Digital Development

Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The critical services that support development—like hospitals, schools, energy, and agriculture—all run on connectivity and data. The infrastructure and platforms that underpin these connections must be available, affordable, and safe for developing countries to flourish.

Artificial intelligence and the data revolution are accelerating digital capabilities for many, but accentuating the divide as poor countries fall further behind. Without access to the internet and the skills to use digital technologies effectively, billions are locked out of the modern world.

About one-third of the global population, or 2.6 billion people, remained offline in 2023. While more than 90 percent of people in high-income countries used the internet in 2022, only one in four in low-income countries used the internet. 850 million people lack any form of identification.  The global community needs to do more to help developing nations catch up, accelerate digital adoption, and ensure that everyone can reap the benefits.

At the same time, fulfilling the promise of digital requires balancing risks and opportunities. As the world goes digital, safeguards are crucial to promote trust. Data protection, cybersecurity laws, and solid institutions must be in place to develop and enable strong interconnected digital systems that can verify identities, quickly and safely transfer payments, and responsibly exchange data.

The Digital Development Global Practice works with governments in developing countries to build the foundations for digital transformation, including their transition to digital economies, governments, and societies.

Our work focuses on key pillars, including inclusive access to fast, reliable, safe, and affordable internet. Across the World Bank, we seek to stimulate demand for digital applications, digital skills, and digital platforms to support governments, business, and individuals to participate more fully in the digital economy.  

What will it take for countries to reap the benefits of digitalization, and participate fully in the global digital economy?

• Closing the global digital divide: Even as new technologies spread rapidly around the world, billions of people have still never used the internet.  
• Preparing for the jobs of tomorrow: Innovation is radically changing the nature of work: new jobs are emerging, others are evolving. To compete in the digital economy, countries will need to prioritize education and build the digital skills of their workforce while creating efficient safety nets to support those transitions.
• Developing secure, reliable digital systems: As the world is going digital, strengthening capacity in areas like cybersecurity and personal data protection has become more important than ever.
• More financing to bring everybody online:  Achieving universal access to broadband will require over US$400 billion by 2030 and neither the public nor the private sector can do this alone. Governments need to make bold reforms and the private sector can reduce costs, risks, and increase efficiency and innovation.

Last Updated: Apr 04, 2024

The World Bank provides an extensive range of services and solutions to make sure client countries can harness the power of digital development.

Our activities in the sector are built on collaborative efforts across the World Bank and focus on key elements which, combined, form the basis for strong, inclusive, and responsible digital transformation for economies, governments, and societies. These include:

Broadband Connectivity, Access, and Use: Promoting universal access to inclusive, affordable, safe, and resilient broadband connectivity and usage through effective telecommunications policy and regulation, stimulating broadband infrastructure investment, and boosting digital literacy and access to internet-connected devices.

Digital Data Infrastructure: Maximizing the social and economic value of data by encouraging investment in data infrastructure and services, strengthening data governance, and development of integrated data management infrastructure, platforms, and analytical capabilities.

Digital Safeguards: Building and strengthening trust in usage of digital platforms and services among people, governments, and businesses by strengthening data protection, raising cyber awareness, and building capacity to protect critical infrastructure and systems from cyber threats.

Digital and Climate: Accelerating climate action with digital technologies in a way that is good for both people and the planet by greening digital infrastructure (by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening resilience) and by harnessing the power of digital technologies and data for climate action across sectors.

ICT Industry and Digital Jobs: Boosting economic growth and creating jobs by encouraging investment in ICT and ICT-enabled services industries and facilitating industry-academia partnerships to develop digital skills and job placement programs tailored to market demand.

Building the foundations of the digital economy requires capacity in multiple other fields, including finance, private sector development, education, labor, and social protection, among others. As a result, the digital agenda mobilizes a wide variety of experts throughout the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA.

While multidisciplinary collaboration is essential to the success of digital development itself, it also creates opportunities to integrate cutting-edge digital solutions across sectors — whether it be using geospatial analysis to improve disaster risk management, deploying sensors to monitor crops remotely, or using big data from mobile devices to design better public transport networks.

And while technology has opened a wealth of new possibilities for global development, it does not come without risks. Cybersecurity and data protection have become a growing concern. We work closely with client countries to help them implement the infrastructure, tools, and regulations that are necessary to address these challenges. We are also focusing on making sure that digital opportunities are inclusive while also managing risks of exclusion.

Digital development components are increasingly included in projects across diverse sectors including transport, education, health, agriculture, and public sector management.

World Bank interventions in the digital sector are informed by in-depth research and analysis. Recent publications include:

• The flagship Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023 provides a sweeping analysis of countries’ production and use of digital technologies—from digital jobs and app development, to internet use affordability and more. It provides policymakers and practitioners with a global benchmark against which to measure the speed of change, identify trends to build upon and bottlenecks to overcome, and reap the benefits of digital transformation in a new development era.
• Green Digital Transformation: How to Sustainably Close the Digital Divide and Harness Digital Tools for Climate Action guides governments and stakeholders in how they can effectively integrate digital tools to advance climate objectives and sustainably close the digital divide.  
• Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work  finds that investing in digital infrastructure, partnering with digital platforms to provide training for workers, and experimenting with new social insurance, countries can leverage this growing part of the labor market to create more opportunities.
• Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs provides a comprehensive analysis of how digital technologies can enable economic transformation and boost jobs in the region. It also sheds light on how policy and regulatory reforms can widen the availability and increase usage of digital technologies.
• Greening ICT: A case study in Singapore provides a review and key lessons on the country’s approach to climate change, focusing on how it drives energy efficiency and reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, especially in data centers.
• A report on Ecuador’s digital economy identifies challenges and opportunities to increase the pace of digital transformation in the country. The report finds that despite the country’s commitment to driving digital transformation, ensuring affordable and widespread internet access remains a pressing issue, particularly in bridging the urban-rural divide.
• South Asia's Digital Opportunity looks at the opportunities related to digitalizing the economies, societies and governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• Digital Economy Country Diagnostics  provide a snapshot of the state of the digital economy in various World Bank client countries for each of the pillars of the Digital Economy for Africa initiative (digital infrastructure, digital public platforms, digital financial services, digital businesses and digital skills), supporting the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy.

Last Updated: Apr 04, 2024

In addition to direct financial assistance and analytical work, the World Bank leverages its convening power to pool knowledge and resources from a vast array of public agencies, experts, innovators, private companies, and investors.

The Digital Development Partnership (DDP), administered by the World Bank’s Digital Development Global Practice, brings public and private sector partners together to advance digital solutions and accelerate green, resilient, and inclusive digitalization in developing countries.  As a reflection of the growing demand to support client countries on the cybersecurity agenda, the associated cybersecurity trust fund, as part of the broader DDP umbrella program, was launched in 2021.  

The World Bank Group’s Identification for Development Initiative (ID4D) initiative helps countries build inclusive and trusted identification and civil registration systems to enable all people – including the estimated 850 million without any official identification – to exercise their rights and access services. ID4D works across three pillars of country and regional action (providing technical assistance and leveraging World Bank financing), thought leadership (producing knowledge and data on the coverage and quality of systems around the world), and global convening and platforms (supporting global public goods and norms).

Leveraging the same, synergetic, cross-sectoral practice platform of ID4D, the World Bank Group hosts the Government-to-Person payments (G2Px) initiative. This effort focuses on digitizing government to people payments as a means of contributing to the long-term development goals of individual agency, financial inclusion, and women’s economic empowerment. The initiative comes at a crucial time when governments around the world are scaling up social assistance and finding ways to better target and directly transfer funds to individuals. 

The Korea Digital Development Program (KoDi) builds on the experience and best practices of the Republic of Korea, as well as other advanced digital countries, to develop national data ecosystems, spur green digital innovation, and create sizeable economic and social development opportunities in low- and middle-income countries.

In Africa, the World Bank Group is supporting the African Union’s efforts toward the digital transformation of the continent through the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) in support of the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030. It sets an ambitious and bold vision to digitally connect every individual, business and government in Africa by 2030 and seeks to propel the continent forward and ensure that African countries reap the full benefits of the digital economy.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the MENATECH initiative aims to support countries in accelerating their digital transformation, with a priority focus given to widespread affordable and good quality access to broadband as well as to financial services.

The Digital Economy for Latin America and Caribbean (DE4LAC) supports national authorities in the region in identifying reform and investment prospects to accelerate the transition to an inclusive digital economy. This initiative helps identifying challenges and opportunities to promote widespread access to digital technologies and accelerate digital transformation.

In South Asia, the Digital Economy for South Asia (DE4SA) initiative assesses the development of the digital economy in each country. It identifies policy options to promote digital inclusion, build trust ecosystems, and strengthen institutional capacity to maximize benefits of the digital economy while mitigating the risks. The initiative has informed policy dialogue, technical assistance, and project financing with governments across the region.

Last Updated: Apr 04, 2024

The Bank helps governments mobilize resources for digital transformation, adopt emerging technologies, and develop better digital regulations and policies. A few examples:

• In Mozambique, engagement on digital foundations has helped improve registration business processes to enable the issuance of national identification and birth certificates to 75,000 internally displaced persons since 2021, improving their access to formal employment and financial services.
• A program in Mauritania has helped extend connectivity to previously underserved or unserved areas through the deployment of 1,700 km of fiber optic cable. Access and affordability increased significantly, with a 53 percent increase in localities connected to broadband, and a 99 percent reduction in the average wholesale broadband price, from $7,000/month to $55/month between 2012 and 2022.
• Singapore’s national digital identity and government data sharing platform have improved efficiency of government services, enabled an inclusive digital economy, and strengthened resilience to shocks. Over 4 million people use the Singpass application to access online resources across financial, healthcare, education, business, and transportation services. More than 350 million transactions are completed each year, and transactions that previously took days or hours to complete, often requiring physical visits, now take minutes and can be performed from anywhere with an internet connection.
• In Bangladesh, the World Bank supported the establishment a cybersecurity incident response team dedicated to e-government. Since 2020, the team has been successfully responding to cybersecurity incidents affecting the government’s digital infrastructure, resolving 70 percent of all reported incidents within two hours, and delivering in-depth technical training sessions to thousands of civil servants.
• In the Maldives, a state-of-the-art climate data platform will enable climate-relevant data sharing and analysis, and improve data-driven planning and policymaking for adaptation and resilience in a country facing sea-level rise and coastal erosion.
• The Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) program supports the ambition to ensure that every individual, business, and government in Africa is digitally enabled by 2030. Through the initiative, the World Bank helped increase access to broadband internet in Africa from 26 percent in 2019 to 36 percent in 2022.
• The World Bank is increasingly exploring the complementarities between digital and the energy sector. In Madagascar, access to electricity and digital is among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the world. A project there is breaking boundaries by exploring joint provisioning models for digital and off-grid energy services in rural areas.
• With World Bank support, Kosovo now has one of the highest number of high-speed internet subscriptions per household in Europe, it outpaces leading EU countries according to data published by EUROSTAT (2021). The country’s rural broadband program leveraged private capital and brought a digital lifeline to remote locations where it was needed the most – schools, health centers, and homes.
• A project focused on strengthening data infrastructure to close the digital divide in Argentina aims to benefit 350,000 residents in areas without internet connections across 300 communities by providing training to boost their digital skills, with a special focus on reaching women.

Last Updated: Apr 04, 2024