The digital transformation has been touted as a game changer for sustainable development, a panacea for improving living standards in low- and middle-income economies and lifting up struggling governments. The rising inequalities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the world’s uneven recovery only underscore the importance and urgency of this matter. Digital technologies have allowed developing countries to implement communications and banking solutions, in some instances, leapfrogging technology generations that would otherwise have required significant traditional infrastructure investments. Mobile phones and biometric IDs have delivered government and banking services to hundreds of millions of India’s citizens and mobile broadband has become the sole access to internet for many African users. A 10 percent increase in mobile internet penetration in Africa is expected to result in a 2.5 percent higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
The road to an evenly distributed TechFuture should put the needs of the Global South front and centre (ORF)
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