technology - The African Mirror

Feb

2021

Technology and supermarket chains can help strengthen southern Africa’s food systems

AGRICULTURE and agro-processing value chains have been under pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been particularly marked where they remain underdeveloped, as is the case in South Africa and the rest of the region. THANDO VILAKAZI, Executive Director of the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg NAMHLA LANDANI, Economist and Associate Researcher at the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg Regulatory responses to the pandemic disrupted agriculture and agro-processing activities. For example, agro-processing systems have been slowed down by rigorous border checks. Some countries, including South Africa, closed land border posts.…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Tech’s long COVID-19: What privacy battles will define 2021?

COVID-19

UMBERTO BACCHI THE coronavirus pandemic added a new layer to the ever-developing debate around privacy and technology in 2020, as governments and companies turned to tools like contract tracing apps and employee monitoring software. As the year comes to an end, the Thomson Reuters Foundation asked privacy experts around the world what issues will shape the conversation in 2021: MASS SURVEILLANCE - Ella Jakubowska, policy officer, European Digital Rights, Brussels "In 2021, one big challenge for civil society will be protecting fundamental rights in Europe from the threat of mass surveillance. On the one hand, the European Commission is poised…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Speedy deeds: Zanzibar goes digital to prove property ownership

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

KIM HARRISBERG A team of Zanzibari data collectors armed with tablets have gathered enough information from hundreds of people on the Tanzanian archipelago to issue each of them a deed to their land in 20 minutes - a process that typically takes up to five years. The project run by Kenya-based technology consulting company Spatial Collective has produced official documentation for about 700 land parcels in a southern town called Shakani since it launched last year. "With title deeds, people can get loans and they will have the security of knowing that, 'This is mine and no one will claim…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Digital democracy is still a long way off in Africa: it takes more than technology

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

NIC CHEESEMAN, Professor of Democracy, University of Birmingham LISA GARBE, Doctoral Researcher, University of St.Gallen FROM the mid-2000s onwards, the digital revolution raised hopes of democratic transformation and strengthening in Africa. But it hasn’t quite turned out like that. Now, almost a decade after the “Arab Spring”, techno-optimism has given way to techno-pessimism. African leaders have proved able to blunt the transformative potential of smart phones through censorship and internet shutdowns. When the internet is on, social media attracts more attention for spreading fake news than preventing election rigging. What was once thought of as “liberation technology” has turned out…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Password education should be age-appropriate: here’s how

EDUCATION

KAREN RENAUD, Visiting Professor of Cybersecurity, Rhodes University SUZANNE PRIOR, Lecturer in Computing, Abertay University CHILDREN are increasingly being exposed to, and using, technology from a very young age. This has never been more true than in 2020 when the vast majority of children worldwide have used online resources to access educational resources and communicate with family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the resources and websites used, along with the devices they are accessed on, require the use of a password to authenticate the user. However, young children don’t necessarily have the skills and knowledge required to…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

How smart investments in technology can beef up Africa’s economy

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

NOBLE BANADDA, Professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural and Bio Systems Engineering, Makerere University THERE is no shortage of technological innovations designed to boost animal agriculture in Africa. These range from GPS tracking systems which identify and trace pastoralists’ herds to livestock vaccine SMS services that alert farmers to disease outbreaks. But to unlock the economic potential of the sector as demand for meat and milk swells threefold towards 2050, countries must invest in the critical areas that will improve quality across the whole value chain. That is increasing productivity and quality from the breeding of the animal…