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Digital Justice: A Study and Action Guide
Quick Overview

Key Guidance

Erin Green

Toronto; Geneva: World Association for Christian Communication (WACC);World Council of Churches (WCC) (2022), 51 pp.

"This compact, accessible guide unpacks a number of key digital justice issues and looks at how digital communication impacts marginalized peoples and groups. Case studies, facts and figures, discussion questions, and suggested readings offer tools for reflection and action. For use by individuals o ... more

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HF Radio: Guide for Facilitators and Community Installers

Peter Bloom

Philadelphia: Rhizomatica Communications (2022), 24 pp.

"The purpose of this guide is to share the basics of installing a solar-powered HF radio station. For some years now, Rhizomatica has been working to “modernize” HF technology, allowing the transmission and reception of digital information. HF technology offers many advantages for autonomous com ... more

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Tseltal and Zapoteco Shared Networks: The Paths Towards a Pluriversal Internet

Fernanda R. Rosa

Philadelphia, PA: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (2022), 23 pp.

"Fernanda R. Rosa explores the Indigenous networks, principles, and practices of internet infrastructure building and sharing in Tseltal and Zapoteco sovereign territories in Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico. More specifically, she uses the concept of shared networks to examine “the first mile signal-sh ... more

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Revisiting Digital Inclusion: A Survey of Theory, Measurement and Recent Research

Matthew Sharp

Manchester: Centre for Digital Development (2022), 50 pp.

"Focusing on the internet as a foundational technology, this paper begins by summarising recent developments in digital inclusion theory, particularly as this relates to developing countries. It sets out a framework of core components of digital inclusion - including access/use, quality of access/us ... more

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Redes compartidas de Tseltales y Zapotecas: Los caminos hacia un internet pluriversal

Fernanda R. Rosa

Philadelphia, PA: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (2022), 24 pp.

"Este trabajo de investigación examina el surgimiento de las redes compartidas en comunidades tseltales y zapotecas de Chiapas y Oaxaca (México): la primera milla de señal de internet compartido que articulan la infraestructura de interconexión y los valores de convivencia para extender el inter ... more

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Digital Divide: Who in Africa is Connected and Who is Not
Quick Overview

Libuseng Malephane

Afrobarometer (2022), 22 pp.

"Afrobarometer finds that most Africans own a mobile phone and have access to a mobile phone network. However, fewer than half own a mobile phone with Internet access, and even fewer have access to a computer. This translates to low levels of Internet use in many countries. Lack of Internet access a ... more

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Why Aren’t Women Part of the Conversation? A Study of the Gender Gap in Social Media Use in India, its Causes and the Implications for Women’s Empowerment
Top Insights

Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon, Arjun Khanna, Sara Chamberlain

BBC Media Action (2022), 12 pp.

"This report summarises learnings from BBC Media Action’s landscaping study of the gendered dimensions of social media access and use in India. It addresses 10 questions that have implications for designing digital solutions for women’s empowerment in India." (Page 2)

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Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and Inequality

Mark Graham, Martin Dittus

London: Pluto Press (2022), xiii, 194 pp.

"Today's urban environments are layered with data and algorithms that fundamentally shape how we perceive and move through space. But are our digitally dense environments continuing to amplify inequalities rather than alleviate them? This book looks at the key contours of information inequality, and ... more

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The Mobile Economy 2022

GSMA (2022), 44 pp.

"The mobile industry has been instrumental in extending connectivity to people around the world. In 2021, the number of mobile internet subscribers reached 4.2 billion people globally. Operators’ investments in network infrastructure over the last decade have helped to shrink the coverage gap for ... more

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Digital Rights Are Human Rights: An Introduction to the State of Affairs and Challenges in Africa

Hendrik Bussiek

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2022), 7 pp.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, 495 million people (46 percent of the population) subscribed to mobile phones in 2020, however, the cost of accessing the internet is very high and many African Governments are renowned for restricting access to the internet to limit critics and their opposition through inter ... more

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The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2022

Anne Delaporte, Kalvin Bahia et al.

London: GSMA (2021), 76 pp.

"Mobile internet use has reached 55% of the world's population. By the end of 2021, 4.3 billion people were using mobile internet, an increase of almost 300 million since the end of 2020. Growth in mobile internet adoption has almost entirely been driven by people living in low- and middle-income co ... more

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The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
Quick Overview

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 Broadband Internet, Poverty and Labor Outcomes in Tanzania

Kalvin Bahia, Pau Castells, Takaaki Masaki et al.

World Bank Group (2021), 49 pp.

"What are the impacts of expanding mobile broadband coverage on poverty, household consumption and labor market outcomes in developing countries? Who benefits from improved coverage of mobile internet? To respond to these questions, this paper applies a difference-in-differences estimation using pan ... 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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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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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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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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Telecommunications/ICTs for rural and remote areas. Study period 2018-2021

Geneva: ITU (2021), xiii, 90 pp.

"There is need for further studies focusing on access to broadband services and how emerging technologies can be used to transform rural and remote areas into digital economies. There is no one-size-fits-all model for financing rural connectivity and engaging all stakeholders, but creating public-pr ... 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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What we know about the gender digital divide for girls: A literature review

Alexandra Tyers-Chowdhury, gerda Binder

UNICEF (2021), 22 pp.

"What do we know about the gender digital divide for girls? To date, there is little research on gender differences in digital access for children under the age of 18. These disparities in usage limit women’s access to the full range of opportunities offered by digital. However, the limited data a ... more

Digital Justice: A Study and Action Guide Quick Overview Key Guidance

Digital Divide: Who in Africa is Connected and Who is Not Quick Overview

Why Aren’t Women Part of the Conversation? A Study of the Gender Gap in Social Media Use in India, its Causes and the Implications for Women’s Empowerment Top Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021 Quick Overview

Digital Justice: A Study and Action Guide
Quick Overview

Key Guidance

Digital Divide: Who in Africa is Connected and Who is Not
Quick Overview

Why Aren’t Women Part of the Conversation? A Study of the Gender Gap in Social Media Use in India, its Causes and the Implications for Women’s Empowerment
Top Insights

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021
Quick Overview