Digital Literacy Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Development

Danica Radovanović, Christine Holst, Sarbani Banerjee Belur, Ritu Srivastava, Georges Vivien Houngbonon, Erwan Le Quentrec, Josephine Miliza, Andrea S. Winkler and Josef Noll
Additional contact information
Danica Radovanović: Basic Internet Foundation, Norway
Christine Holst: Centre for Global Health, Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway
Sarbani Banerjee Belur: Gram Marg, India / Spoken Tutorial Health and Nutrition Project, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Ritu Srivastava: Spoken Tutorial Health and Nutrition Project, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Georges Vivien Houngbonon: Orange Labs, France
Erwan Le Quentrec: Orange Labs, France
Josephine Miliza: School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
Andrea S. Winkler: Centre for Global Health, Department of Neurology, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Josef Noll: Department of Technology Systems, University of Oslo, Norway

Social Inclusion, 2020, vol. 8, issue 2, 151-167

Abstract: The concept of digital literacy has been defined in numerous ways over the last two decades to incorporate rapid technological changes, its versatility, and to bridge the global digital divide. Most approaches have been technology-centric with an inherent assumption of cultural and political neutrality of new media technologies. There are multiple hurdles in every stage of digital literacy implementation. The lack of solutions such as local language digital interfaces, locally relevant content, digital literacy training, the use of icons and audio excludes a large fraction of illiterate people. In this article, we analyse case studies targeted at under-connected people in sub-Saharan Africa and India that use digital literacy programmes to build knowledge and health literacy, solve societal problems and foster development. In India, we focus on notable initiatives undertaken in the domain of digital literacy for rural populations. In Sub-Saharan Africa, we draw from an original project in Kenya aiming at developing digital literacy for youth from low-income backgrounds. We further focus on Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, where field studies have been conducted on the use of digital technologies by low-literacy people and on how audio and icon-based interfaces and Internet lite standard could help them overcome their limitations. The main objective of this article is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) in the context of digital literacy skills as one of the pillars for digital inclusion. We will learn how digital literacy programmes can be used to build digital literacy and how KPIs for sustainable development can be established. In the final discussion, we offer lessons learned from the case studies and further recommendation for stakeholders and decision-makers in the field of digital health literacy.

Keywords: digital inclusion; digital inequalities; digital health; digital literacy; health literacy; Internet lite; key performance indicators; sustainable development goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/2587 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v8:y:2020:i:2:p:151-167

DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i2.2587

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().