The Pro-Poor Digitalisation Canvas: Shaping Innovation Towards SDGs 1 and 10

With digital technologies playing an ever more important role throughout the world, policy makers, development actors and entrepreneurs have increasingly sought to shape digitalisation’s trajectory in a way to benefit some of the world’s most marginalised communities and progress towards SDGs 1 (‘no poverty’) and 10 (‘reduced inequality’). Moving beyond a widely considered outdated single-issue focus on connectivity, this chapter contributes to the existing research on pro-poor digital development by introducing the Pro-Poor Digitalisation Canvas as an analytical framework for evaluating digital solutions’ developmental potential holistically. The expanded canvas model—spanning across the three dimensions of creation, opportunity and outcome—pays tribute to the multifaceted nature of poverty and inequality and its interplay with digital technologies. As such, it may serve as an important point of reference to innovation managers seeking to leverage innovation for SDGs 1 and 10.