ICTs/Internet

ICT, Policy and Sustainable Economic Development 2017

  • 7 December 2021

ICT, Policy and Sustainable Economic Development 2017

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for several advances by the year 2030. Although access to and deployment of information communication technology (ICT) are cited as specific targets in only four of the SDGs (4, 5, 9 and 17), ICT plays a role in the realization of all of the SDGs.

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This policy statement will illustrate how ICT is equipping populations with tools to relieve poverty, access education, provide healthcare and reduce CO2 emissions. To sustain opportunities in the long run and ensure efforts are impactful across geographies and cultures, the statement explains how the ICT ecosystem works and the contributions business and other relevant stakeholders bring to policy-making efforts.

Overview of the components needed to leverage ICT for sustainable economic development and their inter-relationship
SDGs diagram

The diagram here presents an overview of the components needed to leverage ICT for sustainable economic development and their inter-relationship. This diagram will be used throughout this policy statement to underscore the ways in which policy choices within and across each of these components can impact the potential of ICT to be leveraged for societal benefit.

To provide further context on each of the layers and how the components work together, the following sections will present each component in greater detail alongside examples drawn from specific SDGs. In the final section, the ecosystem will be revisited in full to present how ICT can be leveraged.