Conference Presentation, Panel
London Summit 2015 - e-Access: Technology Opens Doors to the Rural and Remote (I)
- Technology is expected to transform lives across education, healthcare, energy, governance, and finance by overcoming physical barriers, with Daniel Gorfine noting a 50% chance his children will complete at least one year of high school online and travel before reaching high school, and a 60% to 70% probability they will pursue online degrees.
- Samir Salty anticipates a shift in renewable energy toward rooftop solar, home batteries, and control systems, while planning to apply mobile payment and pricing lessons from Tanzania to Europe, emphasizing that achieving scale with big goals is essential to avoid failure in developing markets like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
- Michael Basharia projects establishing a holistic teleradiology infrastructure within one year, followed by an immediate EMR platform rollout, and aims to deploy 1,000 container-based clinics over two years to treat 7 million patients within that same timeframe.
- A public-private initiative named Enterprise Kenya is hoped to generate 180,000 jobs annually and attract $100 million in capital from government and private sectors over four years, addressing the challenge of decision-maker mindsets and gatekeepers in Africa.
- John Fallon predicts education will become a global sector within the next decade similar to the last 30 years for healthcare, with community-based movements potentially taking over the mainstream system despite current government resistance, while advocating for a shift in government roles to strategic enablers rather than monolithic providers.
- Gary Stewart notes Telefónica's ongoing expansion into countries without operating presence and observes that governments and corporates have backed entrepreneurship initiatives for the last four or five years due to job creation potential, while suggesting startups may find it easier to pilot in less mature markets but face funding hurdles for global scaling.
- Long-term risks include policymakers focusing on short-term political headlines over long-term progress in education and health, which could prevent outcome improvements, and the broader challenge of decision-maker mindsets blocking innovators in Africa.
- Future technological trends are expected to transcend race, religion, continents, and gender in favor of shared experiences and interests, while Daniel Gorfine envisions billions of lives improved by leapfrogging traditional barriers in financial services and markets.