Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Exploring Human-Focused Digital Development for Belarus
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Explore approaches to reduce inequalities in access to benefits of the Belarus’ digital transformation.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
“Leaving no one behind means leaving no one offline” is the message that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the urgent need for a global digital transformation and digital inclusion.
Digital transformation and innovation-driven development are strategic priorities of the Belarus’ National Sustainable Development Strategy until 2035 anchored in the UNDP’s Country Programme Document for Belarus 2021-2025. As recognized in the State Programme “Digital Development of Belarus 2021-2025”, increasing connectivity and raising the digital skills level of the population are indispensable pillars of a successful digital transformation of companies and society. UNDP is providing strategic support to Belarus in applying digital technologies to accelerate the achievement of its development priorities.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
It is estimated that 90% of future jobs will require tech and digital skills. In Belarus, 87% of the country’s population use the Internet (88% women and 86% men). However, while 99% of young people in Belarus used the Internet in 2021, the figure drops to only 48.5% of people aged 65-72 who used it for access to information, financial transactions and education. 4.35 million Belarusians (46.1% of the population) use social networks, of which 59.8% are women and 40.2% are men. It is especially important to prioritize the development of digital skills for people with disabilities and elderly people, who are most at risk of being left behind in the global digital transformation.
Up to 70% of SMEs globally have intensified their use of digital technologies due to COVID-19. However, SMEs in Belarus indicate a lack of data culture and digital awareness, internal skills gaps and financing gaps as barriers to further pursue digital transformation. 62% of entrepreneurs are men, and only 32% are women, and this indicator stopped growing from 2018. 180 million jobs globally where women are predominantly employed have a 70% or higher probability of automation. This means that women will require tech skills to adapt to new types of work and working arrangements. The share of women graduates from ICT programmes in Belarus stays at 23%. As a result, they are underrepresented in STEM jobs.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The AccLab will explore new approaches to designing and implementing safe, affordable, and meaningful digital services and products that can make benefits of digital transformation more affordable, available and accessible to all people in Belarus, especially vulnerable people, to empower them and improve their well-being. Improved quality of digital services will support the population in multidimension crisis through improvement of its digital well-being.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
New approaches to designing and implementing safe, affordable, and meaningful digital services and products that can make benefits of digital transformation more affordable, available and accessible to all people in Belarus
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
The Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection; local authorities such as regional executive committees.
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Joint exploration and solutions mapping, cocreation to scale proven solutions, strengthening national capacities to design and implement safe, affordable, and meaningful digital services and products
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What new approaches can be applied to design and implement safe, affordable, and meaningful digital services and products that can make benefits of digital transformation more affordable, available and accessible to all people in Belarus?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Engage with national and local partners, including cities’ administrations, to map human-centered digital solutions, analyse approaches to their development, engage with population (with focus on youth) to identify their vision for Belarus’ sustainable digital development
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
People’s perspective and their vision of Belarus’ sustainable digital development
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Local authorities, including cities’ administrations, line ministries;
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
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5Gender equality
8Decent work and economic growth
11Sustainable cities and communities
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