Fixing the Global Digital Divide and Digital Access Gap

The number of global internet users and the percentage of internet penetration continued to grow from 2021 to 2022 at 7% and 6% respectively. While this growth indicates that progress has been made in digital access, the fact remains that as of 2022, 2.7 billion people, representing a third of the world, do not have access to the internet and 53% of the world does not have access to high-speed broadband, leading to the risk of compounding negative effects in terms of economic, political, and social inclusion and equality. These trends make it plain that policymakers should care about addressing the global digital divide, and pay attention to the continental differences that exist around technology access and use. There have been and continue to be a wide array of approaches for mitigating and solving the issue of digital divides. Digital divide policy was previously dominated by a focus on increasing access to infrastructure, but recently it has expanded to include building digital skills, closing usage gaps, and strengthening social awareness of the internet. While an abundance of work is being done on the topic, stronger global collaboration remains a key goal to accelerate progress and ensure these various efforts are complementing, rather than undermining, one another.