In the last two years, the Dynamic Coalition on Innovative Approaches to Connecting the Unconnected has played a crucial role in bringing evidence from grassroots implementations on deployments in communities around the world. Our session last year involved, in a first, community-level leaders describing projects in Vanuatu, Greece, and India, among others.

This year’s session synthesizes the evidence base that we have generated (100+ case studies) and attempts to use those learnings to address policy level issues that are germane to development policy discussions. In essence, it is an effort to bring together two communities: the practitioners who work on projects at the grassroots, and the development policy and investor community, which has expertise on improving social outcomes through policy, regulation, and financing.

The session seeks to advance a robust discussion on the mechanics of ICT-based interventions for development in terms of health, education, agriculture, and gender empowerment. It goes beyond generic policy prescriptions, and looks at how tailoring of interventions can lead to better development outcomes, and the role that policy and regulation can play in this process.