When Masaki Umeda and his team at Japan-based SORA Technology embarked on their mission in 2020, tackling malaria was not part of their initial goals. However, after setting out to deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach areas in Africa, discussions with health ministries revealed that their AI-powered solutions could be instrumental in combating the devastating disease, which claims over half a million lives annually on the continent.
“We fly drones in targeted areas and collect raw data. Then, AI tools help us classify the risk of breeding grounds by identifying water bodies and their characteristics. When this information is shared with government agencies, it allows them to instruct local fumigation companies to focus on specific high-risk points rather than conducting random interventions across vast areas,” explained Umeda, co-founder of SORA Technology.
Umeda’s work led to his recognition as a “promising innovator” at the United Nations’ 2026 Science and Technology Forum. The forum brought together early-stage solution developers from diverse backgrounds addressing global challenges. Among these innovators were initiatives offering solutions for e-waste recycling in Zambia, solar energy solutions in Argentina, and community-based renewable energy hubs in Nigeria.
“They remind us that innovations need to be matched with clear pathways for collaboration, local ownership, and scaling up for greater impact,” stated UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Li Junhua.
Talent in Developing Nations Hindered
The UN’s Promising Innovators Programme aims to highlight the wealth of talent present, particularly in developing nations. It emphasizes that much of this potential remains untapped due to limited access to funding, technology, and opportunities.
At the forum’s outset, Lok Bahadur Thapa, President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), remarked, “This is not a gap in innovation, but a gap in inclusion. Too many innovators remain disconnected from funding and markets. Too many solutions do not reach the communities that need them most.”
Rita Orji, a Professor of Computer Science and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology at Dalhousie University, is keenly aware of the challenges faced by talented youth in the Global South. Growing up in a remote village in Nigeria, Orji noted that she did not see a computer up close until university. “I shared at the International Forum on Technology and Innovation how I chose this field with the hope that it could help change the situation for my community and people like me. I spent my undergraduate years learning to code, build systems, and think computationally without owning a computer,” she said, despite graduating at the top of her class.
‘Technically Brilliant, Developmentally Useless’
According to Orji, digital tools designed by talented individuals living and working in the Global South would be more effective. “When the world talks about AI and the Global South, the story is usually about transfer. Design in the North, implement in the South, adapt at the end, and finally make it affordable. This model is reversed,” Orji stated. “The Global South should not be seen as late adopters of smart designs from elsewhere. It should be at the forefront of shaping what intelligence will be.”
Currently, most AI tools assume users are literate, English-speaking, and digitally proficient. This excludes a majority of the planet’s population. Orji believes this renders the tools “technically brilliant, but developmentally useless for those who need them most.” She concluded, “The question before us today is not whether the Global South is ready for the future of AI, but whether the future of AI is ready to learn from the Global South.”
