Monitoring the Digital Divide - Phase III: International Development Research Centre

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Monitoring the Digital Divide - Phase III

Project Leader: Dr. Claude-Yves Charron

Institution: ORBICOM (the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications)

Region: global/multi-regional (Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle-East & North Africa, Asia, Latin America)

Start Date: 10/2004

Project Details
WSIS Action Lines: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9

Cover of the last edition

“The revolution brought about by the new technologies has to confront a major challenge, namely the extreme disparities of access between the industrialized countries and the developing countries and those in transition, as well as within societies themselves. Indeed, the real issue is how to take account of the human dimension of the ‘digital divide’ between and within countries.”
- Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO

Context: Why is this project important?

The technological revolution is fundamentally transforming societies around the world. Populations are becoming increasingly divided, as the introduction of new technologies draws lines between those with access and those without. Our ability to deal with this ‘digital divide’ will become the principal measure of success in many development initiatives. The little work that has been done on measuring the digital divide has focused primarily on technological infrastructure, such as connectivity and e-readiness. As such, little is known about non-infrastructural dimensions of the digital divide, especially in the developing world.

The Project: How does this initiative address the development problem?

Phase III of Monitoring the Digital Divide builds on its two previous phases. The first phase included piloting the initial framework and model for measuring the digital divide in nine initial countries in 2002. The Digital Divide Index (DDI) was designed to track the diffusion of ICTs over time and across regions. Phase II analysed the digital divide in 192 countries and the findings were published in “Monitoring the Digital Divide… And Beyond” in 2003.

The third phase of the project updates this publication by collecting and analyzing data from the first two phases. It establishes linkages between the results of the empirical application and national and regional approaches to the information society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The relationship between gender and the digital divide are also being examined. With these three additions to Phases I and II, this benchmarking project continues to support capacity-building of southern researchers in helping to develop a comprehensive framework with which to monitor progress in ICT use for development purposes.

Objectives:

To develop a measuring tool that will enable countries to better understand the impact of specific ICT policies, measure their success in bridging the digital divide, and benchmark themselves against other nations. More specifically, the project aims to:

Support the capacity-building for southern researchers with regards to empirical measurement and monitoring tools
Help maintain a network of researchers involved with quantitative and qualitative analysis of the digital divide and impact of ICT policies (Observatorio para la Sociedad de la Información en América Latina y el Caribe (OSILAC), Scan ICT, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS), etc.)
Support one of Canada’s main deliverables for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Phase II
Develop a credible tool for appropriate benchmarking of the digital divide

Development Impact

As the project has just recently started, its development impact cannot be assessed at this time.

Outputs

Sciadas, George (ed.). (2003). Monitoring the Digital Divide… and Beyond. Montreal: Orbicom. Available Online: http://www.orbicom.uqam.ca/projects/ddi2002/2003_dd_pdf_en.pdf

Key Words*

* All terms are drawn from the OECD Macrothesaurus 1998.