Topic: Effects of technology in lower-income areas

Source 1: UNCTAD 2023 Report

United Nations. (2023, March 16). Opening green windows: Technological opportunities for a

low-carbon world (Technology and Innovation Report).

https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210023443

Topic/hypothesis
● This report focuses on emerging technologies in developing countries.
General Notes
● All countries, impacting developing countries the most, are still affected by crises such
as COVID-19 and problems in geopolitics such as war in Ukraine (V)
● There is a sort of “green revolution” where green technology, such as renewable energy,
are in a immature state but soon to capture mainstream appeal (V)
● The door to enter the early market of green technology is closing as it gets more
complex, it's still open in that countries still can enter the space and catch up(XVII)
● There are issues with brain drain and short term profitability for developing countries
(XXIV)
● Examples of countries taking advantage of the innovation in green technology is Brazil,
China, and India which have invested in solar PV cells and becoming market leaders (7)
● By 2035, the global 5G value chain is expected to support 22 million jobs (16)
● Technologies that countries are taking advantage of are bioenergy, solar, wind, green
hydrogen, and electric mobility such as vehicles (39)
● Advancements in biofuels include using sugar cane and oil from palm and Jatropha
trees (42)
● Green hydrogen is made by electrolyzing water from renewable energy sources, like a
battery for renewable energy (44)
● The emissions from coal fired plants can be reduced through a method of green
hydrogen by changing flue gas, called exhaust or stack gas, into fertilizers which also
can be used to agricultural purposes (46)
● Weak IP rights allows countries to access to more frontier technologies, while strong IP
rights invoke more innovations and force companies to make new ideas (61)

Reflection/credibility
● Many countries are growing and at a fast rate, a primary reason why this is happening is
the capitalization of new technologies.
● A prominent new technology is green technology such as renewable energy
● Many of the developing countries are facing internal issues which overcome, can cause
a economic and societal boom
● Extensive reference list
 ● UNCTAD is major reputable organization with an extensive list of sources at end of the
report

Source 2: Adverse digital incorporation

Heeks, R. (2022). Digital inequality beyond the digital divide: Conceptualizing adverse digital

incorporation in the global South. Information Technology for Development, 28(4),

688-704. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2022.2068492

Topic/hypothesis
● A look into sources of negatives in bringing digital electronics into developing countries,
such as exploitation of the under-privileged
General Notes
● The definition of the global South is nations in the world, usually located below the
equator such as Africa, South America, and Asia, that are of low economic and industrial
development (688)
● There is a idea called “adverse incorporation” which in simple terms means that how a
group with more well of takes advantage of less well of people, a form of exploitation
common situation in the global South (689)
● People of initial advantageous situations with access to digital systems and tools are not
doing any better to bridge the gap of equality, and usually take on a bigger inequality
than (690)
● The initial view to solve this problem of inequality was through globalization of trade
between higher- income countries and developing economies and integrating new
technologies. This inclusion only made inequality worse through digitalization in the form
of adverse incorporation. (691)
● A example of extremely harmful incorporation in the south through digital means is
authoritarian surveillance systems, mass call centers for scamming, and abusive
pornography of women and children from the financially desperate (693)
● Reasons that why this can happen is due to ignorance of importing newer technology,
lack of choices of better alternatives, lack of financial resources, institutional inequality,
and dependency of a technology (695-696)

Reflection/credibility
● Giving access to resources such as technology has its pros and cons, the cons which
could be avoided if the technologies were integrated correctly and regulated.
● Ideas that could be looked into
○ More in depth statistics into which are actually the most helpful technologies
being brought into developing countries
○ How technologies can be regulated and also rolled out for the most positive
impact on a society while mitigating the harm
 ● extensive list of references
● Author Richard Heeks is a professor of the University of manchester and director of the
University’s center of technological development

Source 3: Green manufacturing

Avenyo, E. K., & Tregenna, F. (2022). Greening manufacturing: Technology intensity and carbon
dioxide emissions in developing countries. Applied Energy, 324, 119726.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119726

Topic/hypothesis
● Journal is about rapid industrialization in developing countries, and how to reduce
emissions through frontier technologies
● Tests an hypothesis of the relationship between the use of high end technology and
emissions using data from major countries
General Notes
● Countries that have late industrial development are in a dilemma in industrializing and
reducing carbon emissions (1)
● Anthropogenic emissions are main contributor to global warming which include landfills,
oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and much more(2)
● MHT (medium and high technology) industries are cleaner than traditional heavy
industries and based on advanced scientific and tech expertise, with higher R&D costs
(1-2)
● Green technologies are becoming more important and beneficial to developing countries
such as creating jobs and bringing in economic development (2)
● Industrialization leads to lower emissions in the long term, as countries become more
wealthy and invest into more efficient systems (3)
● Data shows that there is a inverse U shape relationship between industrialization and
emissions, this mean that as a country first industrialize they emit a lot of co2 which gets
reduced over time back to a low to zero emission rate (3)
● Deindustrialisation, such as the U.S switching from a focus on manufacturing to services,
reduces emissions (3)
● Tertiarisation, such as expanding on the tourism industry in Australia, increased, even if
insignificantly increased, emissions (3)
● Keeping pace with technological change is important for developing countries, so they
can avoid the middle-income technology trap, found in east asian countries such as
China, where a middle income country can’t complete labor-intensive goods from lower
income countries because wages are too high and cant compete with high income
countries due to lack of proficiency (3)
● Technology intensive MHT manufacturing can add a lot to country, such as diversification
and sophistication of products, higher competitive power, bigger wages
 ● Developing countries focused on agriculture, which is practically all of them, need and
can grow from green technological progress to avoid climate crisis while bringing up
standards of living (4)

Reflection/credibility
● Bringing in investment into advanced and frontier technologies can give a big return to
developing countries, such as better standards of living, stronger economy, and bringing
more competition to the rest of the world. But doing so is extremely hard and expensive
such as the short term, but massive, increase in co2 emissions, the initial cost of bringing
advanced technology, and roadblocks such as stagnation brought on from the middle
income trap and.
● Published from Science Direct on Elsevier with a extensive list of references

Source 4: Tech under COVID-19

Mathrani, A., Sarvesh, T., & Umer, R. (2021). Digital divide framework: Online learning in

developing countries during the COVID-19 lockdown. Globalization, Societies and

Education, 20(5), 625-640. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1981253

Topic/hypothesis
● How technology was able to remedy the effects of COVID-19 in developing countries,
and who was the most affected by not having said technology
● Data about how was most impacted was gathered by surveys in the south asian region
spanning from Pakistan to Bangladesh
General Notes
● Digital inequality can be caused by economic, social, geographical, and generational
divides, women are good example in developing countries with the socio-cultural norms
causing to lack access to digital opportunities (1)
● The time during COVID-19 is a good case study to survey digital access, because of the
importance of digital access during the lockdown and sharing information (2)
● Most of the underprivileged class don’t have access to education or health care making
information and communication technologies a lower priority until COVID (2)
● Low income households located in rural or semi-urban regions are most affected by the
digital inequality (3)
● Many users in developing countries were getting electronic devices for the first time and
lack practices and capabilities in using technology, which needed to be learn (3)
● Many people who were inexperienced of using technology, or slow internet due to lack of
infrastructure, couldn't get new positions in getting an education during COVID (4)
● In developing countries, such as south asia , technologies could go against cultural
norms such as women getting an education, instead of household responsibilities,
causing them to get kicked out of learning groups (4)
 ● Women were disproportionately had weaker internet access than their male
counterparts, they also had less access to devices with 3.5% of males not having and
devices while 6.8% of females did not have access to devices (7)
● The data was also skewed towards the males, as the survey the data was recorded from
36.5% males lived in rural areas while only 14% of females lived in rural areas (7)

Reflection/credibility
● During the pandemic, when technology was as it's most needed, some technologies
such as communication technologies were inaccessible, from lack of inaccessibility
because of living costs, bad location, and social norms.
● Rural, underprivileged, women were the lowest among people in accessing modern
necessities that technologies offer
● Published by Taylor & Francis, a major and reputable journal publisher, with a extensive
list of references

Source 5: Tech un/employment

Parschau, C., & Hauge, J. (2020). Is automation stealing manufacturing jobs? Evidence from

South Africa's apparel industry. Geoforum, 115, 120-131.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.07.002

Topic/hypothesis
● Is automation taking manufacturing jobs? Hypothesis tested on evidence gathered from
South African Manufacturers with the apparel industry, a critical industry being most
impacted by automation negatively.

General Notes
● There always been fears about major job displacement and unemployment from
technology replacing humans (2)
● Labor intensive jobs, which is of importance of developing countries employments, are
being replaced with automation (2)
● A huge area that is losing jobs and creating unemployment is the apparel industry, which
is happening in places like South Africa (2)
● Automation and the fear of it taking over jobs always existed since the early 19th century
such as the luddite protests (2)
● In the long run automation creates more jobs better and higher skilled jobs, automation
always offsets the jobs taken away an example is the pc (2)
● Automation usually affects unemployment within a single sector, such as agriculture and
manufacturing, and more likely the sector gets restructured and employment moves
such as manufacturing to the U.S to China (2)
 ● These manufacturing jobs move over into the service sector, such as the U.S as an
example (3)
● Jobs types disappearing were modest in the recent century, since 1950, 14% of jobs
disappeared and not due to automation but consumer demand (2)
● When automation does arrive to a industry, supply is made cheaper, making demand go
up, causing a demand for more workers, at least initially (2)
● There is a lack of historical evidence that automation creates widespread unemployment
but new technologies like AI might break that pattern (2)
● In developing countries less than 5% of manufacturing firms use advanced digital
production technologies, and over 70% of them use analog production technologies (3)
● Reshoring of jobs are coming back to advanced countries due to a multitude of reasons,
from cheap labor not being needed due to automation, or rising costs of labor in
established manufacturing countries in east asia (4)
● Reshoring is on a much smaller scale than off-shoring jobs to developing countries (4)
● World wide 60% of jobs have tasks that 30% of it can be automated, 5% of jobs have
tasks which 90% of it can be replaced by automation (4)
● Why isn't more automation used? It's due to financial barriers, which is a problem for
developing countries, and current shortcomings of current technologies (6)

Reflection/credibility
● Automation taking jobs and affecting unemployment is mostly fear, and has always
created more jobs historically, creating skilled jobs in developed countries and creating
new opportunities for the developing. This could change with automation becoming more
accessible and advanced with AI, but the future is relatively uncertain for AI if it will
create more or take away jobs.
● Published from Science Direct on Elsevier, a major and reputable journal publisher, with
a extensive list of references

Source 6: Smart Cities

Tan, S. Y., & Taeihagh, A. (2020). Smart city governance in developing countries: A systematic

literature review. Sustainability, 12(3), 899. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030899

Topic/hypothesis
● Journal is about what infrastructure that technologies can provide to improve the
standard of living, and how the government of developing countries can invest into those
infrastructures

General Notes
● Smart city development isnt a new idea and is associated with smart growth, investing in
transport, mobility and planning (1)
 ● Sensors and big data analytics are being incorporated into cities through the internet of
things, the internet of things is when devices can exchange data to other devices, this
interconnects large populations making the city more valuable, such as investors (2)
● The growth in cities allows new data processing technologies to be invested towards
such as deep learning, data accessibility, quantum computing, machine learning, and
cheaper data processing power (2)
● There is a growing concern for smart city development to safeguard environmental
sustainability (2)
● The process of developing smart cities in developed countries are more complex, as
developing countries are starting to meet the needs of their citizens, and more rural to
urban migration, and the cost of maintaining such cities(3)
● 55% of the world population live in urban areas which is expected to to continue to rise,
with more mega cities being developed in developing countries (3)
● The growing smart cities that are being developed and launched are in China and India
(4)
● The study categorizes certain features as associated with smart cities such as sensors,
smartphones, cameras, signal lamps, the network layer/ intent, and mobile
communication networks (6)
● The goal for a smart city is a clear objective of elevating public services, improving
government efficiency, minimizing negative environmental impacts (6)
● There is a reasonable distrust of internet of things technology and data harvesting, so
governments need to enact data privacy laws to gain trust for new technologies, a way to
have your cake and eat it (9)
● Active citizen engagement is important for developing smart cities in developing
countries, such as embracing technology and being aware of the benefits that they get
from a smart city (10)
● Developing countries have a large push for smart cities, but still cant provide some basic
infrastructure, such as sewage systems and proper water drainage, which hamper the
development of smart cities (11)
● Many cities are not ready to use some technologies such as unequal access to the
internet and knowledge how to use them (11)
● The best steps needed are according to the source(17- 19)
○ Stepping up the effort to fulfill basic infrastructure
○ Raising new sources of revenues and diversifying resources for development of
smart cities
○ Creating new regulation for smart city governance
○ Developing new skills and talent for the population and promoting digital
inclusivity
○ Making it more easier for more new startups and partnerships to create
businesses
○ Civilian participation in the new technologies
○ Promoting environmental sustainability

Reflection/credibility
 ● Smart cities are a path where developing countries could invest into creating a better
standard of living. Governments of developing countries could take advantage of this
with investing in infrastructure monetarily and regulations.
● Published on reputable publisher MDPI with an extensive list of credible citations

Source 7: Energy Accessibility

Castaño-Rosa, R., & Okushima, S. (2021). Prevalence of energy poverty in Japan: A

comprehensive analysis of energy poverty vulnerabilities. Renewable and Sustainable

Energy Reviews, 145, 111006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111006

Topic/hypothesis
● The issue of accessibility for energy in already developed countries due to factors such
as cost, location, infrastructure, and more with Japan as the case study for the
hypothesis.

General Notes
● Energy poverty is known as the inability to achieve a sufficient level of energy services
(1)
● Domestic energy consumption include room heating, cooling, water heating, lighting,
cooking, home appliances, and ICT usages (1)
● There is a relationship between physical and mental issues toward energy poverty
● Energy poor houselands could even lead to death such as extreme temperatures to the
vulnerable such as elders (1)
● All countries face this issue even technologically advanced countries such as Japan,
which is becoming a bigger problem due to aging demographics (1)
● Carbon mitigation policies are having an adverse effect for affordability, like inability to
use cheap natural gas, which increases energy poverty (2)
● Areas with bad location, such as no accesses for solar energy due to geography, are at
a higher risk (2)
● Alternative energy sources like nuclear has a social stigma with the public, such as
incidents like Fukushima and Chernobyl (2)
● Mother-child and single-elderly households were the most vulnerable groups for energy
poverty (3)
● There is a tem “energy poverty premium” where domestic energy services are at a
higher cost for energy poor areas than the developed areas (3)
● Cost of energy is rising, as a study says 3.3% of house owners in Japan report late utility
payments (3)
● There is a term “hidden energy poverty” where for example where people might turn of
heating to save money on energy (3)
● Energy poverty is a complex issue with no clear and definitive answer and based on
accessibility, affordability, flexibility, efficiency, needs, and habits (4)
 ● New technologies are now being adopted for consumer usage, but it still has long ways
to go until we see their full impact (4)

Reflection/Credibility
● Accessibility to energy is still a major problem in all countries, even in developed
countries with high end technology. This issue mainly targets poorer areas and
vulnerable people such as the elderly. There are many already developed technologies,
such as green technologies as discussed before, being rolled out with high potential, but
there is still a lot of time for these technologies to reach everyone.
● Peer reviewed Journal with extensive list of citations

Source 8: e-waste management

Osibanjo, O., & Nnorom, I. (2007). The challenge of electronic waste (e-waste) management in

developing countries. Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable

Circular Economy, 25(6), 489-501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x07082028

Topic/hypothesis
● The issue of e-waste on how it's created, why it's there, why it's bad, and ideas of
prevention.

General Notes
● There is a trend of technologies getting less lifetime (2)
● Because of electronics getting more thrown away frequently, e-waste is becoming more
of a problem especially in developing countries (2)
● There is a absence of legislation dealing with e-waste specifically in most countries (2)
● There as been a massive growth in people accessing electronics, such as ICT products,
for the first time which increases the scale of e-waste (3)
● developed countries rely on cheaper refurbished technologies for everything spanning
from dish washers to PCs(3)
● Second hand technologies almost always end up in developing countries to be sold or
be scrapped (3)
● The reason why so much technology is being sent is to bridge the digital divide, but it's
done without thought of environmental and health consequences (3)
● Large amount of natural resources are used to make ICT device and hazardous waste
being exhausted from the creation (5)
● State of the art recycling facilities could alleviate the problem of disposing e-waste (5)
● Manufacturing and labor moved towards developing countries because of the lower cost
of wages (5)
● This caused more e-waste to be produced in developing countries, since all the
manufacturing takes place in developing countries (5)
 ● Since recycling methods are expensive, some countries just dumped the hazards into
rivers, burning it, or sent to landfills which cause major health effects(8)
● E-waste includes plastics, lead, and rare metals like gold (8)
● Most second hand exports, up to 75% of them are unusable from damage, causing a
boom of repair businesses in countries (9)
● Some people get e-waste and melt it down in a crude recycling process looking for
copper gold and silver, which is dangerous without proper procedure (9)

Reflection/Credibility
● With the growth of technologies reaching developing countries, a side effect of e-waste
being prevalent in such countries. This can create danger such as health risks but it can
also create opportunities such as repair businesses and harvest of rare metals. But
inorder to properly dispose or make use of e-waste the electronics need to be disposed
of correctly.
● Peer reviewed journal with extensive list at the bottom

Source 9: Comms tech on economy

Bahrini, R., & Qaffas, A. (2019). Impact of information and communication technology on

economic growth: Evidence from developing countries. Economies, 7(1), 21.

https://doi.org/10.3390/economies7010021

Topic/hypothesis
● The topic of the journal is about what ICT is, what it does for developing countries, and
how it impacts them positively or negatively. A hypothesis is done on what type of
telecommunication technology is best for developing countries using Middle Eastern,
North African, and Sub Saharan Africa as the case study.

General Notes
● ICT means information and communication technology (1)
● ICT infrastructure includes fixed line telephones, mobile phones, internet, and
broadband (1)
● ICT allows information, knowledge and wisdom to be spread across the world
● ICT allows efficiently of resource allocation, reduced production costs, and greeted
demand of investment everywhere (1)
● ICT is one the key technologies for a countries growth and development (1)
● ICT technologies can also cause negative effects (2)
● Some studies linked no to negative effects on economic growth on developing countries
(3)
● Researchers find the the final effect of new ICT tech as ambiguous for developing
countries, as the research is in its infancy such as in SSA and MENA regions (2)
 ● The growth caused by ICT can allow developing countries to compete on and take over
international markets (4)
● Some studies does show that only developed countries benefit from new ICT
technologies, causing developed countries to lag behind (4)
● There is a low level of investment in ICT tech in developing countries is because the lack
of business practices and appropriate government policies (4)
● Mobile phones have the most impact on growing developing countries while fixed
phones cause a negative impact (11)
● The findings of the study show that bad investments into technology causes a negative
growth in developing countries (11)

Reflection/Credibility
● ICT technologies are one of the most important technologies to get into as it carries
many advantages such as increasing efficiency and better communication. For
developing countries, investing into it has low risk and high reward, but it still carries a
risk.
● Peer reviewed Journal with extensive list of citations

Source 10:
Ye, Y., Chen, S., & Li, C. (2022). Financial technology as a driver of poverty alleviation in china:

Evidence from an innovative regression approach. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge,

7(1), 100164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2022.100164

Topic/hypothesis
● The journal focuses on the impact of fintech (financial technology) and if it helps richer
people or has an effect of poverty alleviation with China as the case study. China is a
perfect case study for this as it's a country that is bridging from developing to developed.
Evidence shows that fintech does do both but has a more positive effect on mostly
poorer regions.

General Notes
● Fintech is valuable in not in just providing for consumer but for businesses to create and
maintain (1)
● Fintech include insurance, digital payments, wealth management, basically anything to
do with finance or money (1)
● Fintech offers services such as credit managing, payments, investing, and market
support like crowdfunding (2)
● Fintech is incorporating new technologies as innovation occurs in areas like AI,
Blockchain, cloud computing, and big data (2)
● Fintech is much more accessible for vulnerable populations than traditional financial (3)
○ This is because of it being inexpensive, convenient, and more wide spreading
 ● Fintech is also very dynamic as it can apply to almost every demographic from people in
the city to rural farmers (3)
● Comparing upon 31 different provinces, the frequency of adopted fintech and the poverty
gap the data shows that since 2011 there has been a (10)
○ 10% decline in poverty in higher income provinces
○ 20% decline of poverty in lower income provinces

Reflection/Credibility
● Fintech is a pivotal technology in uplifting the less fortunate in financial situations.
Improving traditional services while implementing new ones like mobile banking allows
for more financial inclusion for everyone because of the new accessibility of managing
finances.
● Peer reviewed Journal with extensive list of citations at the bottom

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Topic/hypothesis
● Topic about labor

General Notes
● Notes (1)

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Reflection/Credibility
● Reflection technology is a good

Credibility highly credible

Source #: Template
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Topic/hypothesis
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General Notes
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Reflection/Credibility
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● Credibility
Potential sources
● https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439884.2019.1640740
● https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0734242X07082028
● Tech and health
● https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2019&q=technology+poverty&hl=en&as_sdt=
0,21&safe=active&surl=1
● Syihabudin, A., Jatnika, A. W., Singarimbun, A., & Khoiri, S. (2019). The development of
information technology applications of religious charity through humanities technology
approach. MIMBAR: Jurnal Sosial dan Pembangunan, 35(2), 352-359.
● https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarwat-Iqbal/publication/306040385_Technology-B
ased_Charity_Model_through_Enterprise_Architecture_An_Elderly_Case/links/57ac67d
508ae3765c3baa2be/Technology-Based-Charity-Model-through-Enterprise-Architecture-
An-Elderly-Case.pdf