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Paper short abstract

This paper examines power asymmetries created by the digitalisation of food assistance, in particular through the extraction of data from marginalised populations, and its storage and use by Big Tech and global finance. Including analysis from Sudan, India and England.

Paper long abstract

Over the past decade, digital technologies have become an integral part of food assistance and social welfare globally. This includes biometric ID documents, electronic vouchers, debit-type cards and mobile money transfers, that are used on the most marginalised and food insecure populations. At the same time, they have the potential to feed into structural inequalities, as almost all digital technologies involve powerful national and global businesses.

In this paper, we compare findings from research on the political and economic effects of digitalising food assistance in Sudan, India and England, and examine global implications. We argue that marginalised populations are coercively included in digitalised food assistance, and that digitalisation entails intrinsic power asymmetries through political, economic, and cultural domination. We reflect in particular on data extraction and assetization, and the role of multi-national – often US-based - financial and data management corporations (Big Tech) in storing and processing the data collected from marginalised, poor, and crisis-affected populations. We also look at the role of national and regional institutions (including banks and telecoms companies), their practices, and local, national and international effects. Finally, we consider whether their involvement can be conceptualised as forms of data colonialism, techno-feudalism, or digital imperialism, given that it does not involve the physical occupation of territory and that it includes the Global North. On a practical level, we consider implications for addressing food insecurity.