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Johanna Choumert-Nkolo, third from right, speaking during a panel discussion at the Global Development Conference 2025 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS

By Athar Parvaiz
CLERMONT-FERRAND, France, Dec 4 2025 (IPS)

During the Global Development Conference 2025, development experts and researchers kept warning that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) were being pushed into a wave of digital transformation without the basic statistical systems, institutional capacity, and local context needed to ensure that AI and digital tools truly benefited the poor.
Among the prominent voices shaping this conversation were Dr. Johannes Jütting, Executive Head of the PARIS21 Secretariat at the OECD, and development economist Johanna Choumert-Nkolo, who has over 15 years of research and evaluation experience. IPS interviewed both Jutting and Choumert-Nkolo following the conference, which concluded about five weeks ago, about the issues surrounding digitalization in LMICs.  Following is the summary of their responses.

How is Data the Weakest Link?

Much of the conversation around AI’s potential in the Global South centers on the promise of improved governance. But for Jutting, whose organization has been working on AI and data, there is a widening gap between the capacities of countries in the Global North and those in the Global South.

AI, he said, offers enormous potential. “For lower-income countries in particular, the production side is promising because AI can reduce the very high costs of traditional data collection. By combining geospatial data with machine learning, for instance, we can generate more granular and more timely data for policymaking, including identifying where poor populations live,” Jutting told IPS.

“But real challenges remain. Many low-income countries lack the fundamental conditions required to make use of AI. First, connectivity: without it, there is no practical AI application. Second, technical infrastructure such as data centers and reliable data transmission. Third, human capacity and skills, which require sustained investment. And fourth, governance and legal frameworks that must be updated to reflect new technologies,” he said.

There are also clear risks, particularly concerning confidentiality, privacy, and the fact that most large AI models are trained on data from the Global North, he told IPS and added that this creates potential biases and limits their usefulness for national statistical offices in the Global South.

Data collection processes, such as censuses and household surveys, are expensive, slow, and operationally difficult. According to him, many national statistical offices lack the workforce, training, and budget needed to maintain regular, reliable data production.

The challenge, he emphasized, is not simply technological.

“Digital transformation is not just a technology issue. It is a change management issue, a capacity development issue, a skills issue, and a political will issue.”

Dr. Johannes Jütting, second from right, speaking during a panel discussion at the Global Development Conference 2025 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS

Divide Within the Global South and Fiscal Constraints

While global debates often frame digital inequality as a problem between rich and poor nations, Jütting believes the more serious divide is emerging within the Global South itself. He argues that some LMICs are sprinting ahead while others fall further behind, a divergence he calls “one of the most worrying trends in development today.”

“What I see is a divide inside the Global South,” he said. “Countries like Rwanda, Kenya, the Philippines and Colombia are advanced—sometimes more advanced than OECD members. But others like Mali, Niger, and several small island states, are completely left behind.”

This divide is not only visible in connectivity and infrastructure but also in institutional readiness, technological skills and even access to basic demographic data. In some countries, he said, governments still lack reliable records of how many people are born each year or how many people live within their borders.

“How can we talk about fancy AI models when basic population data is missing?” he asked. “We have to start with the fundamentals.”

He also cautioned that development agencies may inadvertently widen this divide by focusing on “low-hanging fruits” that yield quick, measurable results, instead of supporting long-term system-building in fragile countries.

“There is donor fatigue, and funding is shrinking,” he said.

So, how do we move forward? First, Jutting said, every country needs a strong national strategy for the development of statistics (NSDS). This strategy must be fully aligned with national development plans, he said and added that only then can we ensure financing is efficient, coordinated, and aligned with country needs as well as international monitoring requirements, such as the SDGs or Africa’s Agenda 2063.

“Second, viable financing models will require greater domestic resource mobilization. Governments must be convinced to invest in their own data systems—and this requires demonstrating tangible impact.”

And third, he said, donors need to align their spending more effectively. “Our recent work on gender data financing shows a major disconnect: while gender equality funding is increasing, funding for gender data is not. This mismatch risks wasting money and undermining progress.”

He believes that there has to be a change on both fronts: national governments must allocate more domestic resources, and donors must invest in data in a more strategic, coherent, and results-oriented way.

Complexity of Measuring Digital Impacts

While Jütting focused on institutions and governance, Choumert-NKolo approached digitalization through the lens of climate resilience, human behaviour and evidence generation. Unlike many policy conversations that foreground tools and technologies, she emphasized the complexity of understanding real-world impacts.

“Digitalization is reshaping economies at a very fast pace,” she told IPS. “From a climate perspective, we need to understand what this means, both in terms of opportunities and risks.”

Her main concern is the long-term and layered nature of digital impacts. A digital tool deployed today may influence decisions in ways that take years to fully materialize.

“You never know how a tool will be used until people start making decisions with it,” she said. “Understanding behavioural change is complex, and attribution to one digital tool is extremely difficult.”

Despite these challenges, she emphasized that digital tools have significant potential to support climate adaptation. Farmers facing unpredictable weather patterns can benefit from climate information services delivered through mobile platforms. Communities vulnerable to storms or floods can receive alerts even through basic SMS networks. Such tools, she said, can save lives.

But she urged caution in assuming digital tools are universally accessible or understood.

“We must remember that not everyone can read or act on digital messages,” she said. “Literacy and accessibility gaps remain large in many countries.”

Her research experience in East Africa reinforced the importance of context. Mobile money, she said, became a major success story precisely because it solved local problems and fit local cultural and economic realities. But not every challenge requires a digital solution.

“Sometimes nature-based or low-cost solutions work better. The key is context. We must understand what problem we are trying to solve and whether digital tools are the right fit.”

She believes the way forward lies in identifying local needs, drawing from existing evidence and piloting new solutions where knowledge gaps remain. “There is a lot of hype around digitalization,” she said. “We need more comparative evidence on what works best in each setting.”

A Future That Must Be Shaped Carefully

One theme emerged with clarity from both experts: Digital transformation can support inclusive development, but only if countries invest in strengthening their statistical systems, building institutional capacity and grounding innovation in local realities.

“We need more and better data for better lives,” Jütting said. “But we must ensure the poorest countries are not left behind in this digital wave.”

Choumert-NKolo echoed that sentiment. “Digital tools offer huge opportunities,” she said. “But they must be rooted in context, evidence and local needs.”

For LMICs navigating the uncertainties of climate change, economic pressures and technological disruption, these warnings are timely. Digital transformation can be a powerful equalizer—or a new source of exclusion. The difference, experts said, will depend on whether governments and development partners prioritize the foundations that make digital inclusion truly possible.

• “Travel (for reporting this story) to the Global Development Conference was supported by GlobalDev, the research communications platform of the Global Development Network (GDN). The 2026 Global Development Conference was organized in partnership with other members of the Pôle clermontois de développement international (PCDI)—Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI) and Centre for International Development Studies and Research (CERDI). Reporting and research remain independent.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Annalena Baerbock
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 2025 (IPS)

For seventy-eight years, the question of Palestine has been on the agenda of this General Assembly, almost as long as the institution itself.

Resolution 181 (II) was adopted by the General Assembly on November 29 1947 – laying the foundation for the Two State Solution and calling for the establishment of both an Arab State and a Jewish State in Palestine.

But while the Jewish State, the State of Israel, is a recognized Member State of the United Nations, the Arab State, the State of Palestine, is not.

Seventy-eight years later, Palestine has still not been admitted to the UN as a full Member.

For 78 years the Palestinian people have been denied their inalienable rights – in particular, their right to self-determination. Now, it is high time that we take decisive action to end this decades-long stalemate.

The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th set off one of the darkest chapters in this conflict. Two years of war in Gaza have left tens of thousands of civilians killed, including many women and children. Countless more have been injured, maimed, and traumatized for life.

Communities are starving; civilian infrastructure is in ruins; almost the entire population is displaced. Children, mothers, fathers, families like us.

The hostages who have been finally released and reunited with their loved ones are slowly recovering from captivity under extremely dire conditions, while other families are mourning over the returned bodies. Again, children, fathers, mothers, families like us.

And while the horrors of Gaza have dominated the news for two years, settlement expansion, demolitions and increased settler violence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem continue to undermine the prospects for a sovereign, independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state.

Palestinian communities are bifurcated by the rapid expansion of settlements. Movement, communication and access to essential services and livelihoods are severely restricted for Palestinians by checkpoints, confiscations and demolitions.

While in my previous capacity, I visited a small village in the West Bank to actually meet with Palestinian farmers and teachers who wanted to show me what settlement expansion and settler violence meant for their daily lives.

As we stood on a hillside overlooking their farmland, a drone from an Israeli settlement began hovering above us, circling in the air, monitoring what we were doing and probably saying.

We know what happens when foreign people and cameras are no longer there. It’s not just a drone watching; it’s outright violence, including farmers being attacked as they try to go to work, as they try to harvest.

Beyond the violence itself are the daily indignities confronting the residents of the West Bank, including children getting to school or thousands of pregnant women rushing to hospital to receive care or give birth, only to be stopped at checkpoints or by road closures.

All that has happened in the last two years has all underlined what we have known since decades. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved through illegal occupation, de jure or de facto annexation, forced displacement, recurrent terror or permanent war.

This only adds to grievances and fuels the flames of conflict.

Israelis and Palestinians will only live in lasting peace, security, and dignity when they live side by side in two sovereign and independent states, with mutually recognized borders and full regional integration –

As outlined in the New York Declaration, which is indeed a ray of hope, and the adoption of Resolution 2803 in which the Security Council endorsed the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Conflict in Gaza”.

We see unfortunately again on a daily basis that these are only words on paper if we do not deliver. We need to ensure that the ceasefire is consolidated and becomes a permanent end to hostilities. Since this ceasefire at least 67 children have been killed; and again, we see children being left without parents, or left in the rubble.

This has to end.

And as we brace for the increasing cold in New York ourselves, imagine what winter means for the people of Gaza: tents collapsing under rain, families shivering without shelter, children facing the night with nothing but thin fabric between them and the wind, and countless people still going to sleep hungry.

If we want to live up to our commitments, we need humanitarian agencies, on the ground without hindrance and without excuse.

And we need to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered throughout all Gaza in a full, safe, unconditional and unhindered manner, in full accordance with international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles. And this includes delivery through UNRWA.

And as outlined in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, allowing UNRWA to fulfil its mandate and continue operations there is not merely a gesture of goodwill, it is a legal obligation.

Both the General Assembly and the Security Council have been consistent on the parameters that must guide any peaceful resolution of the conflict. So, we know what we have to do.

These parameters are again reiterated in the draft resolution before this Assembly today, relating to the New York Declaration, which was endorsed by a vast majority of Member States, and identified a comprehensive and actionable framework including tangible, timebound and irreversible steps for the implementation of the Two-State-Solution, in particular that resolution underlined that Gaza must be unified with the West Bank. There must be no occupation, siege, territorial reduction, or forced displacement.

It underlines that Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

It makes clear that the Palestinian Authority must continue implementing its credible reform agenda focusing on good governance, transparency, fiscal sustainability, fight against incitement and hate speeches, service provision, business climate and development.

And it calls on the Israeli leadership to immediately end violence and incitement against Palestinians, and immediately halt all settlement, land grabs and annexation activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. It makes clear that it has to end the violence of the settlers.

As diplomats we all know this is hard diplomatic work. And therefore , I want to be frank and clear.

The quest for peace, stability and justice in the Middle East needs our United Nations. It needs this Assembly to play a meaningful role.

It requires every Member State to walk the talk: to engage in this process, to uphold the United Nations Charter, to adhere to international law, and the promise this institution made to all the people of the world eighty years ago.

Let us recall once more: self-determination, and the right to live in one’s own state in peace, security, and dignity, free from war, occupation and violence, is not a privilege to be earned, but a right to be upheld.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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