The exponential growth of data and artificial intelligence is creating a tug-of-war between data for profit and data for the common good. In this struggle, it is fundamental that we protect our basic human data rights. Artificial intelligence will someday know you better than you know yourself. That day may be sooner than we realise with the amount of data collected on all humans and their environments increasing exponentially. So where are the rules, and what are our rights?...
Technical experts, government employees, academics and others are trained at an early age to shorten terms into acronyms. This makes their writing hard to read and difficult to locate on the Internet, writes Floyd Whaley, Editor of the Asian Development Blog, in his second guest post for the United Nations University. … Acronyms – or a series of letters that represent a longer phrase – are common in many professions and organisations but they are also a good way to FYRTCD your writing. Odd...
The excessive use of technical language in international development can keep vital information away from the people who need it the most. Gender-empowering multi-sectoral capacity building facilitates knowledge sharing and engages stakeholders in inclusive sustainability. If you understood that sentence, you probably work in the world of international development. If you did not understand it, you are part of the rest of the world that is essentially locked out of understanding much of the publ...
Climate change is not only about the environment – it also has major financial and institutional implications. This was the backstory to a recent report on ‘Risk Financing for Rural Climate Resilience in the Greater Mekong Subregion’ co-authored by GPAC² fellow Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn. The report was published in May 2017 by her former employer, the Asian Development Bank (ADB). … Can you give us more details about your report? Why is it both timely and important? Rural communities are us...