Centre for Digital Development (CDD)

Description

The Centre for Digital Development (formerly the Centre for Development Informatics) is a multidisciplinary research centre that explores the role of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital data in global development.

The aim of the Centre for Digital Development is to promote equitable and sustainable digital futures for development. Their research focuses on key development challenges, particularly global inequality, global poverty, and climate change.

Digital development refers to the application of digital systems in global development and encompasses four interconnected levels: data, information, and knowledge; information and communication technologies (ICTs); processes of learning, decision-making, communication, and action; and the broader human, organisational, and national context.

The Centre for Digital Development's work in digital development is characterised by:

• Multi-disciplinarity and inter-disciplinarity, bringing together computer/data science, information systems (including internet and platform studies), and development studies.
• Development focus, emphasizing the contribution of digital systems to global development.
• Lifecycle coverage, studying all five stages of the digital systems lifecycle, including development, implementation, adoption, use, and impact, as well as overarching issues of strategy and policy. According to Tony Roberts' categorisation, digital development refers to the presence and implications of a digitalised and data-driven context for global development processes and structures. It includes two subsets:
• Digital for Development: the deliberate design and application of digital tools explicitly for development outcomes and impact.
• Digital in Development: the use of digital technologies in the routine work of development institutions and actors.

Digital development encompasses a broader approach than techno-centric definitions such as Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which focuses on using ICTs to achieve specific development goals, or Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD), which examines the use of ICTs in developing countries. The research conducted at the Centre for Digital Development aims to foster just and sustainable digital futures for development.

The centre focuses on five key areas within digital development:

1. Digital Economy:
2. Digital Transformation:
3. Digital Inclusion:
4. Digital Sustainability:
5. Digital Theory:

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL