Suzana Brown

State University of New York, Korea | SUNY Korea · DTS

The COVID-19 emergency has posed a heavy burden on health infrastructures in the developing world. As an unprecedented crisis, the pandemic has had severe social, redistributional and economic impacts on vulnerable groups, affecting the development processes that the IFIP Working Group 9.4 on Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development has traditionally dealt with. With the new disease posing a development challenge for all nations, a global development paradigm (Oldenkop et al., 2020) emerged in studying responses to it. In the spirit of “making a better world” with ICTs that characterises the ethos of ICT4D (Walsham, 2012), engagements with such responses have interested our research during the pandemic. At the same time, ICT4D research on topics different from the ongoing crisis is itself influenced by the pandemic in diverse ways. Planning and conducting fieldwork in the forms we knew it became impracticable, with researchers having to resort to alternative ways to access respondents and field sites. Conferencing, and with it the interactions that are crucial to our academic growth have abruptly moved to the digital world, with new affordances (such as abating barriers of cost and travel) but also new constraints, connected to the digital recreation of a traditionally physical world. Resilience, seen with Heeks and Ospina (2019) as the ability of systems to cope with external shocks and trends, became crucial to us as ICT4D colleagues, both in the conduct of research and in the interactional aspects of our lives as academic community. Against this backdrop, a Resilient ICT4D is what has emerged from the COVID-19 crisis, and the theme inspiring our Virtual IFIP 9.4 Conference on Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development to take place on 26-28 May 2021. While pertaining to themes of ICT4D research in and beyond the pandemic, the tracks in the conference are underpinned by the need for a resilient attitude that, in the face of one of the greatest shocks ever suffered by humanity, keeps alive the spirit of “making a better world” with ICTs. :: Papers for IFIP 9.4 2021 Papers for the IFIP 9.4 Virtual Conference should be formatted according to the template for submissions to IFIP 9.4 conferences. Please note the word limits for full research papers (5000 words for text excluding abstract, diagrams, tables and references) and for research in progress/practitioner reports of experience and reflection (2500 words for text excluding abstract, diagrams, tables and references). Submissions should be sent to ifip94conference@gmail.com by the deadline of 30 March 2021. Please indicate “IFIP 9.4 Virtual Conference” in the subject line, and please ensure the email text specifies names, contact emails and affiliations for all authors, as well as the track to which the paper is submitted. :: Tracks for IFIP 9.4 2021: - ICT and Resilience Building: Climate Change, Pandemic, and Other Stressors - Digital Platforms in, from and in-between the Global South and North - Data Science in Public Health - ICT4D and Data Justice - Our Digital Lives (IFIP 9.5 Track) - Digital Social Enterprises & COVID-19: Enablers, Sustainability & Pathways - Feminist and Queer approaches to Information Systems in Developing Countries - Displacements, ICTs, and #NewNormal - Digital Authoritarianism and Fundamentalism: Problems and Solutions - The Role of ICT in Achieving Social Justice (ICT4SJ) - General Track :: Conference website: http://ifiptc9.org/wg94/ :: Conference Chairs: Silvia Masiero (silvima@ifi.uio.no) Petter Nielsen (pnielsen@ifi.uio.no) http://ifiptc9.org/wg94/ifip-9-4-conferences/ifip-9-4-virtual-conference-2021/

Study how the use of technology contributes to health and education in the Global South.

One of the initial aims is creating a simple, affordable, and universal tech solution that could enhance the manual crutch or cane in order to improve their performance and be compatible with existing conditions of infrastructure and terrain in developing countries. The suggested design draws on bionics (biologically inspired engineering) and operates well on unpaved, uneven and soft ground, accommodates rock up to 20 mm, and provides improved stability for the user. Another goal is to explore alternative designs for the handle and underarm portion of the crutch that would be more elastic yet stable.