The Potential of Crowdsourcing to Advance the SDGs by Fostering Local and Global Collaboration

Technology has radically shifted human behavior, bringing interconnectedness among people in a way that has never been imagined before. It offers the potential to contribute to cheaper and faster collective problem-solving, in particular, to solve big and laborious tasks that are difficult to execute by a small number of people. This collective action, namely crowdsourcing, has been implemented in many areas such as supporting research activities, public administration, as well as funding social projects. The potential of crowdsourcing can also be leveraged in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main objective of this paper to identify the prospective impact of crowdsourcing for the SDGs. We have identified 209 crowdsourcing projects across the globe that are closely related to the development sector. We argue that crowdsourcing is a potential tool to monitor and support the SDGs.