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Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean
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Nathalia Foditsch, Barbara Marchiori de Assis

Washington, DC: Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI); Internet Society (2021), 65 pp.

"Universal Service and Access Funds (USAFs) have been used by governments in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries since the 80s/90s to address telecommunication related gaps. While their existence is not free from criticism, they are an instrument that has been created to achieve universalit ... more

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Pandemic in the Internet age: From second wave to new normal, recovery, adaptation and resilience

Scott W. Minehane, Simon Molloy

Geneva: ITU (2021), ix, 96 pp.

"ICTs have an enormous role to play in helping society adapt to the dislocations caused by the pandemic. This enhanced role comes in addition to the already central part that digital technologies have assumed in driving innovation, digital disruption and economic growth and development, particularly ... more

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Giga: Empowering communities in Asia and the Pacific through school connectivity

Geneva: ITU (2021), ix, 92 pp.

"Giga, a joint collaboration between ITU and UNICEF, is an initiative to connect every young person in the world to information, opportunity and choice. Devised before the onslaught on COVID-19, the project addresses the underlying inequities in access to the Internet. However, it is also a platform ... for creating the infrastructure necessary to provide digital connectivity to an entire country, for every community and for every citizen. With schools as a focal point, Giga seeks to build robust digital ecosystems, so communities everywhere can cope with shocks such as COVID-19 and ensure that no one is left behind. To achieve this goal, Giga builds on four pillars: map, finance, connect, empower. Map. Mapping of schools helps identify the connectivity problems and gauge the magnitude of the challenge in each country. Top-down and bottom-up approaches to mapping school connectivity support this endeavour [...] Connect. There are various infrastructure and technology solutions available that could bring affordable connectivity to the unconnected schools identified by the mapping exercise, including established technologies such as Wi-Fi, satellite, and fibre [...] Finance. The selection of appropriate financing mechanisms depends on the magnitude of the challenge. The costing analysis can only take place after mapping connectivity gaps and determining fit-for-purpose connectivity solutions. Government budgets or universal service funds (USFs) could address small- to medium-sized connectivity gaps [...] Empower. Bringing connectivity to schools will have a limited impact if e-learning solutions are not in place and if educators do not have the digital skills to empower learners. There are many case studies from Asia and the Pacific of initiatives that aim to empower digital learning [...] Giga has made significant progress since its launch. It is already active in 17 countries in three regions. Countries in Asia and the Pacific are next to join the Giga initiative. Several countries have expressed interest, including Bhutan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji. Each country has its own opportunities and challenges in terms of extending connectivity. The review of policies, regulatory environment, school connectivity initiatives and availability of connectivity data in potential Giga countries and the assessment of use cases strongly indicate that there is significant promise for the expansion of Giga in the region." (Executive summary, pages vi-vii) more

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Connectivity in the Least Developed Countries: Status report 2021

Michael Minges

Geneva: ITU (2021), ix, 59 pp.

"In 2020, the 46 LDCs had a combined population of 1.06 billion people and are highly vulnerable, with low levels of human development. And yet, geography, population size and income vary within the group, and these different conditions affect digital development. National data infrastructure is an ... more

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Telecommunications/ICTs for rural and remote areas. Study period 2018-2021

Geneva: ITU (2021), xiii, 90 pp.

"There is need for further studies focusing on access to broadband services and how emerging technologies can be used to transform rural and remote areas into digital economies. There is no one-size-fits-all model for financing rural connectivity and engaging all stakeholders, but creating public-pr ... more

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Practicing Sovereignty: Digital Involvement in Times of Crises

Bianca Herlo, Daniel Irrgang, Gesche Joost, Andreas Unteidig (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (2021), 430 pp.

"This book frames digital sovereignty as a right to be claimed and a process constantly in the making, as a condition of the ability to critically partake in the digital transformation. Emphasizing a political and transformative significance of the term, this interdisciplinary publication gathers sc ... more

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From Digital Divide to Digital Justice in the Global South: Conceptualising Adverse Digital Incorporation

Richard Heeks

Manchester: Centre for Digital Development (2021), 13 pp.

"The connection between digital and inequality has traditionally been understood in terms of the digital divide or of forms of digital inequality whose core conceptualisation is exclusion. This paper argues that, as the global South moves into a digital development paradigm of growing breadth and de ... more

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(Des)iguales y (des)conectados: Políticas, actores y dilemas info-comunicacionales en América Latina /

Daniela Monje, Alina Fernández, Ana Laura Hidalgo (eds.)

Buenos Aires: CLACSO (2021), 296 pp.

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Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2021

Geneva: ITU (2021), iv, 26 pp.

"An estimated 4.9 billion people are using the Internet in 2021, according to latest estimates in this 2021 edition of Measuring Digital Development: Facts and figures. That means that roughly 63 per cent of the world’s population is now online – an increase of 17 per cent – with almost 800 mi ... llion people estimated to have come online since 2019. Internet penetration increased more than 20 per cent on average in Africa, in Asia and the Pacific, and in the UN-designated Least Developed Countries (LDCs). With most of the 17 Global Goals thrust sharply off-track by the force of the emergency, the pandemic has highlighted – and exacerbated – the crippling cost of digital exclusion. Achieving universal meaningful connectivity has become a matter of the utmost urgency if we are to meet the SDGs by the end of the decade. We cannot close the digital divide if we cannot measure it. And we cannot connect the unconnected if we do not know who they are, where they live, and why they remain offline – nor can we measure the success of our policies to bridge the gap . While the access divide is close to being bridged, with 95 per cent of the world’s population now living within range of a mobile broadband network, important blind spots remain. Close to 30 per cent of Africa’s rural population still lacks mobile broadband coverage. And even though the vast majority of the world’s people could access the Internet through mobile broadband, less than two thirds actually do. The statistics reveal a connectivity ‘grand canyon’ separating the digitally empowered from the digitally excluded, with 96 per cent of the 2.9 billion still offline living in the developing world. Drilling down to country level also affords a more nuanced picture. Location plays a big part: our figures reveal that the share of Internet users in urban areas is twice as high as in rural areas. There is also a generational gap – 71 per cent of the world’s population aged 15-24 is using the Internet, compared with 57 per cent of all other age groups. And gender remains a factor: globally, 62 per cent of men are using the Internet compared with 57 per cent of women. While that digital gender divide has been narrowing across all regions, women remain digitally marginalized in many of the world’s poorest countries, where online access could potentially have its most powerful effect." (Foreword) more

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The Costs of Exclusion: Economic Consequences of the Digital Gender Gap

Ana María Rodríguez Pulgarín, Teddy Woodhouse

Washington, DC: Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI); World Wide Web Foundation (2021), 22 pp.

"Governments are missing out on hundreds of billions of dollars because of the digital gender gap. Closing this gap in the next five years gives policy makers a $524 billion USD opportunity. Across the world, millions of people are still unable to access the internet and participate online — and w ... more

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"Towards Building Inclusive Digital Communities": ITU Toolkit and Self-Assessment for ICT Accessibility Implementation

Geneva: ITU (2021), viii; 99 pp.

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Inequality in Access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in East and North-East Asia and South-East Asia

Bangkok: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) (2021), 27 pp.

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Estadísticas de las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación en los Hogares. Trimestre: Enero-Febrero-Marzo 2021

Richard Ruiz Calderón

Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas e Información (INEI) (2021), 49 pp.

"El 66,8% de la población de 6 y más años de edad del país accede a Internet. Respecto a similar trimestre de 2020, se observa un aumento de 6,5 puntos porcentuales al pasar de 60,3% a 66,8%. Por área de residencia, en Lima Metropolitana la población usuaria de Internet significó el 80,9%, en ... more

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Mobile Training Center: Closing the Digital Divide for Marginalized Youth. Skills to Succeed Bangladesh

Save the Children (2021), 2 pp.

"The opportunity for further growth in the ICT sector by leveraging the sizeable youth workforce, including females, is immense. The Skills to Succeed program in Bangladesh helps vulnerable youth (ages 15-24), living in slum communities, develop employability, ICT technical and entrepreneurship skil ... ls, and provides job linkage services to prepare them to obtain decent work in the ICT & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) value chain, from which marginalized youth have traditionally been excluded. Since 2017, 10,800 youth have received employability skills training (41% female). Additionally, 6,810 youth have received vocational training in ICT and 2,730 entrepreneurship training. Of these, 3,117 youth have been placed in jobs and 504 in self-employment. One of the key learnings from the S2S program in Bangladesh is that, in order for youth to be more likely to advance in the ICT sector, where technology leaps forward at a fast pace, they need to become lifelong learners and, ideally, develop technology skills at an earlier age. This is why the S2S program is expanding to reach marginalized in-school and out-of-school very young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) to build their life skills, growth mindset and digital skills so they are able to continuously learn, adapt and be prepared to take advantage of the jobs of the future. An innovative approach for providing access to the internet and build the digital skills of to the most marginalized adolescents and youth in Bangladesh, particularly girls, is the use of a Mobile Training Center (MTC). The MTC moves around Chattogram to provide skills training to adolescent girls and boys at their doorsteps. The MTC has one technical instructor and two life skills trainers. These instructors facilitate a 24-hour training on life skills and growth mindset, and a 24-hour training on digital literacy and citizenship. The MTC is set up in a large bus, it is equipped with 15 laptop computers, internet connection, and furniture to facilitate trainings. Internet access is provided through 3G/4G portable Router Access Points. Service is procured from high quality mobile network service providers in Bangladesh, such as Grameen Phone or Robi, with whom the program has corporate agreements. By meeting adolescents close to their homes and communities, the MTC will overcome common participation barriers for marginalized and vulnerable adolescents, such as personal safety and the time and cost of traveling to training centers. These barriers frequently prevent girls from pursuing or completing trainings." (Pages 1-2) more

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The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2022

Anne Delaporte, Kalvin Bahia et al.

London: GSMA (2021), 76 pp.

"Mobile internet use has reached 55% of the world's population. By the end of 2021, 4.3 billion people were using mobile internet, an increase of almost 300 million since the end of 2020. Growth in mobile internet adoption has almost entirely been driven by people living in low- and middle-income co ... more

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Gender Norms, Gendered Work and Intersectional Digital Inequalities in Rwanda

Araba Sey et al.

Research ICT Africa (2021), 58 pp.

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The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
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Anne Delaporte, Kalvin Bahia et al.

GSMA (2021), 66 pp.

"Six years ago, about a third of the world’s population were using mobile internet. Today, it is more than half. Despite this progress, the pandemic has highlighted how big gaps in connectivity persist, even in high-income markets. 3.8 billion people still do not have access to the internet – du ... more

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Desigualdades digitales: Aproximación sociojurídica al acceso a Internet en Colombia

Víctor Práxedes Saavedra Rionda, Daniel Ospina Celis, Juan Carlos Upegui, Diana C. León Torres

Bogotá: Dejusticia (2021), 106 pp.

"En este texto nos preguntamos, en concreto, por los efectos de la desigualdad económica en el acceso a las tecnologías digitales, en especial a Internet y, por ende, a los derechos que se ejercen a través suyo. También nos preguntamos por la caracterización jurídica del acceso a Internet, tan ... more

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Digital Inclusion of the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia: Remote Virtual Mechanism for Usability of Telecentres Amongst Indigenous Peoples

Poline Bala, Chon Eng Tan

Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC), volume 87, issue 4, e12171 (2021), 14 pp.

"Turning to an ICT-based community development known as the Telecentre Programme amongst Orang Asli, an indigenous people groups in Peninsular Malaysia, this paper describes why a remote virtual management devise was invented to encounter challenges related to rugged terrain constraints, which would ... more

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Policy Brief and Recommendations for an Enabling Environment for Community Networks in Brazil

Adriana Labardini Inzunza, Bruna Zanolli et al.

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (2021), 152 pp.

"The policy brief we hereby present to the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) includes recommendations and specific proposals to enable community networks in Brazil, considering extensive research in both the global and Brazilian context, the state of the art of these small, not-f ... more

Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean Top Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021 Top Insights

Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean
Top Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
Top Insights