The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) boasts some impressive resources to achieve its mission. Founding partners include the UN Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and the Swedish government. The goal, to bring digital services to the most vulnerable populations and “create a more inclusive digital society.” DIAL’s focus areas provide a clear framework to support the agenda of the expanding field of ICT4D:
- Platforms and services
- Data for development
- Insights and impact
So far, the digitization trend has only trickled down, creating a gap. DIAL and the International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency urge “while 3.7 billion people have mobile phones, another three billion people still lack basic access to mobile phones and four billion people still lack Internet access.” In emerging economies, limited digitization can be due to extreme poverty, as well as social and economic exclusion. Obstacles to adoption include infrastructure, finance, and policy. Still, research shows that closing that gap could mean drastic economic gains. Increased per capita GDP and lower unemployment for starters.
There are 3 building blocks to achieve their mission. First, increasing the quantity and quality of digital services. Second, supporting the use of data (such as big data) to improve development. Third, promoting and encouraging the use of best practices in launching digital services.
In research cited by DIAL, Strategy&, a consultancy, reports that the economic opportunity for success could be lucrative. A 300% return on an investment of $11.4 trillion dollars over 10 years, as of 2012. This could mean far-reaching impacts for vulnerable populations. Of course, that outcome requires the tight-knit involvement of many public and private actors.
Of course, DIAL works closely with the ITU, the UN’s information and computing technology agency. Together, their goal is to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The SDGs include 17 goals and 169 targets. Their first step is to prioritize where digitization will have the greatest impact.
Originally published on April 4, 2017.
