About 2.6 billion people still have no access to the internet. President Macky Sall, a candidate for UN Secretary-General, counts connectivity among the levers of development. When school, health, money, work run through the network, to be cut off from it is to be held apart from the century.
Those left off the network. Without a connection, a pupil does not reach knowledge, a trader stays local, a citizen does not know their rights. The digital divide doubles the inequalities that already exist: it separates cities from countryside, rich from poor, men from women. Each service that moves online shuts out a few more of those who lack access.
Connect as we once electrified. States electrified their territories in the last century and must connect them today. Access to the network belongs to basic infrastructure, on the same footing as water, roads, electricity. Building it takes cables, relays, energy, rules that bring prices down.
Knowing how to use the network. A network's value lies in the use made of it: reading a screen, guarding against a scam, finding a public service online. Digital literacy therefore goes with the connection; without it, the gap moves from the cables to the uses.
Universal connectivity as a development goal. A half-connected world lets slip part of its growth, its security and its justice. The Secretary-General can make universal connectivity a development goal and support infrastructure financing.
The network and the vision for the UN. Treating connection as basic infrastructure calls for experience of the state: twelve years at its head and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace and security conceived with development; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The International Telecommunication Union's data on internet access are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net