The Middle East hosts one of the fastest-growing high-tech industries in the world: Israel’s Silicon Wadi. But the very speed of this growth means Israel’s tech sector also faces a shortage of skilled engineers. To deal with this shortage, Israel has turned largely to Eastern Europe as a source for IT workers. Though there is plenty of talent in Eastern Europe, the time difference is not ideal for collaborating and that talent is becoming costlier as global demand increases. This combination of circumstances means opportunities for Palestinians.
When deep-rooted social norms appear to limit the roles of women, one of the best tactics we can take in development assistance is to look for opportunities to turn those norms to women’s advantage.
The economies of Eastern Europe have grown in recent decades largely on the backs of heavy industry, mechanisation, and agriculture. In many countries, this has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions, a reliance on inefficient technologies, and a policy environment that did not support green growth. As part of their commitments to global climate change agreements, signatory countries pledged to reduce emissions. After committing to cleaner ways, however, these countries faced a common challenge: where to start?
Seven years ago, DAI began implementing the value chain portion of Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH), a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). SATH’s goal was to promote economic growth by fostering intraregional trade between select member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
While Mozambique’s economy is emerging—notably through the extractives sector—most Mozambicans remain very poor. Eighty percent still make a living from subsistence farming. One cause for their marginalization is that most have no connection to the wider economy or to basic financial services such as saving, borrowing, and electronic payments. This limits the ability of Mozambique’s 12 million rural poor to grow their livelihoods and perpetuates their isolation and poverty.
Women are far underrepresented in the tech world globally from bottom to top. The all-encompassing industry is looking into the mirror and seeing men and boys dominating technology jobs, classrooms, and expert panels, a bias now widely noticed.
DAI and THINKMD connected in 2016 through DAI’s Innovation into Action Challenge. Our strategic partnership will leverage DAI’s international development network to bring THINKMD’s digital health products to new markets, while THINKMD’s technology will enhance DAI’s global health toolkit. As part of this partnership, DAI led THINKMD’s latest financing round.
Founded in 2014, THINKMD soon introduced its first product, MEDSINC—a mobile health platform that enables non-healthcare professionals in marginalized locales lacking doctors, nurses, and clinics—to perform clinical assessment, triage, early treatment, and follow-up, especially on infants and young children. THINKMD’s second product, DATASINC, aggregates and analyzes public health and epidemiology data for a variety of uses.