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Digital Access, Inequalities & Inclusion

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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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Minimum Data Consumption: How Much is Needed to Support Online Activities, and is it Affordable?
Deep Insights

Rong Chen, Michael Minges

World Bank (2021), 19 pp.

"The primary payment method for mobile internet usage in most developing countries is prepaid, with the amount tied to a specific volume of data usage. Data volume is therefore a useful yardstick to determine how much is needed to carry out important welfare enhancing activities online. For foundati ... more

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Manual de redes comunitárias
Key Guides

Bruna Zanolli

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (2021), 90 pp.

"Este manual reúne informações a partir de experiências concretas de redes comunitárias no Brasil e América Latina para responder a perguntas como: o que são redes comunitárias? Que tipos existem? Como planejar, implementar, instalar e gerir uma rede comunitária? Dessa maneira, esta publica ... more

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Connecting Empowerment: How Social Network Expansion in Women’s Collectives Helps Bridge the Gender Digital Divide

Eric Rice, Sara Chamberlain

London: BBC Media Action (2021), 9 pp.

"This report, based on research conducted with women's empowerment collectives (self help groups, co-operatives, rights-based groups, trade unions) in India in late 2019, explores the relationship between the expansion of women's social networks in collectives, their growing empowerment, and their a ... more

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Digital Trends in Africa 2021: Information and Communication Technology Trends and Developments in the Africa Region 2017-2020
Deep Insights

Geneva: ITU (2021), 65 pp.

"This report provides an overview of trends and developments in ICT infrastructure, access and use in Africa, which includes 44 member states and is home to a population of 1.04 billion people. The report highlights changes in ICT adoption since the last World Telecommunication Development Conferenc ... more

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The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
Deep Insights

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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Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021: Sub-Saharan Africa Key Trends

GSMA (2021), 3 pp.

"Over half a billion people who are living in areas with a mobile broadband network are not using mobile internet, despite substantial increases in mobile broadband coverage since 2014. Significant gender and rural-urban gaps persist. Women are 37% less likely to use mobile internet than men. Signif ... more

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How Many Children and Young People Have Internet Access at Home? Estimating Digital Connectivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

New York: UNICEF (2020), 13 pp.

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Media and Information Literacy Index. Country Report Côte D’Ivoire

Luise Krumm, Dennis Reineck

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2020), 27 pp.

"Young Ivorians are adept at using digital media. They are creative when it comes to using digital media and many have developed strategies to cope with media malpractices such as cyberbullying or hate speech. These are two significant, indicative findings from the present MIL INDEX country study. B ... oth seem very impressive considering the challenges of high illiteracy rates and the strongly politicized national media landscape in Côte d’Ivoire. The results of the study are drawn from eight focus groups conducted in the beginning of 2019 in Abidjan and Bouaké and interviews with eight local experts. They confirm that young people are very good at using and creating content on social media but urgently need better critical, analytical, and reflective skills. This MIL INDEX study is aimed at obtaining a concise picture of media- and information-related skills amongst youths under the age of 35 in Côte d’Ivoire. It addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) according to DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action. In terms of access the focus groups conducted for this study reveal that young urban and semi-urban Ivorians use a variety of different media for purposes such as consuming information, communication, entertainment, education, or business information. Digital media, particularly social media platforms and instant messengers, are the most used and most popular among this age group and are generally preferred over traditional media. Nonetheless, radio and television are still valued for their auditory and visual input which are significant characteristics considering the high illiteracy rates of about 40,4 % present in Côte d’Ivoire (UIS, 2018). A divide between more urban and more rural regions is visible in the case of radio programs, which are more popular in more rural settings. The focus groups suggest this is due to the fact that local radio stations are often the only media which provide news relevant to more remote areas. Most other media show a tendency to focus only on news from the capital. Printed media are widely regarded as too costly and outdated by Ivorian youths. The results of the analysis dimension indicate that most focus group participants possess a good digital and media knowledge while at the same time many lack awareness of their rights to freedom of expression and access to information. Striking was that youths generally consider content provided by traditional media to be more trustworthy, but mainly consume social media content. This and often very loose definitions of what media quality means showed that there is still room for improvement when it comes to the young people’s analytical skills. Overall, urbanites seem to question the trustworthiness of media content slightly more than youths from more rural regions. Results from the reflection dimension confirm that Ivorian youths are constantly exposed to malevolent forms of communication and media malpractices such as cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual harassment, and disinformation. Most young people show strong abilities when it comes to recognizing media problems and using prevention or coping strategies to handle them. Exceptions are politically motivated disinformation and biased reporting which are taken as normal in the Ivorian context. Due to this tendency towards normalization only very few young people reflect critically upon this media malpractice. Reflection on a deeper level such as on the impact of media messages or motivations of news outlets is often missing among young people." (Executive summary) more

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Media and Information Literacy Index. Country Report Uganda

Dennis Reineck, Luise Krumm

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2020), 25 pp.

"Young Ugandans are reluctant to voice their concerns and take part in public discussions according to indicative findings from the MIL INDEX country study presented here. The eight focus groups conducted for the study in Kampala and Bugembe early in 2019 revealed that youths are using both traditio ... nal and social media extensively, but discussions of political and public issues take place mainly in closed circles on platforms like WhatsApp. “It is a suffocated environment,” says media expert Gerald Businge. This MIL INDEX study is aimed at obtaining a concise picture of media- and information-related skills amongst youths under the age of 35 in Uganda. It addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) based on DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action. The focus group participants see themselves living in the “the dot-com era” though access to the Internet and even television is far from universal in Uganda. The smartphone is the most popular device and it serves as a benchmark when judging more traditional media (radio, television, and newspapers). Social media are used alongside traditional media, but there is a feeling that traditional media, especially radio, are losing touch with the Ugandan youth of today. There is a general neglect of printed media, based on an aversion to long reads and often also difficulties in understanding them. Some participants feel they are addicted to social media and online messengers. When it comes to analytical skills, the Ugandan youths in the focus groups are not very critical of the media environment they live in despite the overwhelming evidence that state control, intimidation, and media concentration are problems in Uganda. But they do pick up on news bias and sensationalism. They are also aware of the fact that online sources and social media information should not be trusted blindly. Participants can differentiate between quality and tabloid-type media, but an alarming proportion does not know their constitutional right to freedom of expression. The level of reflection on the part of focus group participants is medium to low. They can render many cases of cyberbullying/hate speech, disinformation and cybercrime, though they are not always aware of the difference. Especially the examples of cyber-harassment that are recounted in the focus groups reveal that female youths are primarily targeted. At the same time there seems to be little in the way of counselling for victims and there was not enough reflection of the background to such malevolent forms of communication. Strategies in coping with them are not very elaborate, though some groups did mention methods of verification in the context of disinformation several times. There is considerable potential for support when it comes to dealing with cyberbullying, cyber-harassment, hate speech and cybercrime." (Executive summary) more

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Meaningful Connectivity: A New Standard to Raise the Bar for Internet Access

Dhanaraj Thakur, Teddy Woodhouse et al.

Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) (2020), 18 pp.

"The meaningful connectivity standard is a tool to raise the bar for internet access and set more ambitious policy goals for digital development. It sets minimum thresholds across the four dimensions of internet access that matter most to users. These are: regular internet use - minimum threshold: d ... more

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Connected: How a Mexican Village Built its Own Cell Phone Network

Roberto Jesús González

Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press (2020), xiii, 259 pp.

"This is the true story of how, against all odds, a remote Mexican pueblo built its own autonomous cell phone network – without help from telecom companies or the government. Anthropologist Roberto J. González paints a vivid and nuanced picture of life in a Oaxaca mountain village and the collect ... more

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Africa’s Digital Divide and the Promise of E-Learning
Deep Insights

Matthias Krönke

Afrobarometer (2020), 18 pp.

"On average across 34 countries, one in five adults (20%) have access to both a smartphone and a computer, while 43% only have access to a basic cell phone. In 15 out of 34 countries, at least half of adults have access to a smartphone or a computer or both. About three in 10 respondents (31%) use t ... more

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Making Open Development Inclusive: Lessons from IDRC Research

Matthew L. Smith, Ruhiya Kristine Seward (eds.)

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press; International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (2020), xiv, 498 pp.

"Making Open Development Inclusive: Lessons from IDRC Research focuses on the connection between openness and inclusion in global development. It brings together the latest research that cuts across a wide variety of political, economic, and social arenas - from governance to education to entreprene ... more

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Affordability Report 2020

Washington, DC: Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) (2020), 51 pp.

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Reaching 50 Million Women with Mobile: A Practical Guide

Dominica Lindsey et al.

London: GSMA; Altai Consulting (2020), 41 pp.

"The persistent gender gap in mobile access and use is already well documented, as are the significant benefits of closing it. Across low- and middle-income countries today, women are eight per cent less likely than men to own a mobile phone, 20 per cent less likely to use mobile internet and 33 per ... more

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The Digital Exclusion of Women with Disabilities: A Study of Seven Low- and Middle-Income Countries

London: GSMA (2020), 43 pp.

"1. Women with disabilities have among the lowest rates of mobile and smartphone ownership. In most countries, ownership gaps are widest between men without disabilities and women with disabilities. Even in countries where the mobile gender gap is small or nonexistent, there is still a disability ga ... more

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Digital Inclusion Across the Globe: What is Being Done to Tackle Digital Inequities?

Bianca C. Reisdorf, Colin Rhinesmith (eds.)

Social Inclusion, volume 8, issue 2 (2020), pp. 132-259

"There is a large body of research that has examined digital inequities, inequalities, and divides—i.e., those countries, communities, and individuals digitally left behind or disadvantaged. Whereas we know quite a lot about what is lacking and for whom, there is less focus on what works to allevi ... more

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From Digital Divide to Social Inclusion: A Tale of Mobile Platform Empowerment in Rural Areas

Lisha Ye, Huiqin Yang

Sustainability, volume 12, issue 6: 2424 (2020), 16 pp.

"The digital divide in rural areas is an important social issue, especially in developing countries. Although Internet and broadband penetration have increased in the world generally, there are many obstacles for rural China to get access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and its ser ... more

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Digital Inequalities in the Global South

Massimo Ragnedda, Anna Gladkova (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xvii, 372 pp.

"This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem - a binary division between 'haves and have-nots' - to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, ... more

Minimum Data Consumption: How Much is Needed to Support Online Activities, and is it Affordable? Deep Insights

Manual de redes comunitárias Key Guides

Digital Trends in Africa 2021: Information and Communication Technology Trends and Developments in the Africa Region 2017-2020 Deep Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021 Deep Insights

Africa’s Digital Divide and the Promise of E-Learning Deep Insights

Minimum Data Consumption: How Much is Needed to Support Online Activities, and is it Affordable?
Deep Insights

Manual de redes comunitárias
Key Guides

Digital Trends in Africa 2021: Information and Communication Technology Trends and Developments in the Africa Region 2017-2020
Deep Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
Deep Insights

Africa’s Digital Divide and the Promise of E-Learning
Deep Insights