Human Capital

TABLE 3.1 Technologies for Improving Service Delivery for Building and Protecting Human Capital

Technology groups and examples Pathways to improving service delivery for human capital

1. Individual nondigital technology tools • Education tools • Drugs and vaccines, medical devices • New medical treatments • Offer potential to lower costs and improve efficiency or effectiveness of service delivery

2. Individual digital technologies • First-generation ICT-based management information systems for health, education, and social protection • Cellphones and mobile applications for education, health, and nutrition • Drones for remote sensing and delivery of medical and disaster relief supplies • Satellite imaging for monitoring agriculture, weather, disasters, and movements of people • Blockchain to ensure security in digital identity and payment systems • 3-D printing for medical supplies, prosthetics, teaching modules, and so on • Augmented reality and virtual reality training, information, and remote learning experiences to aid students and to train workers, including doctors and other health personnel, to use new technologies • Online health, nutrition, and educational content • Improve efficiency in delivery and content of health, nutrition, education, and social protection services • Help to identify potential beneficiary pool to provide services to populations that have been marginalized, subjected to discrimination, or are otherwise at risk • Allow more effective communication with citizens

3. Digital platforms • Social registries integrated with other systems, including digital payment systems for social protection services • Online education portals with learning resources and open course enrollment to enable teachers and students to access multiple education resources • E-health (digital health) • Matching medical supplies with needs at clinical care facilities and patients with available health services • Job-matching platforms • Reduce asymmetry of information and the costs of accessing information and allow interaction between consumers and providers of goods and services • Enable inclusion by giving marginalized groups and communities access to services in their homes • Foster innovation through new products and services based on monetizing data, including health and education

4. Data-driven, personalized applications of converging technologies in health and education • AI-driven personalized and adaptive learning, including personalized massive online open courses • Assessment of students’ performance • AI-driven personalized health services • Affective computing • Malnutrition measurement and monitoring at the individual level • Human–machine interaction and augmentation 5. Data-driven decision-making technologies, combining big data, AI, geospatial, and related technologies • Big data analysis and remote sensing, using mobile phone records to track people’s movements • Early warning systems for weather or epidemics • Augment the effectiveness of a service through self-learning technologies, using instant feedback and information from beneficiaries • Help traditionally excluded marginalized and disadvantaged groups by addressing their specific needs • Augment individual capacities

• Improve accuracy of decision-making and predictions based on available data • Support the use of data optimization and predictive intelligence to target services and protect human capital during disasters and crises • Combine knowledge arising from datasets for multiple sectors to improve planning and monitoring

TECHNOLOGY MARKETS AND ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY

In assessing opportunities for the use of technology in the human development sectors, it is important to understand the structure of the market and global technology trends. The providers and disseminators of technology are largely private firms operating through the market system. Many times, they do not have an incentive to develop the kinds of products or services needed to reach poor populations because the poor are not considered—often based on faulty assumptions and lack of knowledge—to be profitable market segments. On the demand side, purchasers are governments, private health care and education providers, and individuals. Governments often lack the technical capacity to evaluate technology options and are slow to adjust the policy and regulatory frameworks that inhibit the adoption of technology (or enable it without adequate safeguards for citizens).

There are also significant differences among the three sectors. Health and education services are provided by both governments and the private sector, with significant differences in consumer segments. Social protection services are largely offered by governments to individuals and communities, the majority of them poor. Some nonprofit organizations may also provide certain types of social assistance, but they are usually relatively small in relation to government operations. Social protection systems mainly use two technologies: digital platforms (which may be developed or operated in partnership with private partners) and payment systems. Technologies tend to be broadly similar across countries, although legal and regulatory frameworks will affect the extent to which interoperability and shared services can be put into effect.

The distinguishing features of health technology, however, are that, on the one hand, the pace of innovation and the scope of technology products and services are extremely varied, and, on the other, broadly similar technologies are deployed across the world for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and alleviation of disease or injury. Private investment and knowledge flows across the globe are driving the development of new technologies in the health sector. The standardized training and certification of medical professionals worldwide—even if quality varies—and the international professional and private health provider networks mean that knowledge exchanges across borders are fluid, with greater opportunities for health care providers and medical professionals to learn how to use new technologies.

Private firms and health care providers in developing countries import technologies for deployment in private hospitals serving wealthier households, accentuating already existing health inequalities. One example is the rapid diffusion of robotic surgery technology in large private hospitals in developing countries. The proliferation of diagnostic tools aimed directly at the consumer also benefits wealthier households.

In the education sector, by contrast, technology markets were much more localized until the recent advent of digital technologies, platforms, and AI tools. The use of local languages, the country-specific nature of curricula (with different local curricula), a highly labor-intensive delivery model, and the lower levels of technical skills of most teachers imply a slower rate of technology adaptation and diffusion. The advent of digital