World Bank Group Launches First Digital Strategy to Close Global Digital Divide

The World Bank Group has unveiled its inaugural digital strategy, designed to assist developing nations in broadening affordable digital connectivity, enhancing services, and generating employment opportunities. The strategy concentrates on four key areas: enhancing connectivity, rendering devices and data more budget-friendly, bolstering digital services and skills, and establishing a robust foundation for nations to capitalize on artificial intelligence, especially focused on "small AI" applications.

The initiative addresses the substantial digital disparities, with more than 2 billion individuals lacking internet access globally in 2025 and limited internet usage in low-income regions. In tandem with the strategy, the World Bank Group unveiled an AI Infrastructure and Readiness Initiative, offering emerging markets affordable, shared computing resources, initially concentrating on Africa and Latin America.

Speaking at the launch, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga remarked, "Digital technology can empower countries to create jobs and make scarce resources stretch further. Achieving this potential necessitates a holistic approach encompassing dependable connectivity, affordable devices, digital skills, and practical services." As developing countries confront dual challenges—limited resources and a burgeoning demand for jobs—experts estimate that 1.2 billion young people will enter the workforce in low-income nations over the next 10 to 15 years, while their economies are anticipated to generate approximately 420 million new positions.

Digital technology can facilitate job creation across the World Bank Group's five priority sectors: infrastructure, energy, agriculture, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing. By enabling businesses to connect with customers, enhance productivity, and access financing, while simultaneously reducing the expense of delivering public services, digital technology can also mitigate the cost of delivering essential services.

However, considerable obstacles persist. In 2025, over 2 billion people remained offline globally, with only 23 percent of individuals in low-income countries utilizing the internet, compared to 94 percent in high-income nations. Numerous people possess network coverage but cannot afford smartphones or data, lack digital skills, or have limited access to services pertinent to their requirements.

The strategy outlines four areas of intervention: expanding dependable connectivity by supporting shared infrastructure, promoting competition, and leveraging public finance and guarantees to attract private investment into underserved areas; making devices and data more affordable through partnerships with manufacturers, mobile operators, financial institutions, and refurbishment businesses to lower prices and expand accessible payment options; enhancing digital services and skills by facilitating dependable systems for digital identification, payments, and secure information exchange to facilitate easier access to public and private services; and building AI readiness by reinforcing connectivity, accessing computing resources, generating applicable local data, and cultivating skills, with a focus on practical implementations of "small AI" tailored to specific tasks and local contexts, such as assisting farmers in identifying crop diseases, supporting health workers, and aiding businesses in managing inventory.

Privacy, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention are emphasized throughout all four priorities. The strategy consolidates the World Bank Group's financing, policy guidance, private investment, and guarantees aligned with national priorities, serving as a foundation for collaboration with governments, technology firms, development partners, and philanthropy to extend digital opportunities to a broader population and enterprise base.

Its objective is to transform digital access into heightened productivity, superior services, and expanded opportunities for individuals to secure employment.