We live in a world where the Internet is increasingly integrated into our daily lives. Beyond getting online through computers or mobile devices, wrist bands track our daily exercise, and smart thermostats moderate our home climates. Even more importantly, much of our work and many of our transactions are conducted online, from communicating with our friends and coworkers, to ordering dinner, to flagging where a pot hole or fire hydrant needs to be fixed in our local community. As embedded as the Internet has become for many of us, it seems almost inconceivable that so many—over half of the world’s population—have never gotten online. This demonstrates a strong truth: The Internet is no longer additive to our daily lives; it is becoming essential. For those who do not access it, they risk greater losses than a cold home or undocumented exercise. They risk missing out on society’s continued advances. This realization—that the digital divide remains wide and, more importantly, that its consequences will be grave and farreaching—is why we have recently seen a sharp increase in attention from the global community, and development actors specifically, on achieving universal access. But attention and broad mandates to address this issue are not enough. As the international community struggles to develop a unified strategy around how a diverse set of actors—from policymakers to industry players to civil society members—will coordinate their activities, this paper was commissioned to identify some of the ways that this community can take action with greatest impact. What follows, therefore, is an analysis of remaining gaps in the global access effort and a set of clear recommendations on where there are opportunities for catalytic impact, in order to best channel the upswing in attention toward efforts that will move the needle on universal access. We know that Internet access for the world’s last billion is both critical and within reach. Yet this vision cannot be realized without collective action that prioritizes Internet access on the development agenda, helps last billion business models reach scale, and invests in understanding what works and what does not. Today, the Internet is the basis for a dynamic global conversation and bustling economic activity. Imagine what it could be if the other half of the world’s population joined in.
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