panel sessions that followed through the event’s foundational report titled “Industry 4.0: Opportunities Behind the Challenge.(chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unido.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ffiles%2F2017-11%2FUNIDO%2520Background%2520Paper%2520on%2520Industry%25204.0_27112017.pdf&clen=1979462&chunk=true)” The study established five fundamental components for orienting thought on Industry 4.0, including the paradigm, the impact on sectors, opportunities, challenges, and the notion of a human-centered governance model in Industry 4.0. With this framework in play, TIV’s experts helped deconstruct each component's unique facets, such as the changes in our schemas of “work” and human-technology interactions.

The investigation also delved into issues of economics (e.g., blockchain for supply chain), sustainability (e.g., smart grids), ethics (e.g., autonomous vehicle decision making), and law (e.g., the intellectual property surrounding software and the inherent ‘black-box’ code of machine learning). Many of these concepts, and their related opportunities and challenges, set the tone of the 4-day event, as multiple high-ranking public officials and leaders of some of the largest companies in the world (e.g., Siemens Vienna, Alibaba Group, Fraunhofer Austria Research GmbH) worked together to develop solutions for our digital future.

The background report produced by TIV continues to serve as a source of thinking and action on emerging technologies and inform the activities of UNIDO and member nations. TIV experts have since been invited to present the key findings at numerous international fora, such as the International Meeting in 2018, where we addressed Ministerial Senior Official Government Representatives and other global leaders.

 

Use of 4IR Technologies in Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean

With the progressively worsening threats posed by climate change, environmental conscientiousness, and sustainability remain integral components of many Tambourine Innovation Ventures’ (TIV) projects. In particular, Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) was a call to action to provide “Clean Water and Sanitation for all” (https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-6-clean-water-and-sanitation.html)globally. Despite the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region performing above the world average in this domain (95% coverage of water services and 83% of sanitation), there is still considerable room for improvement. As a result, IADB hired TIV to co-author a paper on “Use of 4IR Technologies in Water and Sanitation In Latin America and the Caribbean”(https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Use-of-4IR-Technologies-in-Water-and-Sanitation-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean.pdf) that researched the role of burgeoning digital technologies in the water and sanitation sector.

TIV’s paper introduced a novel analysis of how the recent and growing advancements in 4IR technologies could benefit Latin America. In particular, the application of the following technological advancements was investigated: Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Drones and Remote Sensing, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. The paper highlighted the global problems associated with a lack of clean water access, including the risk of more than 700 million people being displaced in the next decade due to water scarcity. Specific to LAC, two significant challenges were explored, i.e., closing the institutional gap by adapting policies, regulatory frameworks, programs, financial strategies, and sector capacities and closing the information gap by adapting methodologies and instruments to collect information following SDG indicators.

Specifically, TIV explored the solutions to the second challenge by implementing 4IR technologies. For instance, the study revealed how blockchain can allow for equitability in access to water quality and quantity data by households, industry consumers, water managers, and policymakers. The role of smart contracts was delineated, such as the product WATERLEDGER supported by the Ethereum-based market platform. Moreover, the blockchain services provided by Australia’s “Civic Ledger” allows for water contracts to be traded without intermediaries, potentially saving USD$62 million in this novel system compared to the antiquated technology that uses four platforms. The research done in this investigation by TIV is expected to inform IADB initiatives in the WASH space using digital technologies.   
 
 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is Here, but is Belize Ready? An Analysis of Student Readiness in the Digital Era

Approximately 40% of employers based in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have indicated that the skills gap was the primary obstacle to productivity and employment in the region. For Belize, the skills gap is particularly pronounced due to the country’s reliance on vocational labor in tourism and agriculture. Despite its reputation for rich ethnic diversity and a vibrant ecosystem, the small Central American country has failed to distinguish its economic identity spanning two centuries of industrial revolutions. The COVID-19 pandemic acutely evinced the vulnerabilities in Belize’s workforce, leading to the most significant economic contraction in Belize over the past 30 years. In light of the 4IR’s range of new technologies - that fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds and impact all disciplines, economies, and industries - the importance of Belize’s need for leapfrogging by bridging the skills gap of its future workforce has been in full display.

Belize's need for skill development and a more resilient workforce has thus become a core focus for policymakers. Past interventions have demonstrated success, suggesting a need for continued interventions to support educational institutions. As a result, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) hired Tambourine Innovation Ventures (TIV) to conduct a study to prepare Belize’s future workforce for the 4IR. The study aimed to close the learning and access gaps that widened during the pandemic, improve the pertinence of education to respond to 4IR requirements and reframe the possibilities of female youth by promoting their participation in the 4IR. This study directly supported the IADB team in preparing a lending operation, drawing on the Skills for the Green Economy model previously developed by the IADB.

TIV's specialists examined the 4IR skills mismatch between Belize's secondary school and TVET graduate profile and the country's labor market needs during project execution. An instrument that quantified the 4IR skills mismatch among Belizean employers and 65 secondary and TVET institutions was developed, considering Belize's technological gap, ICT prevalence, and ICT infrastructure. Additionally, TIV's experts analyzed the curricula of the country's 65 secondary schools and 6 TVET institutions to identify the percentage of schools that include 4IR skills in their curricula. This analysis examined private and public school graduates, location, and proximity to a major city. The study further investigated Belizean secondary school teachers' survey responses on the 4IR, gender gap, and student skill mismatch. Based on the preliminary investigation, all the data was used to create a theoretical indicator. This indicator illuminated Belize's difficulties in adopting and integrating the 4IR, particularly in secondary education and SDG achievement. Therefore, the study has illuminated the need to revise the curriculum, best practices, and standards throughout the education system in Belize.

Background Paper “Propelling LDCs in the Digital Age: A 4IR Perspective for Sustainable Development”

The least developed countries (LDCs) have followed a fragile and erratic development trajectory since the United Nations created the category 50 years ago. While the rest of the developed world has achieved a remarkable socio-economic renaissance due to rapid technological advancements, LDCs have lagged behind. Despite LDCs having made some progress, core challenges in making decisive progress on structural economic transformation and sustainable development have persisted and become more complex.
These challenges stem from demographic developments, governance issues, poor infrastructure, and a slow capital accumulation rate leading to malnutrition, rising inequalities, persistent poverty, and accelerated urbanization. To inform the   9th Ministerial Conference of the LDCs (https://www.unido.org/ninth-ministerial-conference-ldcs)and serve as the last global precursor of the 5th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UN LDC5)(https://www.un.org/ldc5/), UNIDO approached TIV to author a Background Paper (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fhub.unido.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fpublications%2FPublication_4IR_LDC.pdf&clen=3142593&chunk=true)on the advantages of emerging technologies underpinning the Fourth Industrial Revolution to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic, achieve the SDGs, and bridge the digital divide.

The paper provides valuable insights into the utilization of 4IR technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Drones, the Internet of Things and Big Data, and Cloud Computing) and their current applications across the globe, especially for the developing nations. TIV’s experts elaborated on the necessary prerequisites to Innovation-based development concepts in the Digital Era and how to integrate and even retrofit novel technologies in the context of developing countries. An analysis of the existing problems was conducted, including LDCs’ two digital divides (access to technology and use of technology) that negatively impact the process of technology absorption; and how LDCs can effectively move towards a knowledge economy.

TIV’s background paper serves as a call for action against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impending concerns related to climate change. It aims to promote discussion and inform the Ministerial Declaration, mainstreaming the Doha Program of Action (DPoA). The paper illuminated actionable recommendations in 5 critical areas of inclusive and sustainable development (ISID), which LDCs can implement in the short, medium, and long term as they continue their journey towards greater digitalization.
 

Data Invisible Groups and Data Minimization in the Deployment of AI Solutions

Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) swift development has transformed every walk of life. It is a wide-ranging tool that enables people to rethink how we integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights for improved decision-making. While AI’s deployment and uptake undoubtedly provide humanity with numerous opportunities to address global challenges, the data used for AI systems can create risks that must be addressed to avoid undesirable outcomes. This is because the biggest challenge to AI is that it seeks to mimic humans, which are inherently flawed. UNESCO hired Tambourine Innovation Ventures (TIV) to author a policy brief to provide its member states with a better understanding of the need for greater transparency in data usage for AI solutions.

The policy brief builds a case for data sharing and minimization sensitive to those historically excluded to ensure that governments fulfill their commitments to Our Common Future. The brief makes the case that these individuals and communities will likely remain invisible without creating inclusive data systems guided by data minimization and sharing principles. "Data invisibility" is a corollary of the digital divide across many countries of the Global South and is likely to affect traditionally underserved and marginalized communities such as women, girls, indigenous peoples, religious and linguistic minorities, the elderly, refugees, and migrant workers. TIV’s brief identifies discrimination in three main areas - punishment and policing, essential services and support, and movement and border control.

The critical challenges to Our Common Future posed by the effective contemporary deployment of AI for good are explored, exposing many inequalities and exclusionary practices toward data invisible groups. TIV’s brief shows that regulators and policymakers are at a critical juncture in regulating AI. Without proper regulations, AI may be used to harden lines of difference because present-day data overlooks the impact of AI on marginalized groups. To curb the negative effects of inadequate data and AI, our brief advocates for iterative and adaptable governance and regulatory frameworks for AI and big data that go hand in hand with the pace of AI development. To achieve this, the data minimization principle was presented, requiring organizations to ensure that the personal data used is adequate, relevant, and limited for what is essential for the purposes for which it is processed. TIV’s experts further supplemented this by highlighting privacy-preserving methods, such as differential privacy, federated learning, and anonymization, ensuring a minimum set of principles and standards for data governance. In their policy brief, TIV’s experts advocate for reshaping the data landscape to close the gap in the data discourse by promoting data collaboratives, data stewards, and regulatory data sandboxes. The brief aims to improve decision-making and policymaking and create capacity in countries with emerging AI and data capabilities.

Use of Digital Tools in Fighting Climate Change: A Review of Best Practices

Humanity is facing one of the worst man-made crises – climate change. Countries around the globe have “nurtured” unsustainable practices since the beginning of the first industrial revolution, burning fossil fuels and destroying nature, releasing unprecedented quantities of carbon into our atmosphere. As climate volatility continues to amplify concerns surrounding the world’s environmental future, the IADB has made it a central mission to find solutions to this growing problem, emphasizing and prioritizing Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). As part of their mission, the IADB contracted Tambourine Innovation Ventures to conduct a proprietary assessment of how the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies could be implemented in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

TIV’s study titled “Use of Digital Tools in Fighting Climate Change: A Review of Best Practices“ gave an overview of how governments around the globe, and in LAC, use emerging technologies under the auspices of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and digitalization to tackle climate change challenges through adaptation and mitigation measures. The study delved deep into the crux of the climate change issue, establishing the current landscape of environmental problems globally and in the LAC region. This aided the development of a survey on the implementation of 4IR technologies toward environmental solutions in Latin America and allowed for the identification of best practices for digital technologies.

The insights of this investigation have sparked current IADB projects and set the tone for future IADB projects related to data/digitization and climate change. Notably, many of the recommendations in TIV’s study have guided these developments.

Social Services for Digital Citizens: Opportunities for Latin America and the Caribbean

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments became even more reliant on digital tools to provide services to their citizens, accelerating digitalization that was already gaining momentum over the previous decade. However, the creation and implementation of digital services are burdened by several crucial issues, particularly for governments. These include digital government initiatives, data governance, ethics, data collection, oversight, regulatory quality, and data collection. Even before the pandemic, the IADB was interested in exploring the potential of digital technologies to advance social well-being. As a result, TIV was selected to research the impact of the rapidly expanding digital economy on select social sectors. The project aimed to allow governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to maintain pace with the latest technological advancements in health and social protection, labor markets, education, gender, and diversity.

In their report, TIV’s experts established a central thesis of 4IR technologies capable of altering the social landscape, disrupting the status quo, changing how people live and work, and rearranging the valence of cultural and societal ideals. TIV’s experts utilized micro, meso, and macro case studies to help policy leaders understand the nuances of these technologies and their individual and gross impacts. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud Computing, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), among others, were evaluated in great detail. This evaluation incorporated the social sectors explored in the report into the discussion and painted a landscape of how the abovementioned technologies impact and will impact Latin America and the Caribbean. The report has been instrumental for the Latin American and Caribbean region as a roadmap for the future of the Digital Era.

Unlocking the Potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa

All African countries will need more and better employment for their expanding populations. Businesses and households must employ productivity-boosting digital technologies to create jobs, even for low-skilled workers. Additionally, wider use of digital technologies can support Africa’s vision of inclusive economic transformation and growth. However, these outcomes are not predetermined unless preconditions for a digital ecosystem are not met. To guide Africa’s efforts in a digitally-led inclusive economic transformation, the African Development Bank (AfDB) hired a consortium of highly skilled experts from Tambourine Innovation Ventures, Technopolis Group, and Research ICT Africa to conduct an exhaustive multi-year study to bring the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to Africa. Using a multi-pronged approach, the team conducted new empirical investigations that support the rising evidence that digital technologies boost enterprise productivity, job creation, and poverty reduction in Africa. 

The study's primary objective aims to bring awareness of the potential of Africa considering emerging technologies underpinning the 4IR (Internet of Things, blockchain, artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, big data and machine learning, AR and VR, 3D printing, bioprinting, and custom manufacturing). By demonstrating case studies of 4IR technologies where Africa is poised for rapid growth and cultivating the resources, capital, and infrastructure where the continent is lagging, the team of experts could determine to social and economic implications of large-scale adoption of emerging technologies.
During this multi-year study, TIV experts conducted numerous surveys, missions, stakeholder consultations, and mappings to inform their analyses and recommendations. Additionally, interviews were conducted with AfDB experts from multiple Vice-Presidencies, accelerators, Venture Capital groups, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, whose insights informed various documents covering various topics. The information collected fed into the study, and elucidated how AfDB could use digitalization for its own operations to become a "Smart" Bank, how AfDB could create new loan and technical assistance products for innovation, entrepreneurship, digitalization, and the 4IR, and country-specific case studies that included regulatory environment assessments and measures to strengthen the digital innovation ecosystem.

A comprehensive technology road mapping and readiness assessment (regarding regulations, skills, and innovation ecosystem) was performed for the continent, and deep dives were conducted for select countries. Particular sectors with particular economic significance for Africa were covered in greater depth. The team evaluated the preconditions for 4IR (data privacy laws, open data policies, regulatory regime) in several countries, with India and South Korea as benchmarks. In addition, while identifying prospective areas for potential leapfrogging, the team tempered expectations and hype surrounding numerous novel technologies and the likelihood of their medium-term mainstreaming on the continent. The report was launched in Abidjan in 2020 through numerous workshops hosted by TIV’s experts targeting ministries in charge of the digital economy, industry, and investments, the private sector, civil society organizations, and relevant development partners.

“Cross-Pollination and Digitalization of Public Sector Data: Opportunities and Challenges”

To end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, many stakeholders have begun understanding the value of data-led decision-making to achieve a circular economic model. While the private sector has outpaced the public sector in transforming its business model by capitalizing on the extensive value of data, governments have only recently begun to realize data’s true potential as a catalyst to promote the general welfare and economic growth. To this end, the IADB hired TIV to author a paper that will aid governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in embracing the opportunities public sector data utilization and AI deployment can provide in achieving a circular economic model and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The paper provides an overview of the data ecosystem and governments' main challenges when leveraging data. To circumvent and alleviate the challenges of the traditionally fragmented public sector data, the paper provides a novel concept of sharing data between key players that TIV has dubbed as data cross-pollination. TIV’s experts have defined the concept as the process of exposing government actors to new ways of thinking by sharing knowledge, thus allowing them to make better decisions, provide better services, and design better policies. However, the concept does not exist in a vacuum and is supplemented by open data and data philanthropy.

Drawing on this data cross-pollination, the paper considers four SDGs, i.e., energy, sustainable food systems, reducing pollution, and smart cities, that could benefit from using and reusing data for data cross-pollination. Building on case studies and initiatives stemming from these four SDGs, the paper highlights the main challenges and opportunities of utilizing data to achieve a circular economic model and sustainable development. For example, TIV’s experts explored the data landscape in the energy sector (SDG 7) and how these data can be cross-pollinated with healthcare (SDG 3), agriculture and food security (SDG 2), and what opportunities and challenges may lie ahead. Furthermore, the paper explores how data from the four SDGs can be pollinated with AI to enable countries in LAC to shift to a circular economic model. Challenges of deploying AI were explored, in addition to good practices to facilitate data sharing within the public sector, thus enabling circular innovation.
 

Emerging Technology Trends: Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for Development 4.0

AI offers profound potential benefits and the opportunity to help address some of the developing world's most pressing issues by accelerating economic growth, improving agricultural systems, enabling quality education, and addressing health and climate challenges. These benefits are fueled by the increasing availability of computational power, improved connectivity, and big data. Combining big data with AI can enhance governance, decision-making, and accountability. To that end the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) wanted to explore and address the opportunities and challenges AI and big data offer for developing countries. The ITU hired TIV’s experts to analyze the data system and the main challenges for big data and AI uptake in developing countries: data creation, availability, interoperability, and quality; human capital and data skills; infrastructure; and AI trustworthiness.

This report was designed to help developing countries embrace the opportunities offered by AI and big data deployment, warn against the main challenges, and offer hands-on suggestions for regulators and policymakers in regulating these salient issues. TIV’s experts highlighted the most salient issues in public policy and regulation of big data and AI for development while at the same time offering hands-on suggestions for regulators and policymakers. Four domains of AI and big data applications (health, mobile big data, agriculture, education, and open data) were covered in the report and were explored in depth. These deep dives were used to inform the benefits developing countries can reap from identifying and implementing adequate big data and AI technologies. The report illustrates developing countries' regulatory and policy barriers and the significance of incentivizing AI and big data uptake.

Our ITU report included a draft template proposal intended to guide policymakers and regulators in crafting a national AI and data strategy for development. This template sets out the main process of conducting SWOT analyses related to AI and data deployment nationally, highlighting the key questions that should guide the formulation of the visions. It also gives an overview of the main exemplary objectives that a national AI and data strategy for development should contain, identifying the main building blocks of a national AI and data system for development. Overall, the report illustrates the significance of the opportunities AI and big data provide for development and outlines good policy and regulatory practices to ensure they are properly seized.