1. The document discusses how non-profit organizations and ICT can work together to promote human development through innovation. 2. It provides examples of ICT innovations in developing countries that improved access to education, healthcare and markets. 3. The document argues that non-profits can encourage responsible and sustainable use of ICT, and open new markets, while ICT companies can help non-profits deploy technologies for human development goals.

1. THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
Roberto Masiero
President THINK!
The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
ICT and Non-Profit :
Tales of innovation
Milan, 22/11/2010, Bicocca Campus
ICT Observatory of Non Profit

2. Summary
1. Innovation, Digital Technologies and Human
Development
2. ICT4D: Tales of innovation from the developing
countries
3. ICT for environmental and energy sustainability
4. For Profit or Non-Profit?
2
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

3. THINK! (The Innovation Knowledge Foundation) THINK!
is an international non-profit research institute – a
think tank – whose aim is to collect, process, share and
circulate information concerning the ways in which ICT,
digital and science-driven technologies can enable
innovation processes, economic growth and human
development in mature, emerging and less developed
countries in an era of energy and environmental
sustainability.
3THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
THINK!: an international think tank,
independent and non profit

4. Esther Duflo’s lessons
4
Co-founder of the Abdul Latif
Jameel Poverty Action Lab
She is a recipient of the 2010 John
Bates Clark Medal for economists
under the age of forty
• Academics versus
practitioners
• “ Our duty is to make
available our knowledge of
technology to the
development of less
developed countries “
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

5. 5
IT Investiments and development:
from neo-liberal theories…
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(hardware, software, applications
and telecommunications)
HIGHER
PER-CAPITA
INCOME AND GDP
FLEXIBLE
SUPPLY CHAINS
ACCESSIBLE
AND FLEXIBLE
WORK
OPPORTUNITIES
INCREASED
EFFICIENCY
HIGHER
QUALITY
GOODS AND
SERVICES
BETTER
DECISIONS
MAKING TOOLS
LARGER AND
MORE
EFFICIENT
MARKETS
NEW RESEARCH
TOOLS
LESS SEVERE
ECONOMIC
DOWNTURNS
FASTER
PRODUCTIVITY
GROWTH
INNOVATIVE
PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
MORE JOBS LOWER
INFLATION
ECONOMIC
COMPETITIVENESS
LOWER
PRICES
HIGHER
WAGES
INCREASED TAX
REVENUES
Source: ITIF
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

6. Sustainability as a:
“Supply Chain across Generations”
6
Sustainable development is
defined as development that
"meets the needs of the
present without
compromising the ability of
future generations to meet
their own needs”
- Brundtland Commission, 1987
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
ECONOMIC
PROSPERITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
STEWARDSHIP
Driving sustainability
improvements
“You can’t change what
you don’t measure…”
www.ICT4Green.euTHINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

7. 7THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
BETTER PUBLIC
SERVICE
DELIVERY
REDUCTION IN
HUMAN
ISOLATION
ACCESS TO
GLOBAL
MARKETS FOR
LOCAL SMEs
MORE JOBS
MORE
EFFICIENT
SUPPLY CHAINS
HIGHER
EFFICIENCY OF
INTERNAL
RETAIL
SYSTEMS
NEW SECTORAL
TOOLS
(E-HEALTH,
E-SCHOOL,
E-INCLUSION)
REDUCTION IN
INFORMATION
ASYMMETRIES
POVERTY
REDUCTION
HIGHER
PER-CAPITA GDP
BETTER QUALITY
OF LIFE
HIGHER
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HPI-2
HDI
…to a new concept of human
development
Source: ITIF

8. 8THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
Positioning mature & emerging
Countries in terms of access to digital
technologies vs. human development
DOI-HDI Correlation for Selected Nations
0,500
0,550
0,600
0,650
0,700
0,750
0,800
0,850
0,900
0,950
1,000
0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,80 0,90
Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)
HumanDevelopmentIndex(HDI)
CUBA
INDIA
INDONESIA
EGYPT
COLOMBIA
PERU
CHINA
MEXICO
MALAYSIA
RUSSIA
CHILE
UAE
ESTONIA
KOREA
SPAIN
ITALY
US
FINLAND CANADA
SINGAPORE
UK
SWEDEN
BRASIL
Source: THINK!
SOUTH AFRICA
MAROCCO

9. 9
Tales of Innovation :
Hole-In-the-Wall Education, India, Bhutan,
Cambogia, Africa
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
Hole-In-the-Wall Education

10. Tales of Innovation:
eHomemakers, Malesia
10THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
eHomemakers

11. Tales of Innovation:
Sambaina ICT Village, Madagascar
11
Remote Operation Centre in
Mahobong
Support Centre at
DiPSA – Milan
Satellitar
Connession through
Infopoverty
satellitar platform
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
Sambaina ICT Village

12. 12
Tales of Innovation:
Akshaya e-Centres, Kerala, India
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
Akshaya e-Centres

13. How ICT can help in enabling a
sustainable enterprise
13
Prevent magazine
obsolescence by Lean
Manufacturing and
donation program to
non-profits
Measure Impact of
Supply Chain to
embedded energy,
water and GHG
Identify
environmental
friendly and fair
trade sourcing
options for raw
materials
Reduce waste,
increase recycling
with take-back
service for end-of-
life products
Lower
environmental
impact of shipping,
delivering and
goods packaging
Use LCA in designing
sustainable
products and
processes
www.ICT4Green.eu
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

14. ICT for energy and
environmental sustainability
14
Nonprofits
• Encourage or force disclosure of corporations’
environmental commitments and performance
– The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) about GHG
– Greenpeace campaign on consumer electronics
– Fair Trade campaigns, Local NGO
Government
• Disclosure requirements, Cap & Trade
– GHG emissions for large emitters
• Mandatory and opt-in environmental labeling
– EU mandatory labeling of energy-using /related
products
– Energy Star label in the U.S.
Business
• Voluntary disclosure of sustainability efforts
– Wal-Mart launched the Sustainability Index:
– Patagonia publishes the “Footprint Chronicles”
– Financial sustainability Indexes: DJSI, FSTE4GOOD
• New services guiding consumers
– Good Guide environmental, health and social index of
over 60K products
Nonprofits, Governments and Business Supporting Consumer’s Increasing Demand For Transparency
New
Zealand
U
S
A
European
Union
www.ICT4Green.eu
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

15. 15
Who gets the
e-waste trash?
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

16. 16
Il Diamante dell’innovazione DigitaleEducation
Healthcare
Digital Cities and
Infomobility
eInclusion
Sharing processes
Sharing information
Sharing IT solutions
THINK!:
the “Diamond”
of Digital
Innovation
ICT4D

17. ICT and Non-Profit Organizations
• At the moment, except for some rare cases, in Italy
Non-Profit organizations are very fragmented and have
only occasional and marginal links with ICT…
• …on the other hand the ICT Industry has barely a vague
knowledge of the Non-Profit Sector and of its
potential…
• .. As a result ICT Industry is often simply recycling in
this sector general purpose products…
• … and the “NonProfit Manager” often remains an
Oxymoron.
17

18. For Profit or NonProfit?
However Non-Profit Organisations can play a key role:
• in promoting the use of ICT to facilitate human
development
• in ensuring energy and environmental sustainability of
New Technologies (Apple/Greenpeace case)
Furthermore Non-Profit may open-up new big markets as
Quality of Life, eInclusion, Education and Healthcare
both in Mature and in Less Developed Countries, that
until now have been barely addressed due to the short-
sighted views of most of the ICT Vendors
18THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

19. Orchestrating for Profit and Non-
Profit for the Human Development
So the future lies in a big effort for opening
communications and “orchestrating” the joint
commitment of Non-Profit Organizations and of
socially responsible ICT Companies.
While they are pursuing different sets of
objectives, they may have a number of common
interests that can favour the deployment of a
wider concept of human development.
19THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

20. Roberto Masiero
President THINK!
Mail: rmasiero@thinkinnovation.org
20
THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation
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