Publication: Harnessing the Internet for Development
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2016-01
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2017-03-30
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Universal access to the Internet has become a topdevelopment priority. Getting there requires affordable,reliable access to fast, “always on” broadbandnetworks, one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 9.c). Finland has recognizedaccess to broadband as a fundamental human rightsince 2010. In 2011, a key Uncommission also declared that broadband access is a basic human right, alongwith health care, shelter, and food. Affordable Internetaccess enables progress on some of the toughestdevelopment challenges in the world’s poorest communities. According to one estimate, increasing the proportion of the world’s population that is connected to the Internet to 75 percent(reaching 5.6 billion people)would add 2 trillion dollars per year to world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and help create 140 million jobs—a lofty goal: today, only about 40 percent of the world’s population (3.2 billion)is connected. But reaping those benefits requires more than adding Internet connections: while digital technologies have been spreading, “digital dividends” have not. Getting traction will require a major reevaluation of Internet development and reform projects. That reevaluation is the focus of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends (WDR 16).It highlights the size of the digital divide and shows that a robust program of development in the supporting environment points the way for the development community to make decisive headway on the enormous promise of the Internet.
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“Melhem, Samia. 2016. Harnessing the Internet for Development. Connections;No. 1. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26323 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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