ICT Policies and Development Politics in the Global South

Phet Sayo is the Executive Director of EngageMedia. EngageMedia is a nonprofit that promotes digital rights, open and secure technology, and social issue documentary. Combining video, technology, knowledge, and networks, we support Asia-Pacific and global changemakers advocating for human rights, democracy, and the environment. In collaboration with diverse networks and communities, we defend and advance digital rights. Prior to EngageMedia, based out of New Delhi, Phet was a Senior Program Officer for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), where he managed a portfolio of research projects/networks on digital rights, censorship and surveillance, the right to privacy in the digital age, intellectual property rights, ICT innovations, and Internet governance. Prior to IDRC’s regional office in New Delhi, Phet worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malaysia and Thailand. As an author and editor, he has contributed to numerous UN publications, including ICT Policies and e-Strategies in the Asia-Pacific: A Critical Assessment of the Way Forward, and Internet Governance: Asia-Pacific Perspectives.

Tim Unwin is a British academic and public figure, specialising in the uses of digital technology by the world’s poorest and most marginalised peoples.  He led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo initiative (creating partnerships for using IT in education in Africa) between 2001 and 2004, was Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation between 2011 and 2015, and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London between 2007 and 2023. He is currently writing a book provisionally entitled “We’ve seen it all before”, about why digital tech is being used to enslave rather than liberate the world’s
poorest and most marginalised peoples.