33% of the world is digitally disconnected, 53% lacks access to high-speed broadband, and even though the digital divide between men and women has reduced, a lot more needs to be done. By including diverse voices and creating an inclusive narrative around the use of technology, the latest Network Readiness Index’s (NRI’s) focus on “Building a Digital Tomorrow” provides a roadmap for scaling the benefits of the technological revolution, often referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, equitably and sustainably.
Digital public-private partnerships (PPPs), a key construct of the NRI report, now span e-governance, smart cities, and advanced healthcare, focusing on scalable, accessible, and secure technologies like AI, IoT, and cloud computing. These technologies enable governments to deliver efficient, accessible public services while maintaining stringent data governance and cybersecurity standards. For example, partnerships in education, like UNICEF’s Learning Passport, and healthcare initiatives in Rwanda extend essential services to underserved regions. Emerging financing models, like blended finance, make digital investments accessible by blending public and private funds. This allows for scalable digital infrastructure while mitigating risks, enabling governments to implement sustainable digital solutions that benefit the underserved.
While PPPs play a crucial role, a broader effort to reconstruct the narrative around technology is the need of the hour. Technological advances can seem like black boxes to most stakeholders. This raises issues of trust, security, and privacy which can’t be wished away. That’s why it is important to change the evolving narrative of progress from what technology can do to us (a scary scenario for many) to what we can do with technology (a scenario that can be exciting).
Toward this end, I see mission-driven changemaker networks driving the conversation forward in their communities. Change often happens in fits and starts, and we need a better story to make it more palatable to those who are digitally disconnected or marginalized. Many regional hubs of the World Economic Forum Global Shaper network, Skoll Social Entrepreneurs, Ashoka Fellows, among others, are doing noteworthy work in this direction. By conducting workshops, community engagement drives, hackathons, and mentorship programs, they are changing the discourse around technology and creating mass inclusion in the process.
We should of course be excited by the next unicorn coming out of Boston and Bangalore, but the true test of digital inclusion will be the emergence of waves of new billion-dollar enterprises from places that don’t have internet today. They deserve the loudest cheer. Moving beyond tokenism to creating structural changes that can make it happen will be critical in the times to come.
To complement funding and resources for the underserved, a collective sense of adventure and possibility toward a more inclusive technology-fueled future will increase the global GDP and address important environmental and social goals along the way. It all starts by weaving a new story which has room for everyone, i.e., all the nodes in the network, to build, play, and co-create.
Utkarsh Amitabh is the CEO of Network Capital and the Chief Marketing Officer of 5ire.org, a blockchain unicorn valued at $1.5 Billion. 5ire.org acquired a stake in his company Network Capital (networkcapital.tv), one of the world’s largest mentorship platforms that empowers 7.5 million+ school students and 200,000+ young professionals to build meaningful careers.
He is a writer at Harvard Business Review, Chevening Fellow at University of Oxford and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper who represented the community at the Annual Meeting in Davos. He is a Senior Fellow of the Portulans Institute.