User:DanSD19/sandbox11

Digital divide by continent, area and country

Africa[edit]

All[edit]

The digital divide is generally wider in Sub-Saharan Africa, as those countries experience widespread poverty. There are reportedly only 7% of the continent's inhabitants that are online. However, mobile phone usage is shockingly high at 72%. Only 18% of these phones are smartphones. The lack of Internet usage can partially be attributed to the fact that the most common language used on the Internet is English. However, it can also be attributed to the fact that the literacy rate in African countries is not very high. To combat the digital divide in Africa, economists have suggested stimulating the economy of the region. Bridging the digital divide was a major concern of those at the International Telecommunication Union Telecoms World conference in Durban, South Africa. The forum stressed the need for African governments to key into ITU's initiative for Africa, which emphasized infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity. Furthermore, entrepreneurs were encouraged to address the specific challenges that Africans face in regards to accessing the Internet.

In a study conducted in 2011, they estimate that internet access is only available to roughly fourteen percent of the African population. This means that while the world's population is only composed of fifteen percent of Africans, around six percent of that subscribe to the internet.

The COVID-19 crisis has further emphasized the existing digital divide and especially the gender gap. It is estimated that 3.6 billion individuals are not connected to the Internet across the globe, including 900 million in Africa. Only 27 percent of women in Africa have access to the Internet and only 15 percent of them can afford to use it. Digitalization in Africa is also hampered by structural challenges, such as access to electricity, Internet connectivity, poor or weak infrastructure, policy environment and regulations, and the limited ability of individuals to use the digital solutions. It is worth noting that nearly 300 million Africans live further than 50 km from a fibre or cable broadband connection. Hence the lack of widespread availability of broadband Internet also represents a major hurdle, particularly for people living in rural and remote areas, to fully harness the potential of digital transformation.

Poverty and Poor Infrastructure in Africa[edit]

Even though technology has become more and more affordable, there is still a disparage between poor people's access to Internet and wealthy people's access to Internet. This becomes an issue once children begin school, as kids who are in low income school systems do not have access to technology in which they are not granted technical skills to develop to continue their education and later translate those skills to the workplace. This low level of computer literacy can be attributed to poor infrastructure and high costs to stay connected. In 2000, the entirety of Sub Saharan Africa had less telephone lines than Manhattan as a whole.^{[citation needed]}

The poor infrastructure in Africa makes it much more difficult for economic development because countries are unable to develop technologically. Particularly, landlocked countries face major difficulties due to the fact that there are rarely any port cities in these countries, not giving them much trade power. It is estimated that investment in better roads increased investment in telecommunications would help further develop the infrastructure in the continent. Furthermore, the differentiating languages between the existing countries and pre-existing differences between different cultures provides a barrier to Inter-Continental development.^{[citation needed]}

Internet Access[edit]

According to 2011 estimates, about 13.5% of the African population has Internet access Internet in Africa.^{[citation needed]} Africa accounts for 15% of the World population, but only 6.2% of the world's population is African.^{[citation needed]} However, these statistics are skewed due to the fact that most of these Internet users come from South Africa, a country that has a much better infrastructure than the rest of the continent. The rest is mainly distributed among Morocco and Egypt, both countries that have better infrastructures than the majority of the countries in Africa, yet not as strong as that of South Africa. There have been many initiatives in the U.S. to push for better infrastructure which would eventually lead to better Internet access in Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Sub-Saharan Africa

SSA is the fastest growing region in terms of Internet connectivity, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 percent and an additional 167 million projected subscribers by 2025, which will take the total subscriber base to just over 600 million, that is, approximately half of the total population.

An increasing number of solutions are being developed to improve the livelihoods and resilience of farmers by taking advantage of the decreasing cost of digital technologies. For example, satellite observation and geodata are being leveraged to create new solutions for supporting social protection and financial service provision. At farm level, the application of specific digital technologies can lead to positive impacts on productivity, improve farmers’ incomes and livelihoods and make farmers more resilient to the effects of climate change. For example, digitalization through mobile technologies can connect farmers to supply chains, service provision, and directly to markets and consumers, maximizing profitability by avoiding intermediaries.

SSA has also one of the widest mobile gender gaps in the world. Over 74 million women are not connected. The Internet penetration4 rate in 2019 was 33.8 percent for men and 22.6 percent for women. The Internet user gender gap was 20.7 percent in 2013 and up to 37 percent in 2019. The gender gap in mobile ownership was 13 percent, a reduction from 14 percent in 2018; however, in low- and middle-income countries it remains substantial with fewer women than men accessing the Internet on a mobile. Furthermore, women are less likely to use digital services or mobile Internet and tend to use different mobile services than men.

In addition to variations among countries, there is also a significant gap between rural and urban areas. For example, in Uganda the urban gender gap in mobile ownership is 4 percent while the rural gender gap is 22 percent, more than five times that of urban areas. In Senegal, women in urban areas are 11 percent less likely than men to use mobile Internet, compared to 32 percent in rural areas.

Ethiopia[edit]

Main article: Digital divide in Ethiopia

See also: Internet in Ethiopia

The digital divide in Ethiopia has caused a massive lack of information for many poorer individuals, however, the greatest failure relates to education. Between intense government regulation as well as economic factors, it is nearly impossible for the average person to access the internet. With such a gross lack of access to technology and the internet, education is stunted and children are forced to rely on archaic, biased, and often unreliable sources of information.

The CIA notes that only 15% of the Ethiopian population is connected to the Internet placing the country at 107 of the 217 countries ranked in the study.

Morocco[edit]

See also: Internet in Morocco

The digital divide is an issue for countries like Morocco who are trying to provide improved internet availability to its people. While internet is available to a majority of people in city centers, rural locations are still without access. There exists some restrictions on telecommunication services and limited service providers to choose from. This acts as a block for Moroccan internet users because the lack of competition can become costly. The cost associated with internet services also prevents those who are more economically disadvantaged from accessing the same types of services.

Limitations to Internet Access[edit]

Some of the main limitations for access are education, gender, and age. People with lower education are less likely to access technology or further their professionalism in the information technology field. Moroccan women can often find that they do not have the same sort of opportunities to technology professions and internet usage. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was formed to increase opportunities for women and a project called "Achieving E-Quality in the IT Sector in Morocco" has been set up for women to be presented with, increasing their professionalism. Ten universities currently participate in this project in an active effort to close the gender gap within the digital divide.

There is a discernible age gap between individuals who are active on social media and the internet and those who are not. Those aged 14–25 tend to be more familiar with the different social trends and access them much faster than the older generations. A large attribution to this is the lack of literacy in many adults. In 2010, 56% of Morocco's population was illiterate. While children able to go to school are learning to read, write and use various forms of technology; many of their parents do not have access to these same resources and may not have had access while they were growing up. The largest city of Morocco, Casablanca, has a population of 3,544,498 as of 2016. Around 57.6% of the people throughout Morocco had access to the internet in 2016 while the rural population was 39.32%. With a little over half of the population having access to internet many adults that lack literacy skills are currently living in rural areas with minimal access and usage of the internet, yet for their children they have the opportunity to occasionally access the internet through schooling.

Solutions[edit]

The government of Morocco has become increasingly involved in closing the digital divide being experienced by the country. Morocco lags behind in the digital world and steps are actively being taken to fix this. One plan that has been put in place is called “Maroc Numeric 2013”. This plan was initiated in 2013 in an attempt to get Morocco more involved in the digital world as well as provide some protections for internet users. This plan has the potential to boost the nation's economy by creating jobs. The plans passed in government legislation also work to reduce some of the costs associated with internet connection and usage by ensuring that internet services can operate on a free market with little to no control unlike the newspapers and television stations of the region. Despite efforts by the Moroccan government there is still some gap in digital connection among its people. The wealthier population still has higher internet access than those that are poorer. There has been some improvement with the help of free market competition to make access to the internet more readily available to all people.

According to Samuel Lee, Fabian Seiderer and Lida Bteddini, one potential solution could be increasing and improving the lines of communication between the Moroccan government and its people who have expressed much interest in being involved with legal legislation and having more access to knowledge online. A final solution might be updating the original plan, “Digital Morocco 2013” that was put in place in an attempt to bridge the digital divide. While the plan has led to some improvement, connectivity and usage of the internet is still limited to the more educated and urban regions of the Moroccan kingdom.

Nigeria[edit]

Main article: Digital divide in Nigeria

See also: Internet in Nigeria

The digital divide in Nigeria is impacted by education, lack of electrical infrastructure, income, and urban drift, as well as a variety of other social and political factors contribute to Nigeria's growing digital divide. There have been efforts to reduce the digital divide by both government agencies and technology corporations.

In Nigeria, 40% of women who did not own a mobile phone identify illiteracy as a key barrier to ownership, compared to only 22% of men. Only 45% of women (against 62% of men) are aware of mobile Internet, precluding Internet use for over half of the population.

South Africa[edit]

Main article: Digital divide in South Africa

South Africa's Digital Divide is being bridged by programs like Isifundo. This program provides computer literacy for South Africans who would otherwise not receive any training. They set up centers that provide access to computers and the internet. Their Facebook keeps people up to date with computer related news and other helpful programs in South Africa.

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from Gender-responsive digitalization. A critical component of the COVID-19 response in Africa​, FAO, FAO.