Internet currently accessible to 35% of people in developing countries-UN
Broadband Internet is failing to reach billions of people
living in the developing world, including 90 per cent of those living in the
poorest nations, according to a new United Nations report that offers
country-by-country data on the state of access around the globe.
The State of Broadband, produced by the UN Broadband
Commission and released this week, reveals that 57 per cent of the world’s
people remain offline and unable to take advantage of the enormous economic and
social benefits the Internet can offer.
The report, which comes ahead of this week’s summit in New
York at which world leaders will adopt the 2030 Agenda which contains the new
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stresses that access to information and
communication technology (ICT), particularly broadband Internet, has the
potential to serve as a major accelerator of development. The importance of ICT
connectivity is specifically recognized in the SDGs.
“The UN Sustainable Development Goals remind us that we need
to measure global development by the number of those being left behind,” said
Houlin Zhao, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU), who serves as co-Vice Chair of the Commission with Irina Bokova, the
Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
“The 2030 Agenda recognizes the power of new technologies to
accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide, to develop knowledge
societies – we must do everything to support States in reaching these goals,
especially developing States,” Ms. Bokova noted.
“This calls for stronger efforts by governments and all
actors, in ensuring access, use and affordability – it requires also greater
work to build the capacities of all women and men to make the most of all new
opportunities,” she added.
According to the report, the Internet is currently only
accessible to 35 per cent of people in developing countries. The situation in
the 48 UN-designated Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is particularly critical,
with over 90 per cent of people without any kind of Internet connectivity.
This year’s figures show that the top ten countries for
household Internet penetration are all located in Asia or the Middle East. The
Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest household broadband
penetration, with 98.5 per cent of homes connected, followed by Qatar (98 per
cent) and Saudi Arabia (94 per cent).
The lowest levels of Internet access are mostly found in
sub-Saharan Africa, with Internet available to less than 2 per cent of the
populations in Guinea, Somalia, Burundi and Eritrea.
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