Digital Development

With the Internet constantly evolving in its scope and potential, digital technologies powered by the Internet can be powerful tools that can transform lives, spur economic growth, and improve development outcomes for many emerging and some frontier market economies. These countries have an opportunity to leapfrog substantial momentum to partner with private sector actors to pursue the digital transformation of the broader political economy and leapfrog their way to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

However, there are several impediments to digital transformation that can range from cybersecurity challenges to a lack of supporting infrastructure and human resources. Moreover, with authoritarian nations promoting models of digital governance that actively seek to undermine liberal democratic institutions, international standard-setting bodies for digital technologies have also become critical tools agencies of change and influence.

CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development has adopted an inter-disciplinary approach to these issues and has partnered with thought leaders internally and externally, and has led on this topic. These partnerships have resulted in bipartisan policy recommendations on the most pressing digital challenges of the moment and have outlined how the United States government can seize the opportunity to lead its allies and partners in securing the digital world and preserving it as a driver of sustained and equitable prosperity worldwide.