Internet user gender parity score, by level of development and by region, 2013 and 2019
Internet user gender parity score, by level of development and by region, 2013 and 2019 J5yR5
The COVID-19 pandemic put the spotlight on all the connectivity and usage divides discussed above.
As people reacted to the pandemic-related lockdown measures by increasingly connecting to the
Internet to be able to continue with their activities, those countries and sectors within countries that
lagged behind in terms of connectivity found higher difficulties in coping with the pandemic. Although
there was a global upsurge of e-commerce around the world in 2020, many smaller businesses in
developing countries struggled to go digital and meet the growing demand for online sales. 12
The remaining huge divides in terms of connectivity, access, affordability and availability of ICTs, within
and between countries, have been the traditional focus of analyses and policies. Moving forward, it
will become increasingly important to address these divides for developing countries, and particularly
LDCs, to be able to advance in the digital economy for development. As more and more aspects of
life and activities become digitalized, and data increasingly become a key resource for development,
other aspects related to the capacity to access and transfer data represent additional dimensions of the
digital divide. The following sections therefore look at the global evolution of data and Internet traffic, as
well as at emerging divides related to the collection, transmission and use of data
The COVID-19 pandemic put the spotlight on all the connectivity and usage
divides
discussed above.
As
people
reacted to the pandemic-related lockdown measures by
increasingly
connecting to the
Internet to be able to continue with their activities, those
countries
and sectors within
countries
that
lagged
behind in terms of connectivity found higher difficulties in coping with the pandemic. Although
there was a global upsurge of e-commerce around the world in 2020,
many
smaller businesses in
developing
countries
struggled to go digital and
meet
the growing demand for online sales. 12
The remaining huge
divides
in terms of connectivity, access, affordability and availability of
ICTs
, within
and
between
countries
, have been the traditional focus of analyses and policies. Moving forward,
it
will become
increasingly
important
to address these
divides
for developing
countries
, and
particularly
LDCs
, to be able to advance in the digital economy for development. As more and more aspects
of
life and activities become digitalized, and
data
increasingly
become a key resource for development,
other aspects related to the capacity to access and transfer
data
represent additional dimensions of the
digital
divide
. The following sections
therefore
look at the global evolution of
data
and Internet traffic,
as
well as at emerging
divides
related to the collection, transmission and
use
of
data
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