Abstract

This chapter provides a critical review of the digital gap and how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted on the digital gap globally, with particular focus on developing countries. It begins by providing a comprehensive overview of the emerging trends and nature of the digital divide in the 21st century. It then details the COVID-19 crisis and the paradigm shift to a ‘new normal’, with a highlight on the technology in use and digital gap in the ‘new normal’. It examines the ex-ante and ex-post inequalities of opportunity in relation to the digital economy amid the COVID-19 shock; barriers to digital application amid COVID-19 and related crises; and the prospects for and roadmap to digital application for sustainable development. It identifies critical issues on how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted on the digital gap both globally and in developing countries. While the chapter highlights the digital gap from a global perspective, there is a particular focus on African countries. The outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the underlying socio-economic problem of inequality of opportunities, which have further widened and deepened the digital gap across the social and economic spectrum. Despite various interventions by government and non-governmental agencies to mitigate the impacts, barriers to digital application still exist, especially in Africa and in the developing world in general. This requires bold and coordinated action by governments as well as private industrial partnerships to achieve digital inclusion and sustainable development.

Keywords:Digital gap, global perspective, digital divide, African countries, inequality of opportunities, COVID-19 impacts, ICT, internet.

Introduction

While over 71% of the African population lack internet connectivity (International Telecommunication Union, 2019), the Internet of Things (IoT) is dominating and permeating everyone's life, and the issue of digital divide has become extremely important for actions toward inclusive growth and sustainable development. This is more critical now than ever as the wind of COVID-19 continues to blow, moving physical connectivity to virtual, online connection, thus engendering another dimension to inequality among people.

Inequality varies across countries, the most unequal countries being South Africa, Angola and Brazil and the most equal ones being Norway, Slovenia and Iceland, based on the Gini Coefficient (Scott, 2019; Worldbank, 2021).