We can't tell if we're closing the digital divide without more data

Much has been made of the digital underpinning of many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – gender equality, good health, quality education, industry innovation, and smart and sustainable cities – and the need to set ICT sub-targets for them. The truth is we don't have the data from developing countries, and therefore in our global statistics, to determine where we are now or to know what progress we are making towards overcoming the ‘digital divide’. The current supply-side data collected by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from national administrative data doesn’t allow us to measure several basic indicators in the predominantly pre-paid mobile environment that characterizes communication services in developing countries. These indicators inform the access part of the sub-indices of the ICT Development Index (IDI). As the only global ICT dataset, it forms a crucial part of others, such as the UN E-Government Index, the World Bank’s Little Data Book on ICT, the new Facebook/Economist Intelligence Unit ‘3i’ index and the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report.

To redress digital inequality in the Global South, far more attention will need to be paid to measures that stimulate demand. Even where environments that are conducive to investment have been created for the extension of networks, our survey data illustrates how the socially and economically marginalized – particularly those at the intersections of class, gender and race – are unable to harness the internet to enhance their social and economic well-being. The data available shows that besides affordability, human development – particularly education and therefore income – are the primary determinants of access, intensity of use and the use of the internet for production not just consumption.

[Professor Alison Gillwald (PhD) works for Research ICT Africa and the University of Cape Town]