Is a better world within reach?
How can technological progress be used to reduce inequality in the world? CSEM explored this question on October 4 in Bern at the "Technologies for a brighter world" conference.
The conference on October 4 in Bern focused on how technological developments can become a benefit for all. In addition to CSEM research and development experts, notable figures such as Peter Maurer, President of the International Red Cross (ICRC), Klaus Schönenberger, Director of the Essential Tech program at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and Arturo Vittori, Director of Warka Water, outlined the contours of a more balanced development path.
"The current technological acceleration would have you believe that anything is possible. However, there is a significant exception: that of a more just and peaceful world." Right at the start, Mario El-Khoury, CEO of CSEM and organizer of the "Technologies for a brighter world" conference, set the scene at the Hotel Bellevue in Bern. The goal of the event was to find new ways to make technology work for everyone. Inspiration was provided by numerous projects that are already underway.
Allowing the disadvantaged to participate in progress
"Unfortunately, I don't have only good news," warned Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC. In his speech, he showed the extent to which conflicts are becoming more complex and entrenched, putting more and more people in precarious living conditions. The former diplomat then showed a lesser-known side of the ICRC: the Red Cross is more than aware of the importance of technological advances for its work and its own scope for action. The organization actively embraces these opportunities in order to benefit from them as much as possible. Together with EPFL, for example, it is developing a new generation of prosthetic feet for victims of anti-personnel mines. The aim is to offer a prosthesis at an affordable price.
Of Big Data and Water Towers
The spectrum of "humanitarian" innovations is enormously broad. It ranges from a database to find missing people, to water towers made of bamboo presented by Arturo Vittori, director of Warka Water, to photovoltaic solutions or medical developments from the CSEM. For example, Biospectal, a start-up from Vaud, will use an invention from CSEM to monitor high blood pressure in the populations of Bangladesh, Tanzania and South Africa. This will make it possible to track this invisible disease using a smartphone application. Behind this seemingly simple application is a high-tech solution developed over a ten-year period at CSEM.
Switzerland is predestined to find new models
Development work must be thought of differently! This statement received broad support. EPFL's Essential Tech program supports promising experiments in this context. It has, for example, produced a start-up whose goal is to supply Africa with adapted X-ray equipment. The company, which is backed by both African and Swiss investors, also sees good business prospects for this in the Western world.
Because Switzerland holds all the cards to be a key player in the renewal of models for truly sustainable development. Not only is it at the forefront of innovation and the cradle of the Geneva Conventions, but it is also "a central financial center," recalled Peter Maurer. This, he said, is an indispensable factor in spreading technological advances more widely, improving the daily lives of those who need it most, and thus moving toward the fairer and better world so many hope for.
