Revolutionizing the region’s digital landscape - IDEA
The World Bank’s Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) program (approved June 27, 2024) is setting out to revolutionize the region's digital landscape, helping achieve universal digital access by 2030, in line with African Union and UN objectives. This ambitious initiative aims to increase access to the internet and the inclusive use of digitally enabled services that will benefit over 180 million people (half women) in 15 countries (starting with Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malawi) and Regional Economic Communities. With a budget of up to $2.48 billion, IDEA is financed through the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
Digital Inclusion is Key
Increased accessibility of broadband services, accompanied by enhanced affordability and service quality, leads to higher inclusion. Digital inclusion, in turn, has a positive impact on creating jobs and reducing poverty. In 2023, the World Bank’s Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs flagship report) found that in Tanzania, extreme poverty declined by about 7% after three or more years of exposure to internet coverage, while labor force participation and wage employment increased by up to 8%.
Today, a woman in Eastern and Southern Africa has only a 34% chance (vs 41% for men) to have made or received a digital payment in the last year. There are multiple factors hindering women’s access to and use of digital tools, including affordability, literacy, digital literacy, ID requirements, risk of online abuse, and lack of content/applications/services targeting women.
Digital inclusion can and is benefiting women and girls, as well as populations in underserved areas, in many African countries. For example, in Uganda, a 2021 World Bank collaboration with the EQUALS Global Partnership’s Access Coalition, GSMA, Trickle Up, and AVSI launched a women’s digital literacy and inclusion pilot among refugee and host community participants. Participants reported a fourfold increase in basic digital skills. Over 90% of women reported having ownership and control of digital devices, as well as new or improved income-generating and/or employment opportunities. In Ethiopia, over 900,000 poor households in drought-prone communities received their benefits in electronic accounts in 2023, 43% of which are owned and operated by women. In Mozambique, the Social Protection and Economic Resilience Project increased the number of families with children in the poorest districts that received social protection transfers through digital payments 121-fold between 2021 and 2022.
The IDEA program aligns with the region’s Gender Acton Plan for Eastern and Southern Africa and with the World Bank’s Strategy to Accelerate Gender Equality for a Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Future, 2024–2030, specifically its second pillar that aims to expand and enable economic opportunities for women. Particularly, IDEA seeks to encourage the promotion of economic opportunities for women through additional connectivity support, affordable smart devices, and training for women and female-headed households.
