The Applied Research and Implementation Initiative (DigiDev) is designed to help develop the organizational capacities of BRAC and BRAC International (BI) to integrate digital innovations into anti-poverty programs in Bangladesh and beyond. The DigiDev initiative is made possible by a three-year grant from an anonymous philanthropic fund from 2021 to 2024. It is jointly conducted by BRAC Institute for Governance and Development (BIGD) at BRAC University, BRAC International’s Independent Evaluation Research Cell (IERC), BRAC Social Innovation Lab (SIL) and BRAC USA, with country and program teams across BRAC. In early 2021, the DigiDev research teams at BIGD and BRAC International scanned BRAC’s portfolio for digital innovations through a series of surveys and interviews. They identified 32 digital innovations across areas of Edtec hand Capacity Building (10 programs, of which three are in Bangladesh), Digital Financial Services (DFS) (seven programs, of which five are in Bangladesh), Digital Management Information Systems (MIS) and data collection tools (13 programs, of which 10 are in Bangladesh), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to manage day-to-day business and Machine Learning (ML) initiatives using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automated decision-making (two programs, one ERP and one AI, both with BRAC International). Attention needs to be paid to how collaborative and open-source the digital solution is and the security of the data.
Author: DigiDev Team
Type: Report
Year: 2021
