Mission and work

Data and digital technology are powerful tools, with the potential to bring enormous benefits – or cause significant harm. As digital transformation accelerates across the world, technology – and particularly data – can be harnessed to drive economic and social development. But these tools must be designed, implemented, and governed to empower people in ways that foster participation, trust, and choice. 

Founded in 2014, the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) works to make this goal a reality. We lend our expertise to governments, funders, and decision-makers across the globe by sharing knowledge, insights, and tools to promote positive digital transformation. This is done through four key areas of work:  

1. Our policy work brings together like-minded experts to advance best practices, good governance, and effective safeguards. 
2. Through targeted research, we uncover, analyze, and share the information and guidance needed to address today’s most pressing digital challenges and opportunities.  
3. Our technologists explore, review, and catalog digital tools and solutions that have been proven to support inclusive, sustainable digital transformation. 
4. Our country engagement efforts connect governments, civil society partners, and stakeholders across Africa with essential research, insights, and learnings.

Impact

Through collaboration, discussion, and global convening power, the Digital Impact Alliance shapes political will, drives positive change, and unites the international community in the quest for a positive digital future. As a trusted resource with experts based in Kenya, Uganda, Switzerland, India, the US, and beyond, we are uniquely positioned to serve as amplifier for inclusive, equitable, and sustainable digital transformation.  

In the past year, the Digital Impact Alliance has demonstrated its value – and impact – through some of the following initiatives:   

1. In 2023, the Digital Impact Alliance played a key role as an official knowledge partner to India’s G20 presidency. Among its main objectives, the Indian government focused on digital development as a driver of social and economic progress, in particular, digital public infrastructure (DPI). This culminated in the first ever multilateral consensus on DPI, providing an international framework outlining best practices for technological design, implementation, and governance. 
2. The Digital Impact Alliance and its partner, Smart Africa, relaunched the Africa Data Leadership Initiative (ADLI). Through a series of roundtable sessions, ADLI brings together decision-makers across the continent to advance data exchange for economic competition, innovation, and societal wellbeing. These efforts have proven successful, as the African Union officially recognized ADLI as a critical mechanism for capacity building around good data governance. 
3. Throughout the year, the Digital Impact Alliance led a variety of strategic planning and discussion sessions with governments across Africa. These collaborative sessions were critical to harnessing collective knowledge and accelerating progress throughout the continent. Drawing on these learnings, the organization partnered with leaders in Sierra Leone to help establish a national digital development policy, as well as shape the foundational policy, strategic, and technical documents that now steer the country’s digital trajectory.

Lead voices

The Digital Impact Alliance is staffed by a range of expert technologists, researchers, and policy specialists. Our lead voices can offer perspectives on issues such as thoughtful systems design, good data governance models, and the power (and pitfalls) of unlocking data, just to name a few.  

• Priya Vora, CEO:  Priya’s expertise lies in mobilizing resources and support across public and private sectors to drive political will and effect positive change.  
• Diana Sang, Director of Country Strategy and Partnerships: Diana is an expert in country program design, government engagement, and leading cross-sector partnerships.  
• Kay McGowan, Senior Director of Policy: Kay specializes as a policy innovator, diplomat, and digital development strategist. 
• Jake Watson, Senior Director of Technical Programs: Jake specializes in maximizing the positive impact of technology in support of humanitarian and international development projects.   
• Jonathan Dolan, Senior Director of Research: Jonathan’s expertise lies in data governance, strategy, growth, and formulating partnerships.