Digitalisation and PSD

Digitalisation is widely recognised as a key force shaping the future of the global economy and is now a key element of donor agencies’ COVID-19 recovery strategies. Recent experiences highlight both risks and opportunities for PSD practitioners:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the uptake of digital applications worldwide and gives developing countries a new opportunity to accelerate their digital progress. Indeed, digital technology has already had a transformative development impact, e.g. in the financial sector.
  • In other sectors, however, developing countries risk remaining largely passive consumers of digital products and services produced elsewhere. Job creation impacts are still unclear, and the digital divide based on gender, age and geography might grow.
  • Harnessing the opportunities and addressing the risks will require additional investments in digital infrastructure, skills and regulatory frameworks and nurturing tech firms and industries that use local knowledge to respond to local needs.

For more specific information on COVID-19 related trends and donor support to digitalisation, please refer to the DCED knowledge page on Promoting economic recovery and resilience in the context of COVID-19.

At a Glance: Short reads on digitalisation

DCED Synthesis Note          External publications

Summarises key economic development opportunities and risks of digitalisation and how different PSD approaches can be used to address them.

Take a read. 

World Development Report 2019 (Overview Chapter), World Bank, 2019

14-page summary of the 2019 World Development Report, highlighting key findings on the changing nature of work in the context of digitalisation and government policy options.

Take a read

Analysis and recommendations for developing countries to create and capture greater value from the digital economy.

Take a read

Opportunities and challenges for digitalisation

Agency digitalisation strategies and policy papers

Photo credits: Hendri Lombard/World Bank; erict19/flickr.com; Beyond Access, South Africa/ flickr.com C. Schubert/ flickr.com