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Regional good practices: Accelerating innovation, entrepreneurship and digital transformation in the Africa States region

Geneva: ITU (2021), ix, 64 pp.

"This report provides an overview of the comparative innovation capacity of the Africa region through ICT-centric Innovation policy monitors and shares insights about good practices strengthening the capacity to integrate ICT innovation in national development agendas. Overall, although sub-Saharan ... more

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Tanzania: A solid base for moving to G5 regulation

Geneva: ITU (2021), vi, 21 pp.

"The objective of this case study is to analyse the current institutional and regulatory framework of Tanzania to understand how it reflects the principles and nature of collaborative regulation. The case study also highlights areas of strength and possible improvements as Tanzania journeys towards ... more

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Ageing in a Digital World: From Vulnerable to Valuable

Ana María Carrillo

Geneva: ITU (2021), vi, 41 pp.

"Ageing in a digital world – from vulnerable to valuable" is the first- ever report to be produced by ITU to raise awareness in the ICT sector on the importance of being prepared to respond to the needs and requirements of ageing populations. This is essential to fulfil our pledge to ‘’leave n ... 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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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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Regional good practices: Accelerating innovation, entrepreneurship and digital transformation in the Asia-Pacific region

Geneva: ITU (2021), viii, 80 pp.

"This report provides an overview of the innovation capacity of the Asia-Pacific region through ICT-centric innovation activity and offers an insight to how good practice can strengthen Member State capacity to integrate ICT innovation into development agendas. Although the Asia-Pacific region has a ... more

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Regional E-Waste Monitor for the Arab States

Giulia Iattoni, Elise Vermeersch, Cornelis Peter Baldé, Innocent Chidi Nnorom, Ruediger Kuehr

Bonn: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR); ITU; United Nations University (UNU) (2021), 103 pp.

"The key statistical findings for the region are that electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) placed on the market (POM) increased by 30 per cent from 3.2 megatons (Mt), or 8.8 kilograms per inhabitant (kg/inh), in 2010 to 4.1 Mt (or 9.5 kg/inh) in 2019. The Arab States mostly import, rather than ... more

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Regional good practices: Accelerating innovation, entrepreneurship and digital transformation in the Americas region

Geneva: ITU (2021), viii, 70 pp.

"This report provides an overview of the comparative innovation capacity of the Americas region through ICT-centric innovation policy monitors and insights on how good practice can strengthen capacity to integrate ICT innovation into national development agendas. Overall, the Americas region has sho ... more

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Financing Universal Access to Digital Technologies and Services

Geneva: ITU (2021), vii; 93 pp.

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Digital Skills Insights

Geneva: ITU (2021), xii, 142 pp.

"The eight articles in the publication can be broadly grouped into two main sets. The first set discusses the different types of digital skills required from a more academic perspective, in particular in the context of the pandemic and post-pandemic period, as countries accelerate their move towards ... more

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Switching on Smart Rwanda: Digital inclusion, collaboration and a G5 mindset

Geneva: ITU (2021), vii, 22 pp.

"This case study shows that Rwanda’s laws and its national, sector-specific and ICT sector policies, strategies and regulations are well coordinated and embrace a whole-of-government approach and the spirit of collaboration. Rwanda’s regulatory and policy frameworks furthermore “tick all of th ... 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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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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Digital trends in the Commonwealth of Independent States region 2021: Information and communication technology trends and developments in the CIS region, 2017-2020

Geneva: ITU (2021), vi, 47 pp.

"This report provides an overview of trends and developments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, access and use in the CIS region, which includes 9 Member States and is home to a population of 240 million people. The report highlights changes in ICT adoption since the l ... more

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Manual for measuring ICT access and use by households and individuals

Geneva: ITU (2020), xii, 335 pp.

Since ITU first published this Manual in 2009, the digital technology sector has evolved almost beyond recognition. The Internet is now accessed through a multitude of devices, including mobile phones, tablets and similar handheld computers. The impressive spread of mobile broadband networks has bro ... more

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Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Geneva: ITU (2020), iv, 106 pp.

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Women, ICT and Emergency Telecommunications: Opportunities and Constraints

Geneva: ITU (2020), x, 80 pp.

"In the 1991 cyclones that hit Bangladesh, 90 per cent of the 140 000 victims were women. In the deadly heat waves that hit France in 2003, most fatalities were elderly women. During the 2005 Hurricane Katrina emergency in New Orleans, most of the victims were Afro-American women and their children. ... more

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Connecting humanity: Assessing investment needs of connecting humanity to the Internet by 2030

Geneva: ITU (2020), vi, 25 pp.

"Nearly USD 428 billion is required to achieve universal access to broadband connectivity by 2030 at the global level. This amount includes significant investment in infrastructure, investments to design and implement policy and regulatory frameworks that incentivize and promote growth in broadband ... more

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Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures

Geneva: ITU (2020), 17 pp.

"Facts and Figures 2020 reveals that people in rural areas continue to face greater challenges than people in urban areas in terms of remaining connected during the lockdown, especially in developing economies. Large swathes of the rural landscape are still not covered by mobile broadband networks, ... more

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Digital Innovation Profile Montenegro

Geneva: ITU (2020), vii, 23 pp.

"The three main ecosystems fundamental to the Montenegro digital transformation journey are the national innovation ecosystem, the entrepreneur ecosystem, and the technology ecosystem. These three ecosystems interlink closely to form the innovation landscape, from ideation to market. Each ecosystem ... more