The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) invited LIRNEasia for its Digital inclusion roundtable, held in Mumbai on the 7th of March 2019. The objective of the meeting was to assist the WBA in defining indicators and methodologies (that will be published by the end of 2019) for (1) Digital Inclusion, (2) Food and Agriculture, and (3) Gender Equality and Empowerment, by which private sector will be benchmarked against.
The event hosted by the consulate to the Kingdom of Netherlands in Mumbai, started off with an address by the Consulate General and the Executive Director of the WBA. The criticality of the WBA’s work towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and progress made was reflected upon. After two key notes that followed, the gathering was divided into 3 groups, one for each
of the benchmarks that delved deeper in to the subject matter. Digital inclusion seems all encompassing and therefore in an attempt to streamline it was further divided into four areas: access, use, skills and innovation. Further, drawing parallels with with the OSI model, 3 layers were introduced in terms of networks, applications and content. This helped framed potential indicators in to a grid for further development.
Next steps? The methodology will be developed by the WBA and is scheduled to be published end 2019 for comments. Shazna Zuhyle represented LIRNEasia at the roundtable and will continue engagement with the WBA if and when required.
[Photo credits: World Benchmarking Alliance]
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