Women technocrats can lead us back from the brink

Powerful modern innovations in the hands of Western technocrats with narrow agendas have led the world to the brink of an existentia crisis. To regain balance, it is essential that women, especially African women, take a lead in technology and innovation.

Humanity is standing on the precipice of interlinked crises, many driven by our own choices and actions. Often dubbed the age of the polycrisis, this moment is unprecedented because of the catastrophic and existential nature of the challenges we face.

In advance of the UN’s Summit for the Future (the high-level event taking place in September as part of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly), a Pact for the Future has been released for deliberation. It states: “If we do not change course, we risk tipping into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown.”

Echoing the leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith, I often say “what got us here won’t get us there.” And yet, we see a continuing reliance on science, technology and innovation to bring breakthroughs that safeguard our future. This seems at best a naïve hopefulness with little evidence, and at worst a cynical distraction that allows big tech a continued licence to operate with impunity under the guise of being our saviours.

Without a fundamental change in the underlying dynamics that have led to our current situation and without new voices in the conversation, we will continue to perpetuate (and accelerate) existing problems. So if technology and innovation in the hands of the same players cannot deliver, where might we look for the transformative approach that this moment calls for? I suggest that the answer lies in the hands, hearts and minds of African women innovators and technologists. This present moment – and the future being shaped now – needs not just innovation, but a shift in what we mean by innovation, how we wield it and why.

I use the word ‘wield’ deliberately as it refers to having, holding and using tools, weapons, power and influence. Currently, the ability to wield innovation globally (and therefore to shape our global trajectory) is held primarily in the West, by a privileged few, with strong incentives to avoid addressing the inequalities, misinformation and manipulation inherent in the technological advancements fast emerging from Silicon Valley.

Dressed up as progress, the very values that got us in this mess are still entrenched in these innovations, and one might suggest that the most powerful players aren’t just maintaining the status quo, but indeed, are driving a great acceleration of our most pressing issues.

Instinctive people- centredness 

We need a fundamental move to putting people, communities and the planet at the core of any advances. African women innovators, technologists and scientists instinctively do this and have the potential to trigger transformational change. You don’t need to look far to see the impact, from climate adaptation innovations to tech improving the lives of children.

Women globally lead in social innovation, and are often driven by a desire to create a world that is more liveable for more people. In fact, around the world, half of all social enterprises are women-led (compared with just 20% of conventional businesses).

In international development it is common for programmes to centre on the empowerment of women and girls. Women provide a positive return on investment, given that 90% of women beneficiaries reinvest in the health, education and nutrition of their family and communities (compared with just 40% of men).

And yet on most indicators, we are failing women and girls everywhere and not on track to meet any of the sustainable development goal targets related to gender equality. The digital gender divide on the African continent is growing, not closing.

The Pact for the Future sets out actions that include strengthening the science, technology and innovation capacities of ‘developing countries’ and ensuring that “science, technology and innovation improve the lives of women and girls”. Yet even here – at our most globally ambitious – we fall into language and framing that will trap us in more of the same.

What if we didn’t place certain countries in a hierarchy of developed to developing? What if women and girls weren’t seen as the beneficiaries of innovations, but rather as the drivers of it? What if – rather than speaking loosely about potential technological benefits that women and girls might experience – we explicitly address those who benefit from the continued disempowerment of women, especially those in the Global South?

African women are not at the margins of technological advances for no reason; they are there because increasingly ubiquitous technologies such as artificial intelligence mirror the deep gender biases in our society. The underrepresentation of African women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at just 25% of total graduates is not because of their ability to perform in those disciplines, but a result of systemic barriers.

So what would a deeper integration of African women in the global technological space enable? There is no end to the examples I can give of African women pioneering solutions that bring community and societal benefits. Over the past 15 years I have worked as an innovation consultant in Africa and beyond as Co-founder of the consultancy, InkDot. For us, innovation must be for everyone.

In 2017, I co-founded the storytelling platform, We Will Lead Africa with two other African women, Yabome Gipin-Jackson and Judith Okonkwo (business leaders and innovators in their own right). As committed storytellers, we are gathering stories of African everyday leadership. We are currently curating our upcoming fifth volume focused on technology, science and innovation in the African context.

African women are spearheading social innovation, where value is created and accrues for society at large, and for the commons. This should be the standard definition of innovation at a time when so much is at risk. We can learn from these African women innovators that the value of innovations comes from the extent to which they bring about equitable, inclusive and life-affirming solutions, and / or eliminate injustices and harms.

I would go further and say that the innovations that have a chance of responding to our global predicament will also come from other groups who have historically been under resourced, underrepresented and left out of the narrative. It is those that are most exposed to the harms (and therefore are not wedded to maintaining the status quo) that are bringing transformative changes – against all odds. This is where we should be placing our hope, attention and resources.

Silicon Valley technocapitalism raises the technological progress it provides to industrialised nations and ignores the detrimental side-effects of wealth inequality and artificial scarcity that keep the global majority shackled.

To the techno-optimists convinced that artificial intelligence and other exponential technologies are going to bring us back from the brink, stick with me. I’m not advocating for a return to times long gone. My challenge is to the mainstream progress narrative which downplays the damage and scale of negative side-effects, and uplifts narrow and incomplete indicators as evidence of success.

We cannot keep calling this progress. Rather than holding up this naive progress narrative that centres on the comfort of the Global North, we would do well to remember that for the majority of the world, dealing with overwhelming challenges and uncertainty has consistently been part of daily life. We have much to learn from them.

As world leaders and powerful stakeholders meet this month to discuss strategies that will influence the future we all have to live in, I encourage deep reflection on the values underpinning responses to global challenges.

The case for investing in women and other marginalised identities is clear – innovation in their hands will show us the way to shape and safeguard the future. These are change-makers, already making social impact, that remind us that we don’t innovate for the sake of innovating – we must do it in service of life.