USAID seeks to use digital technology to help people around the world lead more prosperous and resilient lives. Digital technology offers the potential to predict shocks (e.g., droughts, floods, and disease outbreaks) and mitigate their impacts, support people to recover, and equip them to better withstand future shocks. Users may be international or local organizations, national and local governments, communities, and individuals. While digital technology offers exciting potential, gaps in the access to, use of, or benefit from technologies among vulnerable populations should be carefully considered, given the potential for exclusion and exacerbation of inequalities.
Digital technology has multiple applications within resilience; it can strengthen shock preparation, crisis response, and change measurement, while offering new tools for weathering difficult times.