The World Bank Group intends to make digital technology a lever for economic growth and job creation in developing countries. The institution announced the launch of its first digital strategy, intended to mobilize its financial resources, expertise, and private sector investments to expand access to technology, improve services, and foster new economic opportunities.
This initiative comes in a context marked by strong pressure on labor markets. According to projections put forward by the institution, 1,2 billion young people will reach working age in developing countries over the next 10 to 15 years, while their economies are expected to create approximately 420 million jobs.
Digital technology thus appears as a potential lever to help bridge this gap by facilitating business activity, access to markets, and productivity improvements. 'Digital technologies can help countries create jobs and optimize the use of limited resources,' stressed Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group.
For him, realizing this potential requires a comprehensive approach combining reliable connectivity, affordable equipment, digital skills, and useful services. Four priorities to reduce the digital divide The strategy is structured around four complementary pillars.
The first consists of developing reliable connectivity by closing infrastructure gaps, from international cables and national networks to connections serving households, businesses, schools, and health centers. To achieve this, the World Bank plans in particular to support shared infrastructure, foster competition, and utilize public financing and guarantees to attract private investors to underserved markets.
The institution also advocates for joint planning of electricity and connectivity in areas where both infrastructures are lacking. The second pillar focuses on the financial accessibility of equipment and services.
The objective is to reduce the cost of entry-level smartphones and data plans, which remain a barrier to digital adoption. Partnerships with manufacturers, mobile operators, financial institutions, and refurbishing companies could promote cheaper equipment and adapted installment payment solutions.
The third component aims to strengthen digital services and skills. The World Bank intends to support reliable digital identification, payment, and secure data sharing systems to facilitate access to public and private services.
It also plans to support the development of digital literacy and training directly linked to labor market needs, particularly for the benefit of small businesses. The fourth priority concerns preparing countries for artificial intelligence (IA).
The World Bank intends to support them in strengthening their connectivity, access to computing capacity, the creation of actionable local data, and the development of skills necessary to use these technologies. The strategy favors in particular 'IA on a small scale,' that is to say tools designed to meet specific needs and adapted to local realities.
In agriculture, these applications could help producers identify diseases affecting crops. In health, they could assist professionals in certain tasks, while businesses could use them to optimize their inventory management.
More than 2 billion people are still without Internet. The scale of access disparities justifies, according to the institution, this new direction.
In 2025, more than 2 billion people worldwide were still not connected to the Internet. In low-income countries, only 23% of inhabitants used the Internet, compared to 94% in high-income countries.
Beyond network coverage, the cost of equipment and plans, the lack of digital skills, and the insufficiency of services meeting population needs continue to limit the effective use of technologies. In other words, the presence of a network does not, in itself, guarantee real access to digital technology.
For the World Bank, reducing this divide should enable businesses to reach new clients, improve their efficiency, and access financing more easily. Technologies can also contribute to reducing operating costs for public services and improving their quality.
These effects are particularly expected in