3.1 Overview of practices by region and by policy area
Practices on access to digital technology and to digital skills are common to all ITU regions. From a geographical perspective, all practices from the Asia and Pacific region (4 out of 4) and from the Arab States region (3 out of 3) cover more than one policy area. This is also the case for half of the practices from the Africa (3 out of 6) and Europe regions (2 out of 4).
Practices covering two or more policy areas are more common than those covering only one. More than half of practices (16 out of 27) cover more than one policy area. The most common policy area is access to digital skills (24 practices) and the least common is financial inclusion (1 practice).
Table 2: Practices on access to digital technology by region
| ITU region | Number of practices |
Practices covering more than one policy area |
Access to digital technology |
Access to digital skills |
Financial inclusion |
Entrepreneurship and leadership |
Access to infrastructure and digital services |
| Africa | 6 | 3 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Americas | 8 | 3 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Arab States | 3 | 3 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
| Asia and the Pacific | 4 | 4 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Commonwealth of Independent States | 2 | 1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Europe | 4 | 2 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| Total | 27 | 16 |
11 |
24 |
1 |
8 |
4 |
Note: The total sum of rows results in a higher number than the number of practices by region because there are practices that cover more than one policy area.
Practices on access to digital technology (11 practices) and access to digital skills (24 practices) have been identified in all ITU regions. Practices on entrepreneurship and leadership have been identified in five out of six regions (exception being Commonwealth of Independent States). Practices on access to infrastructure and digital services have been identified in three out of six regions (i.e., Africa; Americas; and Arab States). Only one practice on financial inclusion was reported (Africa).
When practices cover more than one policy area, the most common is combining access to digital technology with access to digital skills: 2 practices from Africa; 3 from the Americas; 1 from the Arab States (combined also with entrepreneurship and leadership and with access to infrastructure and digital services); 3 from Asia and the Pacific; 1 from the Commonwealth of Independent States; and 1 from Europe (combined also with entrepreneurship and leadership).
Access to digital skills coupled with entrepreneurship and leadership is the second most common combination: 1 practice from Africa; 1 from the Americas; 2 from the Arab States; 1 from Asia and the Pacific; and 1 from Europe.
Eleven practices cover one policy area only (i.e., access to digital skills; financial inclusion; and access to infrastructure and digital services): 2 from Africa; 2 from the Americas; 1 from the Commonwealth of Independent States; and 2 from Europe. No practices from Arab States and from Asia and the Pacific cover one policy area only.