The Challenges of Democratizing Access to Technology
In an ideal world, scientific and technological advances would be available to all humanity, and the digital world would be a space for everyone, regardless of income and location. Centuries since the industrial revolution and decades into the information revolution, our reality is far from that. Millions of people are still unable to partake in the opportunities and prosperities of our time for social, economic, and political reasons.
Money. Money. Money
​Considerable capital is needed to build basic technological infrastructure, and for low-income countries, the glaring obstacle has always been a lack of capital. Their option for borrowing capital from domestic sources is limited, the cost of credit to borrow from external creditors is too high, and when they default, they are downgraded by credit agencies and locked out of the finances they need to develop. The consequence: they can't invest in their people, they can't invest in their economies at the rates needed to catch up with advanced economies.
​
Citizens Fund
With Citizens Fund, Hagush is developing as an alternative source of finance to help build the technological infrastructure of low-income nations.
Citizens Fund is our crowd-lending program, where anyone can lend capital to Hagush.
Loans are pooled to support Pay Later, a program democratizing digital technology access in the Global South. .
​
Pay Later
Pay Later is a program advancing digital technology access in the Global South. ​It is zero-interest financing for computing technology purchases. Financing spreads the cost of technology over time, enabling individuals to access tools and resources beyond their immediate financial means.
“The morally relevant comparison of existing poverty is not with historical benchmarks but with present possibilities: How much of this poverty is really unavoidable today?"
- Thomas Pogge