I sat down with Professor Tapan Parikh from the UC Berkeley I-School to discuss the power of information in international development. Originally published on the MDP blog.
Author: Asim Fayaz
I was invited to a panel discussion titled “Exploring the Current Role and Potential of ICTs for Development” at the USAID Higher Education Solutions Network’s TechCon 2014. The event was co-hosted with the Development Impact Lab (DIL) at the University of California, Berkeley, and that explains my connection. Fellow panelists were Ann Mei Chang and […]
Despite having seen some really dumb “development” ideas in the past waste a large amount of time and money, I recently came across something so… wrong, that it actually made me angry enough to write about it! According to Wikipedia, the PlayPump Water System (shown above) is… “… like a playground merry-go-round attached to a water pump. The […]
Pakistan: “Diversity should not be an afterthought” The Bahawalpur Service Delivery project in Pakistan is interesting. Usually government accountability projects come from civil society: this has actually been led by a local government officer. The project, which is currently being trialled, aims to improve service delivery in under-resourced conflict areas. Essentially it is using mobile phones to […]
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The Pakistanis that I am not
I first saw Abdul Jabbar when I joined LUMS eight years back as a freshman. I last saw him yesterday when he opened the gate for me as I was leaving for home. I, in my car, air-conditioning on full blast, thirsty as hell because I was fasting. He, on foot, fanning himself with a […]
A government driven innovation in Pakistan has won the top prize at Making All Voices Count’s Global Innovation Competition. The Bahawalpur Service Delivery Unit (BSDU) emerged as the winner of competition, led by Imran Baloch, the District Coordination Officer (DCO) of Punjab’s Bahawalpur district, and Asim Fayaz. The project aims to improve service delivery in under-resourced, conflict areas […]
A government driven innovation in Pakistan, digital currency in South Africa and SMS reporting system for maternal health in Indonesia took the top three prizes at Making All Voices Count’s Global Innovation Competition. This competition, launched at the Open Government Partnership, scouted the world for fresh ideas to boost citizen engagement and government accountability. Government driven innovation Bahawalpur Service Delivery Unit (BSDU) emerged as the winner […]
Technology professor Khurram Siddiqi got fed up with getting lost in Lahore. So, as he tells Nicola Twilley, he and some friends started a signage project to fix things. “In Lahore, you don’t get lost: you start off lost,” says Khurram Siddiqi. “It’s a condition, not a situation.” Siddiqi, and his friends Asim Fayaz and Omer Sheikh, wrote a proposal to install and maintain […]
The police have identified 700 crime hot pockets in the provincial capital with the help of an ongoing crime mapping project and are considering putting spots under surveillance cameras. This was discussed at a meeting of divisional SPs at the Qilla Gujjar Singh Investigation Police Headquarters on Monday. The participants were given orientation about the […]
LIVE in a crowded South Asian city and a host of problems—smog, contagious disease, corruption—may plague you. Each winter, the air grows foul. The monsoon season brings mosquitoes, bloodsuckers capable of carrying nasties such as dengue and malaria. As cities expand and people are packed closer, they are more likely to pass on infections. Overwhelmed […]