Digital technologies for a better world? Conditions may apply: Why the digitalization of development may exclude its most important target groups

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are driven by the guiding
principle of leaving no-one behind (LNOB). In practice, this means ensuring that the most
marginalized and vulnerable populations are benefitting from the progress of sustainable
development. The growing use of digital technologies as tools and platforms for
development programming poses a complex challenge for LNOB: Those who are already
the most vulnerable, are often the least likely to have the access, skills, financial means,
or social positions to interact with and benefit from technology, making them the most
likely to be further left behind as development goes digital.
To be coherent with the SDGs’ underlying objectives, digital development therefore
needs to take into account the principle of LNOB and guarantee the greatest possible
inclusivity to those who are digitally excluded. However, the SDGs offer little guidance
to promote such digital inclusivity, which will be vital for achieving LNOB in an
increasingly digital context. At its core, this PhD sheds light on this complex interplay
between development, inequalities, and digital technologies, and explores ways to
correct the digital blind-spot of the SDGs.
The PhD is comprised of five academic articles, and its overarching narrative is the
result of a multi-phase study of sequential research, in which the findings of each article
unearth emerging research foci and initiate the following research question. In this
process, the PhD embarks from applying the novel principles of the SDGs to the field of
digital development and demonstrating the increasing need to holistically take stock of
the potentially negative side-effects of digital development on the SDGs as a whole.
In this context, the PhD directs its attention to the conflicting relationship between
digital development and the principle of LNOB. Concretely, the PhD explores how the
next international development goals – whatever form or shape they may take – could
correct the blind-spot of the SDGs and promote an equitable use of digital technologies
in order to uphold the principle of leaving no-one behind in light of the increasingly
digital context in which development finds itself.