Mapping The Digital Divide In Africa

Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa.

Digital connectivity, including through the modern cellular network technologies, is expected to play a key role for the Future of Work in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimate the cost of introducing a full-scale 4G network by 2025 in SSA and an operable 5G network by 2040. We adapt the costing model of Lombardo (2019) by accounting for the significant demographic transformation and rapid urbanization in SSA. We use the WorldPop and GADM databases and the UN’s medium-variant population projections to project the population densities at the highest level of administrative division for each SSA country in 2025 and 2040. For full 4G connectivity, the required capital and operational costs stands approximately at US$14 billion by 2025 and for 5G connectivity, costs amount to US$57 billion in 2040, conditional on having the 4G in place by 2025. These costs roughly translate to 8.4 percent of annual subscriber income, on a median basis, by 2025 for 4G and 4.9 percent of subscriber income by 2040 for 5G. Having the infrastructure in place is not sufficient to bridge the mobile Digital Divide. In addition, policies are needed to address affordability and knowledge gaps.

This ground-breaking volume examines enduring and emerging discourses around communication rights in Africa, arguing that they should be considered an integral component of the human rights discourse in Africa. Drawing on a broad range of case studies across the continent, the volume considers what constitutes communication rights in Africa, who should protect them, against whom, and how communication rights relate to broader human rights. While the case studies highlight the variation in communicative rights experiences between countries, they also coalesce around common tropes and practices for the implementation and expression of communication rights. Deploying a variety of innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, the chapters scrutinise different facets of communication rights in the context of both offline and digital communication realities. The contributions provide illuminating accounts on language rights, digital exclusion, digital activism, citizen journalism, media regulation and censorship, protection of intellectual property rights, politics of mobile data, and politicisation of social media. This is the first collection to consider communication in Africa using a rights-based lens. The book will appeal to researchers, academics, communication activists, and media practitioners at all levels in the fields of media studies, journalism, human rights, political science, public policy, as well as general readers who are keen to know about the status of communication rights in Africa.

The technological and political convergence of formerly separate communication areas is offering African countries new opportunities. However, Africa has only taken its first steps on the path toward an information society and is lagging far behind when it is compared to the Western countries. It is argued in this book that the way to go is long, difficult, and problematic. Several authors have formulated recommendations that could be helpful to walk this complicated path toward an information society in Africa.

This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem – a binary division between ‘haves and have-nots’ – to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.

One of the realities characterizing the globe is the exclusion of marginalized communities in digital transformation. Their exclusion has resulted in a lack of participation in the digital space, which has catastrophic consequences on the digital economy. To promote digital inclusiveness in marginalized communities, there is a need to deconstruct the illusion that digital transformation is an urban phenomenon. Digital Transformation for Promoting Inclusiveness in Marginalized Communities discusses how digital transformation can be utilized to promote inclusiveness in marginalized communities by exploring opportunities and challenges and determining change mechanisms required to enhance digital transformation in marginalized communities. Covering a range of topics such as augmented reality and remote communities, this reference work is ideal for government employees, technologists, policymakers, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, instructors, and students.

This edited collection explores the role of digital inclusion in the welfare and social inclusion of vulnerable people. With interdisciplinary contributors from six continents, working in diverse fields such as digital media studies, social computing, community informatics and cultural studies, the collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on three vulnerable population categories: ethnic minorities, older people and people with disabilities. Each section is accompanied by a critical commentary on the research insights presented, from third sector community and policy experts. The collection explores whether vulnerable populations face similar experiences and challenges in relation to their digital inclusion status, stressing the central presence of intersectionality, and arguing for the inclusion of the age, ethnicity/immigration status and disability aspects of one’s identity. At the same time, it argues for multi-directional action that tackles intersectional discrimination in the digital realm on behalf of more than one single population category or group. Challenging popular discourse on the overcoming of digital inequalities in the West, this essential book contends that accounts of non-western contexts do not focus on the parameter of vulnerability or on particular population groups. Chapter 'Enhancing Older Adults’ Digital Inclusion Through Social Support: A Qualitative Interview Study.” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.