Enlarge / A chicken’s-eye view of Lome, the capital of Togo, from Google Maps. (credit score: Google Maps)
When the novel coronavirus reached Togo in March, its leaders, like these of many international locations, responded with stay-at-home orders to suppress contagion and an financial help program to interchange misplaced earnings. However the best way Togo focused and delivered that help was in some methods extra tech-centric than many bigger and richer international locations. Nobody bought a paper test within the mail.
As an alternative, Togo’s authorities rapidly assembled a system to assist its poorest folks with cell money funds—a know-how extra established in Africa than within the wealthy nations supposedly on the forefront of cell know-how. The newest funds, funded by nonprofit GiveDirectly, have been focused with assist from machine-learning algorithms, which search indicators of poverty in satellite tv for pc pictures and cellphone knowledge.
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