techDetector Morocco
Thomaz Rezende @ Envisioning
Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Greater equitable development is rooted first and foremost in recovering cultural bonds and values to creatively co-create better futures. Morocco possesses a diverse and lively history that has witnessed a long succession of different cultures, and this is reflected in many aspects of life. The convergence of its different cultural backgrounds made Morocco a prolific place that birthed some of the most significant innovations of our time.
Since 1975, GIZ has been working in the Kingdom on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and other clients. In 2020, GIZ collaborated with Envisioning to amplify this partnership by scouting emerging technologies that support a restorative, inclusive, and future-proof economic development focused on the people and the planet. The most significant pursuit has been taking into account the Moroccan context and specificities as the primary drivers to unleash the spread of innovation and technology in economic, social, and ecological terms.
Additionally, from an in-depth analysis of the main challenges faced by Morocco regarding sustainable development, we have identified four goals to be achieved across GIZ’s local sectors: to preserve biodiversity, to promote a regenerative economy, to enhance sovereignty & global participation, and to bridge the digital divide. These goals guided the processes of technology scouting and clustering, resulting in seven trends that converge into technological shifts with their potential impact on Morocco over the next ten years.
The trend Tightening the Common, for instance, focuses on essential service outreach and autonomy in communities, and Paving the Net assembles solutions that can bridge the digital gap between those with access to the Internet and digital tools and those without. Furthermore, Scaling up Solidarity captures the rise of grassroots mutual aid technologies, while the Engineering Welfare trend’s central discussion is concerned with people-centric technological improvements in the governance realm. Redesigning Foundations gathers possibilities of greener and circular infrastructure, and Screening Ecology and Natural Programming are concerned with the power of nature; the first by observing natural cycles with the help of emerging technologies, and the latter by merging cutting-edge solutions with organic bodies.
Methodology
In an effort to support more dialogue and better cooperation between technology experts and actors involved in international development, GIZ Morocco together with Envisioning jointly developed the techDetector Morocco; an analytical tool that determines the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) as well as its sustainable impact of emerging technologies, taking into consideration the local and regional demands and needs of Morocco. We assessed 100 technologies, according to NASA’s TRL, from 1 (the lowest level of technology maturation) to 9 (technology is already being fixed and incorporated into new systems). Our interactive visualization allows navigation between technologies, each with a summary and description of the current state of development, separated by relevant custom tags: Human Capital, Territorial Development, Gender Equality, Education, and Ecology.
You are now invited to navigate these technologies and explore the interactive visualization tool that helps trace a path towards a more sustainable future for all of us.
