The state of broadband: Tackling digital inequalities (A Decade for Action)

Executive Summary

The world in 2020 is in a state of flux. While much progress has been made globally over
the past ten years in expanding access to, and adoption of, broadband infrastructure and
services, significant challenges remain in tackling digital inequalities, addressing the current
widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accelerating efforts towards achieving
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Ten years ago, the global community witnessed the significant impact and widespread adoption
of mobile communications that expanded across the world in the first decade of the 21st century.
But Internet usage and broadband were still at nascent levels, especially in developing countries.
Least developed countries (LDCs), in particular, had mobile and fixed broadband subscriptions
in 2010 that were both less than 1 per cent of their population levels.
In 2010, in response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s call to accelerate efforts towards
meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
established the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

After a decade of high-level advocacy, policy recommendations, numerous working groups
with research reports, and the incubation of several significant partnerships, the Broadband
Commission is one of the leading global advocacy groups working towards universal
broadband connectivity to ensure that the broadband ecosystem is being leveraged for broader
development underpinning the SDGs.

However, much work remains. Digital inequalities and uneven access and adoption of the
Internet is prevalent not only between countries, but also within countries. These inequalities
existed before the current crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the
disparities in access to high-speed connectivity and online safety issues as many, if not most,
adults and children on the planet in some way shifted towards remote work, learning, and
communication activities.

Emphasizing the sheer toll that the crisis is imposing, the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa (UNECA) has warned that even with intense social distancing, the African continent
alone, with its population of 1.3 billion, could have nearly 123 million cases this year, and
300,000 people could die of the disease. Globally, the World Bank is forecasting that under a
baseline scenario, COVID-19 may push 71 million people into extreme poverty. The efforts to
respond to the crisis have been enormous. In the first 90 days of the crisis alone, nearly 1 700
economic policy announcements were made by governments and institutions to ameliorate
the extent of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact on childhood education is particularly acute for countries where digital divides
already exist. Based on an August 2020 policy brief presented by the United Nations, school
closures and learning disruptions have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population;
in low and lower-middle income countries, up to 99 per cent of the student population have
been affected.6 This amounts to nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and the
largest disruption of education systems in history. Some 23.8 million children may not return to
schooling in the coming year because of the pandemic’s economic impact alone.