Description: Co-sponsor: Statistics Canada (government)
Digital transformation is well under way, yet its scope and speed vary greatly across countries, sectors, people and places. Digital divides persist along a range of dimensions, including by geography, gender, age, income and education level, and must be addressed. Digital transformation will only fully benefit economies and societies if it is inclusive and if governments step up efforts to prepare businesses, people and policies for a digital world. How can we realise the immense promises of digital technologies and bridge existing and new digital divides? The OECD Going Digital Toolkit helps chart the road ahead.
The Toolkit is an online tool that is structured along the lines of the OECD Going Digital Integrated Policy Framework. This framework includes seven policy dimensions – Access, Use, Innovation, Jobs, Society, Trust and Market Openness – that need to be co-ordinated to shape a digital future that improves the lives of all people. Measuring countries’ state of digital development is key to identifying gaps and policy solutions to making digital transformation more inclusive. Therefore, the Toolkit maps a core set of indicators to each of the seven policy dimensions and allows users to interactively explore these data to assess a country’s state of digital development. These policy dimensions include:
• Access to communications infrastructures, services and data (Indicators on connectivity divides)
• Effective use of digital technologies and data (Indicators on divides by firm size and skill level)
• Data-driven and digital innovation
• Good jobs for all (Indicators on education and skill divides)
• Social prosperity and inclusion (Indicators on gender, age education and income divides)
• Trust in the digital age
• Market openness in digital business environments
Measuring digital transformation is in many cases still uncharted territory, and this workshop would inform stakeholders about the measurement work undertaken so far and seek feedback on how to further enrich the Toolkit going forward. In particular, we see the IGF as a unique forum to engage with developing countries on how we might include their data in the Toolkit and with stakeholders on unofficial datasets that may be useful to explore for the Toolkit.
The Toolkit also contains OECD policy guidance and insights related to each of the policy dimensions and, in due course, will incorporate innovative policy practices. Users can explore the Toolkit using three entry points: 1) policy dimensions, 2) countries and 3) themes.
Key questions that would be addressed in the workshop include:
• Are there digital divides that are not covered by the Going Digital indicators? If so, which ones and do you have suggestions for specific indicators?
• What innovative country policy practices are you aware of that have helped narrow digital divides by: 1) gender, 2) skills, 3) age, 4) income, 5) education level, and 6) connectivity?
• In your view, how can the Toolkit be enhanced to foster digital inclusion?
Moderator
Molly Lesher, OECD (international organisation), USA, confirmed
Participants
Mark Uhrbach, Statistics Canada (government), Canada, confirmed
Alex Cooke, Ministry for Industry, Innovation and Science, Australia (government), confirmed
Olga Cavalli, ISOC (Internet technical community), Argentina, confirmed
Ellen Blackler, Disney (business), United States, confirmed
Walter Claassen, National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) (non-profit organisation), South Africa, confirmed
Online moderator
Christopher Lomax, OECD (international organisation) (youth), Sweden, confirmed
Diversity
Including the moderators, the panel includes three women and four men. The online moderator is a youth. The panel includes representatives from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Sweden and the United States. Several stakeholder groups are represented: International organisations, government, the Internet technical community, civil society and business.
Expected Outcomes: Measuring digital transformation is in many cases still uncharted territory, and this workshop would inform stakeholders about the measurement work undertaken so far and seek feedback on how to further enrich the Toolkit going forward. In particular, we see the IGF as a unique forum to engage with developing countries on how we might include their data in the Toolkit and with stakeholders on unofficial datasets that may be useful to explore for the Toolkit. The Toolkit would also benefit from participants identifying innovative policy practices aimed at closing digital divides and fostering digital inclusion.
