The Social Impact of Technological Innovation

As COVID 19 continues to disrupt life around the world, many people wonder how poor countries are going to cope. There is actually an answer. “COVAX” is a program dedicated to providing needy areas with vaccines, with the aim of supplying 2 billion doses to such countries by the end of 2021.

This is one of many examples of how charities, NGOs, and philanthropists in the world’s strongest economies are helping out lesser developed countries (LDCs) to create social change. It all started with technological advances that improved Western economies, which then used their resources to benefit LDCs. As we will see, this help has been direct at times, as in the case of COVID 19, and sometimes it has been indirect, but the common factor is technology. In fact, one of our favorite industries – insurance! – is using technology to create social impact in developing areas.

The Great Divergence

Technological innovation is responsible for many of the improvements in the standard of living experienced by the majority of people, all over the world, during the past 100 years or so. The pace of technological creation is the main factor in, for example, the global increase in average life expectancy going from 46 years in 1950 to 71 years in 2015.

There’s even a name for the ramp-up of technology-based improvements – the Great Divergence. In the 1800s, many Western countries started to generate much more wealth than ever before, and at levels higher than the rest of the world. Various innovations led to improvements in transportation (metal ships, railroads), agriculture (mechanization, fertilizer), and mining (the use of coal). All of these factors created a technological synergy that caused the economic output of the industrialized world to triple between 1800 and 1900. Unfortunately, that still left the Third World out in the cold, but eventually (particularly after the Second World War), underdeveloped countries started to benefit as well.

Direct Assistance and the Case of Malaria

At first, these benefits took the form of direct technological improvements created by Western nations in LDCs. One amazing example of this immediate aid is the war on malaria. Until 1900, 53% of the world population was affected, and it is estimated that malaria potentially killed one-half of all the people who ever lived.

Ironically, it was because of WW2, and the infection of Allied troops by malaria, that led to advances in the development of treatment and insecticides which still save many lives. Combined with better land use practices, these innovations have reduced the death rate by about 87%. Advanced nations continue to support the efforts to minimize malaria in areas where it persists, like sub-Saharan Africa, thorough organizations such as the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.

Source: Wikipedia

Indirect Assistance – The Trickledown Effect

In contrast to the war on malaria, many technology benefits occur far from the areas where they are needed most. Instead, they reach LDCs through a “trickledown” effect, where technologically advanced countries give some of their resources to poor areas.

For example, advanced economies have led campaigns which have provided 2.1 billion people with better sanitation and 2.6 billion people with improved drinking water. Although better water and sanitation are not high tech areas, these advances would not have been possible without money from technologically innovative countries.

Insurance to the Rescue

Social change is even being sponsored by the global insurance industry, which is allowing people to live healthier and more secure lives. There are some fascinating technological advancements going on in the world of insurance that are delivering impressive social benefits:

• An African mobile micro-health insurance service for low-income families which has cut insurance administration costs by 95%.

• A Swedish insurance firm that provides micro health insurance where consumers pay through a deduction of prepaid airtime credit; 93% of its clients live on less than USD 10 per day.

• A Chinese insurance platform with more than 100 million registered users which automatically alerts a care provider if patient health seems to deteriorate.

• An insurance company drone fleet that assesses damage, even before a catastrophe area is accessible again, which enables faster payments so that customers feel more secure.

• A British firm that uses parametric policies, based on blockchain technology, that automatically initiate payments once a certain emergency parameter is triggered (for instance, if a local river reaches a certain level as it floods).

How We Are Doing Our Part

Air Doctor is also playing a role in delivering social benefits to people in need. Through both our tourism solution and our telemedicine product, we enable people to access lower-cost medical services at a convenient location instead of spending hours in an emergency room. Furthermore, we allow tourists to lessen the nightmare of requiring medical treatment while in a foreign country.

We at Air Doctor hope to continue benefitting society hand in hand with the technology advances that we are making continuously. In this way, we will be both witness to, and part of, technology development that has positive effects throughout the world.

As Published on Air Doctor.