UN calls for 100 billion USD to speed up digitization in poor countries
(VOVWORLD) - The United Nations on Thursday demanded a tripling of pledges aimed at filling the global digitalization gap, asking countries and private sectors to hike the funding to 100 billion USD by 2026.
 People at a refugee camp in Baidoa, Somalia, February 14, 2022 (Photo: AFP/VNA)
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Around 2.7 billion people around the world were offline in 2022, according to data from the International Telecommunications Union, the UN's telecoms agency.
The digital connectivity divide separating the least developed countries from the rest of the world is widening, the ITU warned, launching an appeal for far more resources towards ensuring meaningful connectivity and digitalization in the world's least developed countries (LDCs).
The world's 46 least developed countries are home to nearly one-third of the global offline population, the ITU said, lamenting that the internet is considered to be affordable in just two of those nations.