DRC of the future

     The Democratic Republic of Congo is a Sub-Saharan African country. Over the past couple decades, the DRC has been destroyed by political corruption and internal conflict. The result has left a DRC that is very poor and has high tensions. Along with this, the country's infrastructure is very weak and broken. With the last dictator and two corrupt presidents, the nation's landline telephone network is almost completely destroyed. Only 2.54% respondents in Kinshasa (the capital) reported having a landline (Gjerstad). A land-line isn't a very modern form of technology but this is an accurate representation of the technology in the DRC. The technology usually isn't the most innovative around. There is also many shortages and lack of technology.  There is also a lack in organization in science to improve technologies. The science community has no common representative structure such as an academy or professional associates" (Assessment).  Not only is there disorganization in the science community but research institutions are suffering as well. They are experiencing a shortage of facilities, equipment, and personnel (Assessment).  The DRC is not close to as technologically advanced as the U.S. is and like the documentary In the Age of AI. The DRC's main focus is far from self-driving cars, surveillance, and the other technology discussed in the documentary. There is no worry about displacement in the workforce from self-driving cars because they're so far behind that their main focus has to be on things like establishing national landlines and establishing non-corrupt networking to improve connection of the nation first.   

    Now some improvements that the DRC has made to technology. The DRC may only have 2.54% of people with a landline but the amount of people with a mobile phone is over 70% which isn't bad (Gjerstad). Because there is no landline system the companies have to rely on satellites to get the coverage to customers. Also, recently in 2018, the DRC experienced an Ebola outbreak. The DRC wants to get control of this crisis in order to make its people safer. So, what did they do? The DRC in March 2019 released to the public a new agency that they had created. Agence Nationale d’Ingénierie Clinique d’Information et d'Informatique de Santé or ANICiiS was the agency created to combat Ebola. The mission of this agency was is to improve the management of the nation's healthcare system. The agency will overlook telemedicine and other new technologies and will ensure that the technologies are being used to their full benefit (The Promise). Another improvement that the DRC is helping participate in is with the mining of Cobalt. The DRC is the leading world supplier of cobalt and there's plenty of it still in the DRC. Now this isn't really a direct technological improvement in the DRC but the cobalt that is sold from the DRC is used to make batteries. The same batteries that are put in self driving cars and other modern innovative technologies. These technologies wouldn't work without the cobalt, so the DRC is still kind of helping drive that innovation. Adding on to cobalt, in 2015 the DRC made $1,354,700,000 in 2015 from cobalt (Mann). Cobalt along with gold and diamonds are the leading industries in the DRC so I would also assume that most the newer technologies that will be added to the DRC in the near future will be in the mining industry. The DRC is advancing slowly but the technological innovations and improvements aren't close to as advanced as the U.S. The DRC needs to improve internally, setting up a national network and then thanks to the help of other countries already making these new technologies, expand the mining industry to where improvements can made in the other industries in the nation.

                                                            Works Cited

Assessment of the state of science and technology in Congo: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/science-technology/sti-policy/country-studies/congo/assessment-of-the-state-of-science-and-technology-in-congo/

Gjerstad, A. (n.d.). Congo, Democratic Republic of (DRC). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.giswatch.org/en/country-report/civil-society-participation/congo-democratic-republic-drc

In the Age of AI. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/in-the-age-of-ai/

Mann, E. (n.d.). Digital Technology is Dependent on Forced Labor. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.du.edu/korbel/crric/media/documents/ccric-africa-papers/elise_mann.pdf 

The promise of a digitally connected DR Congo. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.path.org/articles/digital-congo-ebola/