A significant step toward making headways in business is when we collaborate with organizations and people with similar values. Our shared perspective towards various aspects of operations is empowered thus, and our performance is endowed with limitless potential.

When Wishtree Technologies came across  The Principles for Digital Development, we instantly connected with their vision and found ourselves having aligned goals.

Wishtree is based in the Indian cities of Pune and Ahmedabad, which are centres of technology and development in their own right. Wishtree was established with the primary aims of using technology for good, and freeing businesses and enterprises – global and local – from traditional methods of operations.

Wishtree has been associated with multiple UN agencies including WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, and IOM, and has successfully delivered projects which have contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

For example, in a collaboration with IOM (International Organization for Migration), we developed an online database for shelter management for the migrant women workers in Kuwait. This project called Online Shelter Database (OSD) employed a biometrics-based identification system and tracked and monitored the activities and the health of the women. The data collected was then integrated with Government databases to verify the identities of the women, provide them with travel documents, and send them safely back home.

In order to move towards digital transformation, we have often bypassed conventions and empowered clients and team members alike with sustainable practices. The OSD has been one such endeavour where we could do our part to assist exploited women workers. Although it was not technically complicated, we faced challenges while trying to understand the processes in detail, along with the workflows and system requirements.

Our team had traveled to Kuwait to visit the shelter, speak to the women, and meet the concerned government officials, IOM representatives, and other stakeholders. The insights received not only enabled us to fulfill the project, but also presented significant learning that technology can solve complicated problems and at the same time, make a sustained positive impact.

Foraying into international development has not only opened us to sustainability goals and digital empowerment, but also to principles around applied technology. Signing on to the Digital Principles reinforced our belief in the power of community – where we learn and grow together with organizations that are set out to make a difference. Integrating the Digital Principles into our organizational structure has allowed us to have a harmonious development environment along with consistent learning.

Access to the Digital Principles knowledge products such as training modules and case studies has opened doors to expansion and scalability for us. We have been able to attend to our customers better throughout their journey; also impacting employee retention and satisfaction in turn. 

In alignment with the Principles of Digital Development, the Wishtree Team has custom-designed a dynamic website for the UNCDF which acts as a resource centre for financial health and promotes the work done by the Global Center of Excellence in Financial Health. It has a clear navigation path and interface. We could reduce the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) with this simple user-friendly website because it has been developed completely on Open Source Technologies.

Various industries have witnessed exponential growth in the digital movement. It is through initiatives like Digital Principles that the growth can be sustainable and ecological. 

We have deployed protocols set forth by Digital Principles for ecological improvement while working on the Climate Box – a project that the UNDP looked at expanding into an interactive and customizable portal. To build this multi-language system portal, our team has innovated different functionalities for both public and registered users, with a separate administration section dedicated to managing the portal’s content. The advanced Content Management System allows the users to get creative with the portal to add or modify content.

The Digital Principles have seamlessly integrated with Wishtree’s operations and work approach. They have strengthened our objective to build an inclusive society of digital operations, data-backed decisions and secure transactions; without the stakeholders having to go through months and years of processes. Wishtree is dedicated to using technology for good while contributing to the community and remaining committed to the Digital Principles.