Our Approach to Digitalisation
Digitalisation is the spread of digital technologies and online services, including AI, into everyday life, changing how people bank, learn, farm, access healthcare, and engage with governments. Across Africa, digitalisation is advancing rapidly and can open up opportunities for people who have long been excluded from markets and services. Yet this promise depends on whether people can actually get online. Connectivity remains expensive and uneven across much of the continent, and those most likely to be left out, including people in rural areas, women, and low-income groups, are often those who stand to gain the most. The central question is therefore not only how quickly technology arrives, but who it reaches.
At INCLUDE, we examine digitalisation through an inclusive development lens. We look not only at technologies themselves, but also at their effects on different groups, especially those who are most vulnerable to exclusion. We also explore how innovative research methods can inform digital economy policymaking processes. By bringing together evidence on what works, our aim is to support a digital transformation that benefits everyone, especially young people and women, rather than one that deepens existing inequalities.
