Future. Future! Future? Technology worldwide – between utopia and dystopia
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Vector spaceMultiplication signRoboticsMereologyInstance (computer science)CASE <Informatik>Video gameTime travelAxiom of choiceRight angleComputer animationJSONXMLUMLLecture/Conference
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Transformation (genetics)Digital signal processingProjective planeWordGoodness of fitLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Computing platformState of matterThread (computing)TwitterTerm (mathematics)Virtual machineLevel (video gaming)Online helpLecture/Conference
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MathematicsProfil (magazine)Graph coloringFlagTouchscreenVirtual machinePower (physics)Installable File SystemWeb pageElectric generatorRevision controlChainWell-formed formulaSoftware testingTriangleFormal grammarNumberSequenceMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
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FacebookReal numberSymbol tableDisk read-and-write headMetropolitan area networkWeb 2.0SpacetimeElectric generatorTouch typingForestTouchscreenRight angleSoftware crackingRippingSurreal numberGreen's functionLecture/Conference
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Multiplication signTime travelNegative numberComputing platformVirtual machineLecture/Conference
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Multiplication signLecture/Conference
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Digital divideSimilarity (geometry)FamilyProcess (computing)DigitizingGenderLecture/Conference
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Message passingInformationOrder (biology)AlgorithmSampling (statistics)ArmComputer animation
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Order (biology)Water vaporHeat transferDirection (geometry)Food energyMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
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CASE <Informatik>Multiplication signGodTwitterLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Open sourceData structureGenderDirected setHeat transferService (economics)Data structureProduct (business)Heat transferSoftwareDirection (geometry)Right angleOpen sourceDecision theoryShared memoryLecture/Conference
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Open setGenderHeat transferData structureOpen sourceSoftwareRight angleSoftware developerDigitizingLecture/Conference
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Digital mediaState of matterDigitizingEntire functionMathematicsGroup actionBit rateDialectVector potentialAcoustic shadowEvoluteForm (programming)Digital signal processingMixed realityMultiplication signPerspective (visual)Arithmetic meanLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaMixed realityInternetworkingInternet forumMultiplication signMereologyInformation securityInformationsgesellschaftDigitizingStrategy gameRight angleDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Cartesian coordinate systemElectronic GovernmentCategory of beingPlanningLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaDigitizingTask (computing)Vector potentialTwitterShape (magazine)Software developerLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaTraffic reportingDigital divideSoftwareContent (media)Equaliser (mathematics)Level (video gaming)InternetworkingDigitizingAxiom of choiceCartesian coordinate systemFormal languageComputer hardwareInformationMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaProcess (computing)Content (media)Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber lineSmartphoneDigitizingDigital signal processingInternetworkingMobile WebPhysical systemFigurate numberAdditionLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaDigital electronicsPerspective (visual)Software developerEvoluteQuicksortLocal ringDuality (mathematics)MathematicsTask (computing)InternetworkingDigital signal processingDigitizingSpeech synthesisInformationOrientation (vector space)Group actionCore dumpStrategy gameFocus (optics)AreaRight angleCondition numberFreewareVector potentialShape (magazine)Key (cryptography)Digital RevolutionView (database)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Digital mediaFocus (optics)Software developerDigitizingShape (magazine)Order (biology)TwitterRevision controlUniqueness quantificationMathematicsStrategy gameField (computer science)Projective planeMultiplication signLevel (video gaming)Power (physics)NumberStaff (military)Object (grammar)Ocean currentTerm (mathematics)Vector potentialConcentricINTEGRALNormal (geometry)CyberspaceComputer hardwareRight angleReal numberDivision (mathematics)Digital signal processingData storage deviceInternet der DingePresentation of a groupProduct (business)CuboidBitObservational studyDigital electronicsStudent's t-testBit rateCompass (drafting)Rule of inferenceLattice (order)Near-ringReal-time operating systemYouTubeProcess (computing)Video projectorFrequencyLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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DigitizingTwitterACIDLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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BitDecision theoryVideo gameMultiplication signInternetworkingLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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TelecommunicationDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Internet forumField (computer science)Fitness functionStatisticsEmailLecture/Conference
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Surface of revolutionArchaeological field surveyTraffic reportingBitSoftware developerNumberSurface of revolutionTask (computing)
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UsabilityTrailMereologySocial classTask (computing)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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CNNHill differential equationExtreme programmingEwe languageDuality (mathematics)NumberChemical equationBit rateOcean currentMultiplication signEscape characterArithmetic progressionAreaReduction of orderBitGreen's functionDependent and independent variablesDirection (geometry)Mixed reality2 (number)Set (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Menu (computing)Graphical user interfaceFinite element methodBitNumberSoftware developerMultiplication signTrailOcean currentMomentumTraffic reportingElectric generatorLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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EstimatorData modelLecture/Conference
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Open setMaxima and minimaMultiplication signINTEGRALSoftware testingOnline helpE-learningPrisoner's dilemmaLecture/Conference
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Instance (computer science)Moment (mathematics)E-learningINTEGRALConnectivity (graph theory)Programmer (hardware)Process (computing)Vapor barrierUniverse (mathematics)Public key certificateState of matterSocial class1 (number)Formal languageKeyboard shortcutMultiplication signLevel (video gaming)Complex (psychology)Point (geometry)Student's t-testType theoryPhysical systemOpen setFreewareHeat transferBitComputer configurationSurfaceStandard deviationRoutingPower (physics)Ocean currentFood energyComputer programmingGoodness of fitWebsitePrice indexLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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BuildingRoboticsMoment (mathematics)Letterpress printingLocal ringProduct (business)DigitizingLecture/Conference
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MathematicsDean numberDigitizingQuicksortStudent's t-testSystem administratorUniverse (mathematics)Computer hardwarePoint (geometry)SpacetimeNeuroinformatikMixed realityDegree (graph theory)CASE <Informatik>Process (computing)BitShared memoryRight angleMultiplication signLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Combinational logicVirtual machineQuicksortCASE <Informatik>Standard deviationFilm editingDisk read-and-write headVideoconferencing
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BuildingMassOffice suiteInsertion lossCategory of beingMultiplication signBlock (periodic table)QuicksortLetterpress printingSelf-organizationField (computer science)Order (biology)Likelihood functionMereologyData structureVirtual machinePlanningProjective planeInternet service providerLecture/ConferenceComputer animationMeeting/Interview
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Virtual machineControl flowMereologyBasis <Mathematik>Projective planeQuicksortUniverse (mathematics)Self-organizationProcess (computing)WordRoboticsFlow separationProteinModal logicReal numberCASE <Informatik>State of matterLevel (video gaming)Multiplication signOrder (biology)Product (business)Type theoryLecture/Conference
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Digital signal processing1 (number)Transformation (genetics)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Digital mediaNumberRoundness (object)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:20
we're going to travel in time to the year 2030. But before we jump in our time machine, I would love to know how you think, what you think your life will be like in the year 2030. So please raise your hand if you would love to have a personal robot who helps you with your daily choices in the year 2030. All right. That's a majority.
00:46
I'd love to have it today already. And how many of you would buy this robot from a company that's part of Africa's burgeoning high-tech manufacturing sector in the year 2030 instead of Samsung or Apple for instance? Okay, so there is
01:07
interest. The digital transformation is happening globally and today we focus on the question, the developing countries actually benefit from this transformation or will there be a disadvantage? You are going to listen to six speakers and
01:27
they will all share their projects and their expertise with you. The first speaker, she told me that she's actually pretty optimistic about the digital transformation but today she will focus on the negative aspects
01:43
so please enjoy a poem on a dystopia by the spoken word artist, Pouno Selesio from South Africa. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having me on your
02:02
platform. The poem that I'm going to be reciting is called To Be Human Again. Newsfeed, timeline, Instagram thread, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, TED, newsfeed, timeline, TV trends, Pinterest, headset, Reddit, TED, refresh the feed, fill up the
02:21
trough, the little piggies are coming in their billions to shove their snouts in each other's junk. NHX talks about the digital dystopia. A lady used the term consensual hallucination, an agreement to disconnect in the flesh and reengage on a hypothetical stage. Have you ever thought about those who
02:40
don't have access to these machines you possess? The factionless, the untouchables, no longer audible. The cries of the poor have been muffled and your hearts are deaf. Without these elite tools, their help me has faded. But sure, change your profile picture to the colours of some African flag.
03:00
I'm sure the hungry lad will be glad you did it. I'll even heart it. I don't mean to dampen your efforts, but you seem to think that you can stop thinking now that everything else around you is smart. Well, then use your heart. Empathy is free. And oh, how the West likes to puff its chest and tell Africa of all the new technology it can give. Just another cargo
03:25
ship full of empty promises and enough carrots to dangle until we are strangled with debt and chains once again. Slowly stacking these machines as high as a wall on our shores. On one side we have nots. On the other, we haves. And I'll have you know, our cultures are more
03:43
than just throwing lots. With woven within our wizard tongues or histories, formulas and creations, inventions and secrets of defiant nations, all to be overshadowed by tiny flickering screens and lifeless machines. But let's bring it back to you and me. With the digital craze, we've
04:03
been given the power to live in the what ifs and the maybes, allowing them to shape our inner realities. But these glamorised, glitzy, fast paced virtual pages cannot be translated into reality. So we crumble in sobriety. Friends, I'm talking depression, loneliness, dissatisfaction
04:21
and anxiety. Other generations will be known for the heroes they gave us. We'll be known for creating grand online versions of ourselves, claiming yet failing to be saviours. You can't fill a hall of fame with false, selfish selfies. Who are we really? Addicted? Addicted to affirmation, confirmation that you matter, that you're not just a
04:43
number. But what happens when your increase in popularity gnaws at your sanity? We have constantly flooded with content, yet discontent, disconnected, dejected, always itching for a fix, fearing the fear of rejection. Who are we really? I think the new Facebook
05:02
symbol should be the head of Beelzebub. You know, the pig from Lord of the Flies? Because in this imaginary land, this republic of man, everybody just wants the conch. The chance to have their own voice known above the other. So we abandon morality and common decency and rip each other apart daily. Refresh the feed, fill up
05:23
the trough. The little piggies are coming in their billions. Watch them as they dunk in each other's junk. Man, do I fear what we've become. A generation eager to please, yet when unable to commit, just click interested. We're so isolated, yet we crave a touch. We've
05:42
let the world in on all our secrets. Nothing is sacred, yet we get angry at the thought of surveillance. Do you even still know how to play? To frolic in a forest without glancing at it on a teeny tiny HD screen? Put it down. Look up, marvel at the surreal swirl of green spread thickly around us on this grand
06:03
canvas. Expand your lungs, open up your throat and find pleasure in a real flower scent. Allow your senses to collide with the scary world. Taste the magic, feel the wonder, sniff the glory and listen to a voice filled with stories. Be here. Be human
06:22
again. Stop searching for me in the world wide web was it should be called the wild wild west. I'm right here. And I'd like to respond so close to you close enough to hear the hum of your thoughts. Once you join me in this place and seeking such a space. Lastly, allow me to remind you of something that
06:43
some of you have forgotten or won't ever even know. Silence, peace, tranquility. All you really know is busy, isn't it?
07:01
Technology is loud verbose and overly present and stillness. Stillness has fallen through the cracks. Friends, let's be humans again. Thank you so much. Thank you, Puno. Thank you, Puno.
07:37
Well, this was really moving. But let's now jump on our time
07:43
machine in our time machine and travel to the year 2030. Let's just forget about all the negative sides. And imagine everything goes just perfectly. So please enjoy a talk on a utopian scenario scenario by Joanna Breidenbach. She's the
08:04
godmother of the better place lab. And as a co founder of Germany's largest donation platform, better place lab, betterplace.org. Joanna.
08:53
So now it's second time. Yeah, that's better. It's great to be here. Earlier this year, I was in India on a research trip
09:03
looking at the digital gender divide. And there in the basement of New Delhi NGO called feminist approaches to technology. I met a really lovely young 19 year old girl Simram from an urban slum. Simram loves technology. And
09:27
fast forward to the year 2030. And I believe Simram is going to have a good job in the Indian tech sector. And she's going to have a family and a young daughter called Shashi.
09:43
Now one day Shashi in kindergarten will fall ill. An implant in her fingertip will notice a rise in temperature. A rise in temperature will be generalized. Simram, the mother is going to receive a text message at work. Informing her
10:05
that her daughter has been falling ill with malaria. And that there are a few treatments on offer. Now, Simram is going to file a request with the WHO in order to get funding
10:27
payments. An algorithm is going to accept her funding request. And Simram can place an order and she will receive immediately a direct cash transfer on her mobile account.
10:48
She will then place an order with a local laboratory. And they will print a personalized medication for Shashi which will be delivered by drone within two hours of the initial
11:04
diagnosis. Sorry, I need to take some water. Dinner that
11:20
very night. Simram and Shashi are going to talk about the year 2017. When there were every single day 1200 people dying of malaria, children dying of malaria. And this means 50 children every hour. This very hour we spend here at
11:42
Republica. And they will thank the Hindu God of medicine that thanks God, things have changed and their situation is so much better. This is only one case from India. In this trend radar 2030, which you can find in the hall, we have published many cases and many scenarios
12:02
which we believe will be reality in 2030. By this time, many problems will be saved. We will have a robust global worldwide interconnected digital infrastructure. We will also have a high tech literacy for men and women. And
12:24
there will be many decentralized production structures. They will be able to create personalized medicine, but also communities will be able to create and 3D print their own shelters and houses. There will be, if we
12:40
make the right decisions now, widespread open source software, which people all over the world will benefit because they can fluidly share resources, services and products. And I believe that direct cash transfers will eliminate many of the existing donor structures we will
13:00
have today. So that people will actually be able to take care of themselves locally. I stand here as a utopist, but I very strongly believe that this is a very real utopia. Thank you.
13:25
Thank you, Joanna. Well, this sounds like a pretty awesome future, right? But what does it take to get there? So let's go back to the year 2017. And listen to Thomas Silverhorn. He's the Parliamentary State Secretary to
13:42
the BMZ. And he's going to take us through the digital agenda for development cooperation. Thank you.
14:02
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure for me to talk to you and discuss with you the challenges and the opportunities of digitalization in our globalized world. Thank you for these examples we just heard. And this gives us a lot of hope that many will
14:24
be able to benefit from the wealth created by digital means. But at the same time, we have to be open for the challenges and the risks that entire groups of people of regions of countries are forgotten and
14:43
left behind in the shadows of this bright digital future. So between these perspectives of utopia and dystopia, the fact is that unexpected changes await us and we cannot afford to do to just to sit on the sidelines of
15:04
history and watch as the future unfolds, we will need to actively shape the evolution of digital transformation. That is the only way to unleash its full potential for mankind for as many people as possible.
15:21
So it's a mix of opportunities and challenges we are confronted with. And that's why we need guidance. And for example, through the digital agenda of our federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, we want to develop such a strategy and to create the
15:42
guidance we need. I just have the pleasure now to officially present to you our thoughts and our ideas on how to proceed. There's a lot that can be learned from the past. The digital community of today is quite
16:01
young. Therefore, some of you might not recall the two global summits on the internet, which took place in 23 and 25. These so-called world summits on the information society were the first forums to discuss the future of the digital world. In Geneva, 12,000
16:22
delegates and in Tunis, 17,000 delegates from around 175 countries were asked, and I quote, to take concrete steps to establish the foundations for an information society for all. At that time, the digital possibilities were very different from what we have
16:44
today, not yet encompassing every part of our daily lives. But even then, these two global summits were full of controversy. Some hailed the internet as the solution to almost all the problems of our world. And others pointed to the new challenges the digital age
17:01
would bring with it, such as data security, intellectual property rights, internet governance, and human rights issues. What were the outcomes of these summits? Different plans and goals were drafted, the Geneva plan of action, and the Tunis agenda for the information
17:21
society. Today, 10 years later, or in 2015, 10 years later, these summits' outcomes were reviewed. It's interesting to note that most of what had been anticipated 10 years earlier had not taken place. The technologies, applications, and policies that we have now had not even
17:43
been thought of back then. From this, we can draw some lessons. When we develop strategies and policy guidelines which look at the future, we need to avoid a technocratic or overly deterministic approach, and we need to stay flexible. The failure of these summits to
18:02
anticipate the future is probably one reason why we are here today. The Republica and other digital conferences and commercial fairs have taken over the task of discussing the potentials and challenges of the digital world. And most importantly, today, we've understood what
18:22
we must do about digitalization. We want to use and shape digitalization for sustainable development worldwide. And in that regard, we have a lot of work to do. Right now, many are excluded from the great digital trends we are discussing here at the Republica. The
18:41
digital divide is a reality, and it may even become wider. This is one of the key findings of the 2016 World Bank Development Report. Half of the world's population is offline today. But not by choice. Most of the people who do not have any access to the internet
19:01
and to internet-related tools live in developing countries. In Africa today, 75% of all people never use the internet. Not because they don't want to, but because of a lack of infrastructure, hardware, software, skills and relevant content, or because internet
19:21
use is unaffordable for them. Furthermore, most of the content on the internet is only in one language, in English. So how can, for example, a young father in Somalia looking for helpful information about his child's illness benefit from the tremendous knowledge that is
19:42
theoretically available online? Equal opportunities and access for all communities are important so that people can decide at the local level how best to make use of digitalisation. Access is not only about having a smartphone or an internet cafe around the corner, it's
20:02
also about digital skills and relevant content, because high-speed internet by itself will not save the world. The digital transformation has the potential to create hundreds of millions of new jobs in our partner countries in Africa, in Latin America and in Asia.
20:24
Already today, households in developing economies are more likely to have access to a mobile phone than to electricity or clean water. Additionally, more than 300 million people are already using mobile payment systems. Today, the internet is boosting Africa's GDP by $18 billion.
20:44
That figure will rise to $300 billion in additional GDP in the next few years. In some developing countries, the digital technologies already in use are more advanced than
21:02
those being used in Europe. By the way, this is a very new perspective in development policy, that in our partner countries, the economic evolution is stronger, faster, and more innovative, more creative than we are used to
21:22
perceive it in Germany, in Europe, in industrialised countries. Young developers working in impact hubs in Kigali, Lagos or Nairobi are working on creative, innovative digital solutions to solve local challenges. We want to foster these local innovative ideas, and we want to
21:43
harness the digital transformation for sustainable development. We are aware of the painful duality of the digital transformation. The technology that empowers you can also subjugate you. The digital transformation is certainly not a cure for everything. The challenges for
22:03
humanity will not be resolved through digital technologies alone. But we believe we have a moral obligation to make the potential of digitalisation a reality and shape these developments. That's why I'm here today, and that's why we
22:21
have identified digital development as one of our core focus areas in German development cooperation. The topic is not new to us. We have been shaping technology policies and integrated tech tools in our development work since the late 1990s. But today, the sheer speed of
22:41
digital change makes this task far more essential and more urgent than it used to be. Already today, the internet is not the free place it used to be ten years ago. Things are changing quickly, and in many places, freedom is at risk. Yet freedom of speech and access to information are key issues for human development. So we
23:04
strongly believe that only if people have the chance to access information, to use the internet and to express their views freely, will they be able to assert other rights like education or fair working conditions. And thus, we want to empower people. The German government
23:22
was one of the advocates for including free access to information in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that has been adopted by nearly all the countries in the world in September 2015. What we need to do right now is actively formulate what we want the digital world to look
23:42
like. We need orientation, and of course, we need action. Because the future is neither black nor white. And for this purpose, we have drafted a strategy paper entitled Harnessing the Digital Revolution for Sustainable Development. Rather than repeating the mistakes made at conferences 10 years ago, we want to focus on
24:03
democratic values and on empowering those who will shape digital developments in Africa, Latin America and Asia. We want our strategy paper to serve as a compass for an uncertain policy future, which can be used to chart a course between utopia and dystopia. And we want to
24:23
implement this digital agenda with all of you in the very flexible way I mentioned before so that we are not finding ourselves 10 years later and assessing the mistakes we could make today. So we have to flexibly adapt our policy
24:41
strategies in a way that we can compete with the speed and the potential of digitalization. In 2015, I stood on this very stage telling you that my ministry has about 160 ongoing projects with digital technologies at their
25:03
core. Today, we have more than twice that number and are implementing around 350 projects across the world in 75 countries with a total investment of around 1.3 billion euros. This is a huge step forward in German development
25:24
cooperation. And let me take the opportunity to thank my staff who are present here for this brilliant job they did these last two years. 1.3 billion euros. This amount might sound surprising for a ministry that is not
25:42
traditionally a digital ministry. But our partner countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are investing heavily in digital infrastructures. They demand digital projects and digital support because they know as well as we do that the future is digital. We also want
26:01
to look ahead, anticipate developments and use them for sustainable development for all. We therefore scan the future periodically. We do this through projects like the trend radar by better place which we are proud to have supported. It's a stunning and clever look at our world in
26:21
2030. We have just heard Joanna Breitenbach of better place describing her YouTube version of the future. But I can assure you that the trend radar takes a very balanced and unique look at trends set to unfold such as big data, the global maker movement, the future implications of the
26:42
Internet of Things or so-called FinTech solutions in the financial sector. We will continue to stay up to date with changes as they evolve, adapting the strategies in our field of international development accordingly. And given the pace of digital transformation, one thing is
27:00
sure, we will need to adapt constantly in order to stay up to date. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce three people who will give us concrete examples of how we can shape our digital future instead of being shaped by it. We will hear more about how we can better visualize and
27:22
understand poverty rates and how they evolve in real time around the globe. This presentation is given by Dr. Wolfgang Fengler from World Data Lab. Then we'll also see how Africa is reinventing its computer hardware and production and industry with digital manufacturing. This presentation
27:44
is from Dr. Kamau Gachigi from Gearbox. I hope I pronounced it correctly. And finally, we'll hear more from Ahmad Moiabed about how digital tools are helping him get access to higher education. Mr. Moiabed is from
28:05
Kiron, a study tool for students. It's through initiatives and stories like yours that our strategy, our digital agenda will be filled with life. So thank you very much for joining this conference. In the near future,
28:23
it's likely that the division of or concentration of power will be more pronounced. This will make it more difficult for us for civil society to change rules or integrate norms in cyberspace. And therefore, I want to call upon you to become active. Get involved. Join NGOs that are
28:44
working on shaping our digital future. Advocate for digital rights and real digital opportunities. We are not the passive objects of current developments. We are active subjects. You all are active subjects in this development. So
29:01
it's up to us how we shape the future. The time is now. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you very much for your support, for your creativity, and for your innovative power. I wish you all the best for your projects and your work. Thank you very much.
29:26
Thank you very much, Mr. Ziberon. And if you're more interested in the digital agenda, you can get a copy later here. And we also have the trend. So just grab a coffee if you like. And talking about trends, and now we
29:41
are listening to three very personal stories on how the future is already here. Wolfgang Thangler is World Bank lead economist, and he's going to tell you more about on how to track poverty in the world.
30:08
Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Minister. Thank you very much all for allowing, giving me the opportunity to launch the World Poverty Clock here today in Berlin at Republica, and thank you to the Ministry of Development Corporation for supporting this endeavour. I want to first
30:23
tell you a bit what fascinated me about this activity and want to take you a few years back to the year of German reunification, 1990. I just finished high school, and I made a decision to travel through Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. This picture was taken in eastern
30:40
Kenya on the way to Somalia. And when I look back at this, what was still my most important trip in my life, I look back at this, I'm still impressed how my mother handled it. I'm the only child, and at that time, remember, there was no internet. There were no cell phones even. They just started to emerge, and there was no
31:02
email. So communication was letters and postcards, for those of you who remember what that is. So I have now three children, two of them are teenagers themselves, and they may soon take a trip like this as well, and I would have mixed feelings, although they lived actually in southern
31:20
countries, but there's one big difference. They are connected. I could check in with them and chat almost every day, and so that would probably give me more comfort than my mother had. But so you heard many talks now about how not just here in this forum of how the world is changing and reshaping all of us, so is it really is a digital world all around us in every aspect? Actually,
31:42
it's not. It's not. And paradoxically, it's not in the field of data. In the field of data statistics and economics. We still operate like we did in the 20th century. We still, you know, we commission a survey, it takes months, we collect the data, another few months, and a few years, then the report comes by telling the
32:01
things that happened three years ago. That's a bit outdated. That's why world leaders, including Angela Merkel, our Chancellor, called for a data revolution for the SDGs. The SDGs, sustainable development goals, shorthand for making the world a better place by 2030. These are the 17 SDGs. Goal number one, as you know,
32:22
is ending extreme poverty, which is defined at $1.90 per day, so extreme poverty, which you typically find in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. So those are the tasks at hand. How can you make the data revolution work for the SDGs, especially for poverty? What would it take? It actually takes, in a simple visual, it takes
32:41
a data refinery. It takes a data refinery. A data refinery, basically think of oil. Oil last century was had to be refined to make useful. So the same things happen with data. You basically have to extract it, you have to distill it, and then you have to make it less than usable. And then you can
33:01
answer three big questions. These three big questions. Is the world getting better? Think about it. Is the world getting better? Is the world on track to end poverty? How fast is the world getting better? Or for the pessimists among you, how fast is it getting worse? Can you actually measure that? And where is it getting better, and why not?
33:22
These are the big questions. So that's now the task at hand. We had a big team of tech entrepreneurs, we had teams in Kenya, we had teams actually the father of the SDGs who works at the Brookings Institution, was part of our team, and we have a lot of work to do. So I'm proud to share with you after this the world poverty clock. That's the number at hand. 652 million
33:42
people are currently in poverty, and this clock is, however, ticking. And you can actually see it here. We have a response to answer one. Let me just make this a little bigger here. Apologies for that. So is the world getting better? Yes.
34:08
Poverty is being reduced. It's actually being reduced by 1.1 people per second, and it's already today 83,000 people escaped poverty. But it's 23,000 who fell back into poverty.
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So still a mixed story, but on balance it's better. How fast, as I just mentioned, 1.1 people per second is the current rate. So that's fast, but as you see, it's not fast enough to meet the global goal of 1.5 people per second. So we need actually to speed up. Will we speed up? What does the data show us? Are we speeding up? Let's
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go forward to 2020, and unfortunately, no. 2020, there'll be fewer people in poverty, 573 million by then, but these poverty escape rate will have dropped to 0.8. So that's the challenge at hand. How can we accelerate poverty reduction in the world? Now, where is poverty being reduced? And
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that's why we are very proud, because this data set has almost all countries and 99.7% of the world's population in there. You have the countries which very little extreme poverty by the definition I told you, also many countries in Europe. You have green countries that really making good progress and would meet that target.
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You have yellow countries that make slow progress and red countries where things are getting, where poverty is actually increasing, they are moving in the wrong direction. So let me show you three countries. Kenya, a country I know reasonably well, where I also lived recently, currently 11 million people in poverty.
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Escape rate, 30, 29 people per minute. So if I had more time, you would see the clock ticking, because every two minutes, one person would escape poverty in Kenya. That's progress, but it's not fast enough. You would need 90 people per minute, as you see, to make poverty history in Kenya. So let's go to another country, the most populous country in
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actually Africa, Nigeria. And Nigeria is a challenging country, because in Nigeria, you have 74 million poor people today, and every minute, eight people fall back into poverty. Actually, the IMF just came out with growth forecasts, so Nigeria is growing a little bit, 1%, but population growth is growing more
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rapidly. That's why you just saw somebody fall back into poverty in Nigeria. So that's one of the big future challenges, and I'll tell you why. Remember this number, 73 million. It will actually get a little bit worse because of the current situation. So by next year, next republica, it will be around 77 million. So let's go to another country. We heard of it before today, India. Today, actually, the country
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with the most poor people. India today has above 100 million poor people. This is India, 100 million poor people today, 101 million poor people. In two weeks, however, India will have been below the 100 million, and India is reducing poverty very rapidly, almost one person
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per minute, one person per second, 54 people per minute. That's why the clock is ticking so fast. So what is happening in the next year's republica? Next year's republica, India will have reduced poverty by more than 25 million, and for the first time in our generation, India will not be the country with the most poor people in the world. You remember the first time in the last year, it was 77. Now it's
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76 then. So then, India, if India keeps on track with its current development momentum, then already by 2021, India will be below three per cent, which officially has been set now as the target for being close to ending poverty or achieving the aim. So then India will have more or less succeeded. Wouldn't that
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be a great headline for the news? A headline again you didn't know so far because we haven't had the data model, so I really hope you enjoy this. I hope you find your own countries, you find out which countries will soon end poverty with other countries which need extra effort, and which need to find out why countries are not making as much
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progress, and try to make the data better, because these are estimates, but once you make it better and more granular, you can find even out more. So with that, enjoy the tool. Thank you for giving me the chance to launch it. Thank you very much. This will certainly help
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politics and other initiatives. I'm going to introduce you now to Ahmed Mobaid. He's a refugee from Syria who came here to Germany just two years ago, and he will tell you his very personal story on how educational integration can
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be a success with the help of the e-learning programme, Kairan. Enjoy. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity that you gave me that I'm here and telling you a personal story, and I hope it will be meaningful and inspiring for many of you.
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So I'm going to talk about a journey I've made in the last one and a half year, which is also a great experience. But before that, I will tell you a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Syria. A few months after I finished my high school, demonstrations took place in my
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hometown. I had to leave. I went to Turkey where I stayed three months, learned some Turkish and then went to Cyprus. In Cyprus, I was enrolled at the university. At the end of that year, I had to leave for financial reasons and go back to Turkey where I was working for three years. Unfortunately, no education, black market and
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really hard circumstances. In June 2015, I just realised that doing the trip, the Balkan Route trip to Germany is the only option I'm left with. So I started preparing for two types of journeys. The first one was the physical from Turkey to Germany, and the second one was educational. Now, having an access to the car educational
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system in Germany or in Europe in general is like a whole journey that immigrants have to go through. And at that time, I started like asking friends, searching, visiting websites, looking for scholarships. And after like one month of what you can call like a little research, I found out there are two main barriers that immigrants face while they're trying to get
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an access to university. And the first one is language. And there are many reasons why language is a barrier for people who doesn't know the language and they should learn it. But generally, like it takes a lot of time and effort to acquire a high level of German language, for instance. And even though the
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integration programme that is supported by the state only covers up to a certain level, which is not enough to enter university. So if you need to acquire a higher level, you have to go for an advanced courses that either you should find someone who support you or you pay by yourself, which is also a problem. And the second barrier is documentations, is documents. As we know, like bureaucracy is
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accomplished thing in Europe is not a simple thing. And many refugees, they have the lack of the documents to enter university. Those documents could be a high school certificate or even if the high school certificate exists, it might not fulfil the requirements asked like needed by a university. So having those two
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things in mind, I kept on searching. I did not give up until I found Chiron Open Higher Education. And the idea of Chiron is an NGO that is pretty much working in the same way of the Erasmus exchange programme. And what they do is they try to help refugees to integrate into the higher educational system by offering
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them free online courses. And what they do is they offer like free online courses for refugees in English. This is first and second. They do not require any type of bureaucratic complexity. It's only a paper that you have to show to prove that you are an asylum seeker. So in 2015, I joined Chiron and I
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started taking their online courses. And after that, the point is, after you take a certain amount of courses with Chiron, they transfer you to a party university. And how they do that is since they are not a recognised university,
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what they do is they sign learning agreements with universities who are interested in enrolling Chiron students after they finish certain amounts of courses. And in 2015, when I arrived in Germany, I started with Chiron. I was able to finish some amount of courses by, I would say, May 2016, and I got scholarship at one of
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the partner universities of Chiron, which is Bard College, Berlin. And now I'm finishing my first year after the transfer and the courses, the classes I took with Chiron, the online ones are recognised and they are recognised as ECTS credits. To say one more thing about the idea of Chiron and online
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education in general, according to my experience, I see it as pretty much as a shortcut that most of the immigrants need. The immigrants, they come and they already have been away from universities and schools for a long time. They need like a quick and simple solution. They do not need like a very complex and long-term
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solutions. And I found that in Chiron, like they made this shortcut, they made this kind of, they were able to bridge the gap that the offline education is not able to bridge at the moment. And, again, in general, like I would say that, and, again, according to my experience, I see Chiron as the idea of the use of online
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education is a great component of offline education that can faster and like make the process of integration much faster and much easier. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. In the beginning, I asked you
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whether you would like to buy your personal future robot from an African brand. And you were pretty interested. But at the moment, the local industrial production in many African countries is very low. But there are visionary technologists who are looking to change the situation already. And we are very happy that
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Dr Kamau Kashigi is here today. He's the founder of Gearbox, and he's going to tell you more about the opportunities of digital fabrication like 3D printing. Thank you very
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much. It's a real pleasure to be here. My story began when I left Kenya to study at university in the 80s, and I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to do my higher education, my undergraduate degree in the UK, and then later on my master's and PhD in the US. When I
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finished then, I went to Japan and worked for a year and a half, sorry, two and a half years doing research for a firm there called TDK, and then went back home because I felt very strongly that I needed to apply what I'd learned and been fortunate enough to be exposed to back in my country for the obvious reasons. When I got there, unfortunately, it was really difficult for
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me to apply what I'd learned because in the university, there wasn't the equipment necessary to do the sort of research that I had become accustomed to. And so very quickly, I had to change hats and become sort of an administrator trying to raise funds and trying to see whether I can get the facilities set up at the university so I could do what I needed to, and all the while carrying on teaching anyway. And basically, I was able at some point
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in 2009 to convince the government to buy a fab lab for the University of Nairobi. That's a digital fabrication lab. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this concept. There's one in Berlin. And the idea basically is that you're allowing people to be able to use these tools to design things using the computers and then
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to be able to fabricate them right there and then. This was a wonderful experiment at the University of Nairobi. We had great success. And we found that the students who had been used to doing everything in silos, if you were a mechanical engineer, all that you did, including your practicals, was only with mechanical engineers. But here we had a space where they could all mix and people who were not
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engineers at all could also be in the very same space. And so it kind of opens up the space for innovation and for all kinds of interesting things to happen. And we did find this was the case. At one point, in fact, the Dean of Engineering came to me and said, it happens that most of the students who are enrolled at the Fab Lab, who are in the Fab Lab very frequently, are failing their exams. And I was
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really puzzled. And I looked into it and I found he was right. And the reason was that they were getting tools and they were going out into the city and getting jobs using the tools that they had acquired in the Fab Lab. So it was actually a really nice problem to have. I had to counsel them a little bit, but basically it was wonderful to see that kind of success. I moved on and worked with people who were at the iHub. I've met a lot of people
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here who are familiar with the iHub in Nairobi. And the iHub had an idea for a hardware space. I had the same idea. We came together and we set up Gearbox. And so I left the university mostly because the bureaucracy there was too slow for what I felt I wanted to see happening. And I want to share with you some of what we've been doing in Gearbox. This is a video of a device, a machine that we've made.
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It's kind of a culmination of many years of work. And this is actually an advert because the person who made this machine is now selling these machines. In fact, he sold one of the machines to a company which is now fabricating sheet metal for fabrication of vehicles for GM. It's actually Isuzu Trucks in Kenya. They've got a partnership with GM and this machine is
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actually cutting metal for that. So we're really proud to have a Kenyan-made sophisticated machine that is actually meeting international standards and has made the cut where GM is concerned. And so unfortunately, I'm going to be losing the head of engineering for Gearbox because he's now setting up his own company and running it. But he's been trained
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that same over there in the picture. But he's been training others to take his place. So those of you who are interested in ordering that robot, please do see me afterwards and I'll be I'll take checks. This gentleman here is called Jero. Jero worked for a bank as a mortgage officer. And his problem in his mind was he's giving out loans and the people he
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gives the loans to, if they rent out the property that they have a loan for, will not be able to use that money to pay back the loan. It'll be about four times the amount. And so he thought, why don't I try and devise a way to make cheaper housing? And so his solution was interlocking blocks. And interlocking blocks basically make the cost of the building a lot lower. You can actually save up to 50 percent. And instead of building low-income
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housing for people, his design is to make the machine and put it in the hands of poor people so that they can make blocks for other people and then be able to afford their own housing. Because if you just provide low income housing for people, the likelihood is that they won't be able to stay there very long. And he made the machine as a maker. He doesn't have an engineering background. And
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this is a wonderful thing about what we do at Gearbox and Fab Labs. You don't have to be an engineer to be practical and to be very productive. And so you can see he used pieces of junk to make a machine. He went to the newspapers and he got really good advertising and then very quickly found that there were problems because the machine kept breaking down. So he came to Gearbox. We helped him to sort that out. And now he's actually won a
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prize for Habitat for Humanity. And there's a plan, a project in the city that's being done using this particular technology. This is 3-D printing. Everybody loves 3-D printing. And this is work that we've done together in an organization we call MakerNet. MakerNet comprises civic. It comprises a co-struct, field-ready, kumasi hive and also the Gearbox. Some of you, I
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think, are probably here in the audience. If you just raise your hand. Well, okay, I can't see you, but I'm sure you're there. And so the solution here, it's very interesting that you have clinics in poor parts of the city where just because something very little on a machine breaks down, the machine can't work. And so the idea is to go in and design this and then make it
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on the 3-D printer and supply it. And we can see some happy recipients here of some equipment from the experiment that we did very successfully. This is being done in other parts of the world as well. So it's a wonderful international corporation. You have designers from all over the world pitching in, very often free of charge, their solutions. This is a project where we're
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bringing in university professors and helping them to commercialize what they do. And in this case, this is some people at University of Nairobi. They have an enzyme-based process for processing leather. So you put in the hide and after a short time, after six hours, which is also part of the revolutionary aspect of this innovation, you have the separation of the hide from the hair. And
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then they have other enzymes that convert the hair into proteins that can be actually consumed by animals and humans. So it's a really interesting project that has been patented and we're helping them right now at Gearbox to commercialize. We're partnering with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers on this and some funding from KPMG East
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Africa as well. There's an ecosystem necessary for real industrialization to happen. And what we're doing here, this is a company that's owned by the state. It has very wonderful machines. It's been very poorly managed up until now. But we're seeing whether we can make this much more accessible to members at Gearbox, from Gearbox, from the universities, so that you
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don't have to buy their own equipment to be in production. They can come and rent and use this on a short-term basis and then let others. So these sorts of sharing-type arrangements are really important for the kinds of goals that we have. I'll end there just to say that these are the people, the organizations Lemelson Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, KPMG East Africa, Silicon Valley
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Community Foundation, USAID, who have been funding what we do at Gearbox. And I want to just make a very special word of thanks to BMZ for making it possible for me to be here. It's exciting and I can see a lot of things happening to change, so that you really will probably find that you'll be buying your robot from an African company. Thank you very much.
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Thank you very much. Now our journey into the future comes to an end. We have learned that the digital transformation can offer fantastic opportunities. And we hope that there will be more visionaries, just like the ones we had here today, to step
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up and take challenge. If you have questions, if you feel that you want to talk about the things, you will have the opportunity to meet all the speakers at the World Poverty Clock stand in just 15 minutes. Thank you very much for your time, and enjoy the rest of your paprika. Thank you.
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Thank you very much for that. But can you please give him a louder, more, a louder applause, please, another round.