Principles for Digital Development & Digital Design

On Oct. 12, 2017, a diverse group of over 100 digital development professionals gathered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss how to put the Principles for Digital Development into practice within the context of East Africa’s rapid growth. This event was the first event in a three-part series of events organized by the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), focused on sharing innovations directly from implementers and practical guidance on the Digital Principles. In Dar es Salaam, the discussion focused on three of the nine Principles – Be Collaborative, Design with the User and Understand the Ecosystem.

With a variety of representatives from the private sector, NGOs, Tanzanian government and more, participants all brought an array of perspectives and concrete examples of how the Principles for Digital Development—nine “living” guidelines designed to help digital development practitioners integrate established best practices into technology-enabled programs—had impacted their work.

The dominate theme of the gathering was the importance of inclusive human-centered design processes: "Let your users tell you where to go next" and “We don’t start with technology. We start with people.”

Here is a summary of the October gathering.

The next event will be held in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, December 7, in FHI 360’s Academy Hall. The three principles featured at this event will be Address Privacy and Security, Be Data Drivenand Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source and Open Innovation. If your organization is interested in partnering with DIAL to design workshop sessions for this event, please contact the Digital Principles Program Manager, Allana Nelson, at anelson@digitalimpactalliance.org

Join the conversation and engage with your fellow digital development practitioners on the new Digital Principles Forum at http://forum.digitalprinciples.org/

And if you haven't checked out the Principles for Digital Development, you really should. They are excellent... except for the omission of talking about accessibility and people with disabilities.

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Principles for Digital Development & Digital Design

Principles for Digital Development & Digital Design

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