Digital tools have become pervasive around the world, including within resilience, environment, and food security development efforts supported by USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS). Globally, reliance on digital tools to do everything from looking up a weather forecast on a smartphone to automating the analysis of complicated datasets through cloud computing is set to increase further over time. However, the ongoing digital revolution has also created new and unintended consequences. In the context of sustainable development this can manifest in unequal geographic spread, accessibility, usability, and benefit from digital solutions. Where smallholder farmers and other types of producers and micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) owners are born, what gender they identify as, their age and education level, the social norms they have grown up with, and many other factors impact their ability to effectively benefit from digital technologies.

Whether you are just starting an activity design or implementation exclusively aimed at developing a new digital tool in Feed the Future activities, or if you are simply planning on using existing digital technology within development programming, this toolkit is for you. The toolkit provides guidance to USAID staff and implementing partners on how to design inclusive digital technology interventions in Feed the Future activities. The toolkit pays specific attention to achieving positive outcomes through digital technology interventions, considerations of marginalized groups and intersectionality, and engagement with relevant local actors in accordance with USAID’s locally-led development objective.