USAID releases digital policy for the next decade

USAID has released a 10-year digital policy aimed at guiding how the international development agency approaches emerging technologies in its partner countries, covering everything from boosting internet access to embracing artificial intelligence. 

At a speech announcing the policy, Administrator Samantha Power emphasized the need to invest in partner countries’ digital capacities. She also highlighted the importance of having the U.S. take leadership in promoting internet connectivity around the world, particularly as other countries try to do the same. 

“Authoritarian governments and other actors are using increasingly powerful technologies — with tools like facial recognition — to survey people, to manipulate information using increasingly convincing deepfakes, launching cyberattacks against their adversaries,” Power said at an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment. “Many tech capabilities are growing faster than our ability to fully understand them.” 

For example, she said that China had provided 80 different countries with facial recognition software, a type of technology that Power said could be used to target dissidents. 

“Technology can deepen inequality, just as it can reduce inequality,” she said. “Today, with advances in AI specifically set to upend industries across the planet, it’s clear we stand at the cusp of another technological upheaval that none of us really can predict.”

As part of its increased focus on technology, USAID plans to double its investment in its technology team, which is supposed to help partner countries invest in new technologies. The agency is promoting its new site, digitaldevelopment.org, which features its ongoing work creating digital ecosystem assessments of the countries with whom it works. 

USAID is continuing to focus on integrating emerging technology into its work. The agency’s new democracy, human rights, and governance policy, released last week, also addresses the challenge of emerging technology.