Digital Development

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

Digital technologies are at the forefront of development and provide a unique opportunity for countries to accelerate economic growth and connect citizens to services and jobs. In times of crisis—from natural disasters to pandemics such as the one the world experienced with COVID-19—digital technologies keep people, governments, and businesses connected. They enable innovative solutions to complex development challenges and help deliver digital banking and telemedicine services.

Yet in 2022, nearly 3 billion people remained offline, the vast majority without access are concentrated in developing countries. And the usage gap remains a challenge. Close to half (43 percent) of the world's population were not using mobile internet last year, despite living in areas with mobile broadband coverage.

Our work focuses on addressing constraints to digital inclusion and transformation, around key pillars including inclusive access to fast, reliable, safe, and affordable internet. Across the World Bank Group, 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.  

Fostering digital inclusion is of paramount importance. Around 850 million people in the world cannot prove their identity, which limits their access to digital services and opportunities. The gender gap persists;  although women account for close to half the world's population, 259 million fewer women have access to the internet than men. The share of internet users in urban areas is nearly twice as high as in rural areas, and at the end of 2022, in low-income economies, 39 percent of young people (ages 15-24) use the internet, compared with only 23 percent for the rest of the population.

Digital technologies can also transform markets and economic opportunities.  In 2021, mobile technologies and services generated $4.5 trillion of economic value added, or 5 percent of GDP, globally, but vulnerable populations in both developing and developed countries who are unable to connect to or use digital technologies risk being left behind in the post-pandemic recovery, leading to potentially heavier knock-on effects.

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.

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2023

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 based on an ecosystem approach for digital transformation built on collaborative efforts across the World Bank Group and focusing on key elements which, combined, form the basis for strong, inclusive, and responsible digital transformation for economies, governments, and societies. Areas of focus 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.

But even though 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 Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs report 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.
• A case study, National Digital Identity and Government Data Sharing in Singapore, looks at how fostering digital public infrastructure can facilitate countries' digital transformation. 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.
• A report on El Salvador's digital economy identifies challenges and opportunities to increase the pace of digital transformation in the country. The report finds that almost half of the population lacks internet access accompanied by lower digital financial services uptake compared to peer countries.
• 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.
• World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of the poor, while also acknowledging the challenges new approaches to data can mean for individuals, businesses, and societies.
• 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: Mar 31, 2023

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.

And together with the Development Economics team, we are co-leading the Mobility Analytics Task Force, which aims at generating analytics on mobility that were used to inform mitigation policies for preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus and can be applied to support work in health, poverty and social protection. The Task Force uses data from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), smartphone applications and data aggregators. We are leveraging our close relationships with telecom operators worldwide in order to facilitate access to their data, which can be used to support more effective development policies and projects.

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2023

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

• 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.
• Rwanda is spearheading digital access and inclusion initiatives, including supporting 250,000 households with financing to help acquire smart devices as well as training three million people in basic digital literacy, with a special focus on reaching girls and women.
• 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.
• In the Caribbean, a program is helping expand 3G networks to reach over 95 percent of people in Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as connect nearly 70,000 people in these countries to high-quality digital networks. This will provide access to key services and improve links to markets.
• 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.

The World Bank Group’s Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative supports 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. As part of the initiative, the Bank has conducted more than 35 country digital economy diagnostics to map the strengths and weaknesses of a country’s digital economy and identify challenges and opportunities for future growth. We are also developing action plans for pillars of the digital economy, preparing regional projects to foster digital single markets in East and West Africa and making significant commitment of financial resources for digital economy projects and reform programs.

Through the Digital Development Partnership (DDP), we continue to foster the development and implementation of digital development strategies for our client countries, as well as to support a wide variety of global analytical products and thought leadership. DDP’s upcoming reports on harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 5G will address the positive and negative impact of these disruptive technologies.  

In 2021, we established the Korea Digital Development Program (KoDi) to help low- and middle-income countries to accelerate digital transformation that is data-driven, secure, and green. The first years of the program have focused on developing a knowledge base for future providing country-specific technical assistance. Several studies distilled Korean best practices, including guides on enhancing the security and resilience of critical information infrastructure and integrating national data ecosystems, as well as case studies on greening the ICT sector, data-based economies, and the potential of trustworthy AI.

A country diagnostic for El Salvador under the World Bank Group’s Digital Economy for Latin America and the Caribbean (DE4LAC) initiative, the first report of a series, provides actionable policy recommendations that would accelerate the pace of digital transformation and bring the country closer to achieving the vision set forth by the National Digital Agenda 2020-2030. Reports on Colombia, Ecuador, and Jamaica are to follow.

The Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative is supporting around 60 countries—such as Benin, Gabon, Georgia, Indonesia, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Tonga—to design and implement inclusive and trusted types of identification and civil registration systems. The initiative focuses on increasing accessibility, strengthening trust, and realizing the developmental benefits of having an ID. ID4D has helped the Philippines to design an inclusive and trusted identification system, in which 72 million Filipinos (or nearly two-thirds of the population) have registered since the beginning of 2021, and is now supporting its use for more beneficiary-centric social protection delivery. In Nigeria, research on barriers faced by women and girls to access identification has led to legal and operational reforms to remove those impediments and improve accessibility. In addition, ID4D is globally-recognized as a thought leader on the agenda, producing knowledge resources for policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers, including the Global ID4D Dataset and ID4D-Findex, which are seminal sources of information on the coverage of identification systems. ID4D has also convened 30 organizations to develop the ten Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development, which have become an influential guiding framework on how to mitigate risks and harness the full benefits of identification and civil registration systems.

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2023