DCO launches Digital Economy Navigator to bridge the digital economy gap in countries worldwide

Riyadh: The Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), a global multilateral organization committed to enabling digital prosperity for all by accelerating the inclusive growth of the digital economy, has launched its inaugural Digital Economy Navigator (DEN) that enables countries to better navigate the paths to digital economy maturity, find opportunities for growth, benchmark progress, and bridge the gap in digital economy maturity. The DEN was unveiled at the SDG Digital 2024, held during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, from September 10 to September 27.

Drawing upon officially disseminated statistics, secondary data, and unique proprietary data from a DCO large survey, the DEN is a unifying framework that addresses digital economy maturity across 50 countries, including the DCO Member States. The framework provides a platform for nations, stakeholders, and decision-makers to harmonize efforts in advancing the global digital economy, enabling accessibility, sustainability, and shared prosperity across borders.

The Navigator evaluates the extent to which the factors contribute to economic prosperity, sustainability, and enhanced quality of life for people. This provides a common understanding for different stakeholder groups to work together in developing digital economy strategies to bridge gaps and allows for progress to be tracked over time.

Deemah AlYahya, Secretary-General of the DCO, said: “The Digital Economy Navigator aims to enhance accessibility, sustainability, and economic prosperity, ensuring that countries are not just keeping pace but leading in the digital era. As the first global framework to comprehensively address digital economy maturity from a user-centric perspective, DEN plays a pivotal role in advancing the Digital Cooperation Organization’s mission of supporting evidence-based policies and impactful outcomes in the digital economy. By providing reliable and detailed data, insights into current trends and emerging technologies, and strategic foresight into future challenges, DEN equips countries to achieve higher levels of prosperity, inclusion, and sustainability. We at the DCO are committed to empowering stakeholders with the knowledge they need to navigate and thrive in the ever-evolving digital landscape”.

The DEN holds relevance for policymakers, business executives, and other experts in aspects of the digital economy. Decision-makers are equipped with the research, data, and analysis necessary to cultivate a more inclusive digital economy and society, enhance digital innovation, spur job creation, accelerate GDP growth, amplify sustainability through digital technologies, and enhance overall wellbeing.

Uniquely among global tools, the DEN assesses the digital economy through the lens of three intersecting dimensions: Digital Enablers, Digital Business, and Digital Society. Within the three dimensions, 10 pillars synthesize and summarize key aspects of countries’ digital economy and use of digital technology application from 102 indicators gathered from respected secondary data sources, as well as primary data from a novel survey of more than 27,000 people across the 50 countries.

The DEN introduces a comprehensive maturity classification system with five categories based on pillars’ scores from 0 to 100, that can be used by stakeholders to better target and focus initiatives to drive digital advancement and innovation in their quest for sustainable and inclusive growth of their digital economy.

The DEN reveals a diverse picture of maturity across regions. North America for example leads in digital innovation, followed by 'Europe and Central Asia' and 'East Asia and Pacific'. South Asia leads in digital work and training, followed by the Middle East and North Africa region. The 'Sub-Saharan Africa' and 'Latin America and the Caribbean' regions are advanced in the Digital education and health services. This pillar particularly “Digital for education and health” demonstrate substantial global maturity, with moderate variability in scores indicating a trend toward global convergence.

Audiences can access the DEN report, infographic, methodology, and data in Excel format by visiting the DEN online platform at https://den.dco.org/. The report provides an in-depth analysis of digital economy maturity from multiple perspectives. Additionally, users have the option to download the report for offline access.

The DEN will continue to evolve over time to capture the rapidly changing nature of the digital economy. While DEN’s overall objective will remain in future editions, technologies and applications will evolve and be measured by how they contribute to the digital economy.