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Digital Access, Inequalities & Inclusion

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Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean
Deep Insights

Nathalia Foditsch, Barbara Marchiori de Assis

Washington, DC: Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI); Internet Society (2021), 65 pp.

"Universal Service and Access Funds (USAFs) have been used by governments in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries since the 80s/90s to address telecommunication related gaps. While their existence is not free from criticism, they are an instrument that has been created to achieve universalit ... more

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The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021

Isabelle Carboni et al.

London: GSMA (2021), 65 pp.

"1. Women’s access to mobile internet continues to increase across low- and middle-income countries, while mobile ownership remains relatively flat: 83 per cent of women own a mobile phone and 58 per cent use mobile internet. Women are also more likely than men to access the internet exclusively o ... 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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Inequality in Access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in East and North-East Asia and South-East Asia

Bangkok: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) (2021), 27 pp.

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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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Desigualdades digitales: Aproximación sociojurídica al acceso a Internet en Colombia

Víctor Práxedes Saavedra Rionda, Daniel Ospina Celis, Juan Carlos Upegui, Diana C. León Torres

Bogotá: Dejusticia (2021), 106 pp.

"En este texto nos preguntamos, en concreto, por los efectos de la desigualdad económica en el acceso a las tecnologías digitales, en especial a Internet y, por ende, a los derechos que se ejercen a través suyo. También nos preguntamos por la caracterización jurídica del acceso a Internet, tan ... 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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Affordability Report 2020

Washington, DC: Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) (2020), 51 pp.

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Making Open Development Inclusive: Lessons from IDRC Research

Matthew L. Smith, Ruhiya Kristine Seward (eds.)

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press; International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (2020), xiv, 498 pp.

"Making Open Development Inclusive: Lessons from IDRC Research focuses on the connection between openness and inclusion in global development. It brings together the latest research that cuts across a wide variety of political, economic, and social arenas - from governance to education to entreprene ... more

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Media and Information Literacy Index. Country Report Côte D’Ivoire

Luise Krumm, Dennis Reineck

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2020), 27 pp.

"Young Ivorians are adept at using digital media. They are creative when it comes to using digital media and many have developed strategies to cope with media malpractices such as cyberbullying or hate speech. These are two significant, indicative findings from the present MIL INDEX country study. B ... oth seem very impressive considering the challenges of high illiteracy rates and the strongly politicized national media landscape in Côte d’Ivoire. The results of the study are drawn from eight focus groups conducted in the beginning of 2019 in Abidjan and Bouaké and interviews with eight local experts. They confirm that young people are very good at using and creating content on social media but urgently need better critical, analytical, and reflective skills. This MIL INDEX study is aimed at obtaining a concise picture of media- and information-related skills amongst youths under the age of 35 in Côte d’Ivoire. It addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) according to DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action. In terms of access the focus groups conducted for this study reveal that young urban and semi-urban Ivorians use a variety of different media for purposes such as consuming information, communication, entertainment, education, or business information. Digital media, particularly social media platforms and instant messengers, are the most used and most popular among this age group and are generally preferred over traditional media. Nonetheless, radio and television are still valued for their auditory and visual input which are significant characteristics considering the high illiteracy rates of about 40,4 % present in Côte d’Ivoire (UIS, 2018). A divide between more urban and more rural regions is visible in the case of radio programs, which are more popular in more rural settings. The focus groups suggest this is due to the fact that local radio stations are often the only media which provide news relevant to more remote areas. Most other media show a tendency to focus only on news from the capital. Printed media are widely regarded as too costly and outdated by Ivorian youths. The results of the analysis dimension indicate that most focus group participants possess a good digital and media knowledge while at the same time many lack awareness of their rights to freedom of expression and access to information. Striking was that youths generally consider content provided by traditional media to be more trustworthy, but mainly consume social media content. This and often very loose definitions of what media quality means showed that there is still room for improvement when it comes to the young people’s analytical skills. Overall, urbanites seem to question the trustworthiness of media content slightly more than youths from more rural regions. Results from the reflection dimension confirm that Ivorian youths are constantly exposed to malevolent forms of communication and media malpractices such as cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual harassment, and disinformation. Most young people show strong abilities when it comes to recognizing media problems and using prevention or coping strategies to handle them. Exceptions are politically motivated disinformation and biased reporting which are taken as normal in the Ivorian context. Due to this tendency towards normalization only very few young people reflect critically upon this media malpractice. Reflection on a deeper level such as on the impact of media messages or motivations of news outlets is often missing among young people." (Executive summary) more

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Exclusión y deriva: Dinámicas fronterizas de la digitalidad

Johanna C. Ángel Reyes, Joseba Buj (eds.)

México, DF: Universidad Iberoamericana; Taurus; Fundación Telefónica (2020), 192 pp.

"[Este libro] presenta ocho capítulos que se muestran críticos frente a las posibilidades y promesas de la cultura digital, denunciando que la red ha reproducido las formas de desigualdad del mundo analógico. Los autores proponen una reflexión crítica frente a ciertos discursos que se presentan ... more

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Digital Inequalities in the Global South

Massimo Ragnedda, Anna Gladkova (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xvii, 372 pp.

"This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem - a binary division between 'haves and have-nots' - to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, ... more

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Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures

Geneva: ITU (2020), 17 pp.

"Facts and Figures 2020 reveals that people in rural areas continue to face greater challenges than people in urban areas in terms of remaining connected during the lockdown, especially in developing economies. Large swathes of the rural landscape are still not covered by mobile broadband networks, ... more

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How Many Children and Young People Have Internet Access at Home? Estimating Digital Connectivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

New York: UNICEF (2020), 13 pp.

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The Digital Exclusion of Women with Disabilities: A Study of Seven Low- and Middle-Income Countries

London: GSMA (2020), 43 pp.

"1. Women with disabilities have among the lowest rates of mobile and smartphone ownership. In most countries, ownership gaps are widest between men without disabilities and women with disabilities. Even in countries where the mobile gender gap is small or nonexistent, there is still a disability ga ... more

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Digital Inclusion Across the Globe: What is Being Done to Tackle Digital Inequities?

Bianca C. Reisdorf, Colin Rhinesmith (eds.)

Social Inclusion, volume 8, issue 2 (2020), pp. 132-259

"There is a large body of research that has examined digital inequities, inequalities, and divides—i.e., those countries, communities, and individuals digitally left behind or disadvantaged. Whereas we know quite a lot about what is lacking and for whom, there is less focus on what works to allevi ... more

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The Gender Digital Divide Primer

USAID (2020), 8 pp.

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Connecting with Confidence: Literature Review

Katie Drew, John Wannes, Aaron Martin, Silva Pelucchi

UNHCR (2020), 23 pp.

"Specifically, the review focuses on the means, barriers, and associated cybersecurity and privacy concerns that refugees face around connectivity. This includes but is not limited to mobile connectivity and social media, particularly in displacement contexts. While these subjects may at times inter ... more

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Assessing Internet Development in Kenya: Using UNESCO’s Internet Universality ROAM-X Indicators

Grace Githaiga, Victor Kapiyo et al.

Paris: UNESCO; Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) (2020), 167 pp.

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Media and Information Literacy Index. Country Report Namibia

Dennis Reineck

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2020), 25 pp.

"Young Namibians are embracing the digital transformation, according to indicative findings from the present MIL INDEX country study. Interestingly, the youths that took part in eight focus groups conducted at the end of 2018 in Windhoek and Rundu are immersed in digital communication but are aware ... of the ambivalent nature of the news and information sources they find on social media and related Internet services. The importance of a critical mindset when navigating the World Wide Web was stressed by the eight experts interviewed as part of the study. This MIL INDEX study addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) according to DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action. The focus groups conducted for this study reveal that there is a rural/urban divide in terms of access and use of media. The more rural (and older) groups use radio and television on a regular basis, while the more urban (and younger) groups tend to regard traditional media as yesterday’s media. This shift is in line with the rise of social media. Information uptake is coincidental and journalistic content is intermingled with all sorts of trivia when consumed in social networks. Smartphones are regarded by many as a substitute for newspapers, radio, and television. Amongst those who continue using traditional media, radio is turned to more often for information while TV is regarded more as an entertainment medium. Considering analytical skills, there is a certain disenchantment of the Namibian youths with journalistic media, the reporting being considered not close enough to the interests and issues of the youth. But it was interesting to find that the focus group participants’ appraisal of media in terms of trustworthiness is the exact opposite of their consumption patterns. While the discussions documented frequent use of social media these are evaluated as least trustworthy, whereas newspapers are rated highly on the trustworthiness scale but were hardly ever read. There is an awareness of the ambivalent quality of news and information on social media, but the youths cannot always name sources they consider produce high-quality information. The results in the reflection dimension are ambivalent. The youths can recount numerous cases of cyberbullying and disinformation (“fake news”). But the accompanying survey shows that while they reject hate speech and disinformation, there is a certain willingness to accept cyberbullying as given. This is echoed in the focus groups where participants’ advice is often to ignore hateful messages, rather than do something about them. However, the groups do discuss many other strategies in coming to terms with and combatting cyberbullying and disinformation. Rarely do they reflect the motivations that lie behind such behavior. It was also interesting to note that disinformation is mainly discussed with regards to online rather than traditional media." (Executive summary) more

Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean Deep Insights

Universal Service and Access Funds in Latin America & The Caribbean
Deep Insights