World Bank

The most under-served – the rural poor – live in the most expensive-to-serve areas, and they are often unable to afford ICT services at a price that makes them sustainable from a business perspective. Geographic and environmental challenges in these hard-to-reach areas often exacerbate the problem. At the same time, the rapid pace of technological change, and the pressures and opportunities posed by the growth of global information and communication networks create an urgent need for developing country leaders to make complex, difficult choices about ICT investment, policy and regulation. infoDev devotes considerable resources to helping developing countries make informed and effective decisions about how to address these challenges.

Currently, infoDev’s work in this area focuses on three interrelated challenges: 

• Designing and implementing effective policies and regulations for ICT infrastructure and services;
• Developing new models of public/private partnership in financing the expansion of access to ICT infrastructure and services;
• Exploring the contributions that technological innovation can make to developing new solutions to the access challenge.