The Global Information Society a Statistical View 2008

The Global Information Society: a Statistical View 2008 Global Event on Measuring the Information Society Geneva, 27 -29 May 2008 Sheridan Roberts

Introduction • This presentation introduces the first major statistical publication of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development – The Global Information Society: a Statistical View – the publication has just been released and includes available statistics for the 41 core ICT indicators – data were presented by level of development, with some shown by region and some showing change over time. • An important aim of the publication is to show data availability and international comparability for the core indicators – another presentation in this meeting addresses data comparability and proposes some revisions to the core indicators – this presentation outlines data availability for the core indicators, presents the broad content of the publication and shows some results.

Broad structure and content of the Partnership publication • Opening material – preface, acknowledgments, contents • Chapter 1. Introduction – objectives, statistical standards for information society measurement, the Partnership and its activities, regional measurement initiatives. • Chapters 2 to 5. Data availability and statistical summary in respect of – – ICT infrastructure and access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals use of ICT by businesses the ICT-producing sector and international trade in ICT goods. • Chapter 6. ICT in education – describes work done on developing new core indicators for ICT in education and presents information on data availability – presents some data from a scoping study undertaken by UIS.

Broad structure and content of the Partnership publication (continued) • Chapter 7. Measuring the impact of ICT – – describes why measuring the impact of ICT is challenging briefly explores current work includes some data on the impact of ICT on educational outcomes provides suggestions for further statistical work in this area. • Chapter 8. Conclusions and future work of the Partnership • Annexes 1. Known availability of core ICT indicators for each economy 2. Core indicators on ICT infrastructure and access 3. Core indicators on access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals 4. Core indicators on the use of ICT by businesses 5. Core indicators for the ICT sector and trade in ICT goods 6. OECD list of ICT goods (2003) • Bibliography and abbreviations

Availability of ICT indicators: ICT infrastructure and access • ICT infrastructure and access (A 1–A 12) – the indicators are collected by the ITU, mainly from telecommunication authorities and some operators – availability of the basic core ICT infrastructure and access indicators is quite good (most are available for >= three quarters of countries) – statistics for the two extended core indicators (and basic core indicator A 10) are less available (available for 12% – 42% of countries) – availability is fairly even across different levels of development.

Some findings: ICT infrastructure and access

Availability of ICT indicators: Access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals • Access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals (HH 1–HH 13 and HHR 1) – these are mainly produced from household surveys run by statistical agencies – most of the indicators are reasonably available for developed economies… –. . but not widely available for transition and developing economies – the household ICT access indicators are more available for developing economies than the individual use indicators.

Some findings: Access to ICT by households

Some findings: Use of ICT by individuals

Availability of ICT indicators: Use of ICT by businesses • Use of ICT by businesses (B 1–B 12) – these are mainly produced from business surveys run by statistical agencies – availability is similar to household indicators, with all the indicators available for a majority of developed economies and. . –. . successively lower availability for transition, developing and least developed economies (for which none of the core indicators are available).

Some findings: Use of ICT by businesses

Availability of ICT indicators: ICT sector • The ICT sector (ICT 1 and ICT 2) – statistics on the ICT sector are reasonably available for developed economies (about two thirds for each indicator) but less so for other economies – some of those economies have statistics for ICT manufacturing industries but not services – no data are available for the least developed economies.

Some findings: ICT sector

Availability of ICT indicators: trade in ICT goods • Trade in ICT goods (ICT 3 and ICT 4) – statistics on ICT goods trade come from international goods trade statistics collected by customs organisations/statistical agencies and provided to the UNSD (UN COMTRADE) – the trade core indicators are available for more than two thirds of countries overall – availability is reasonably even across different levels of development.

Some findings: Trade in ICT goods

The future… • As the previous slides show, availability of data for many of the core ICT indicators could be improved. • The Partnership is working towards this goal by providing technical assistance to countries’ statistical agencies and raising awareness among policy-makers about the importance of the core indicators – and, particularly, the need for internationally comparable data for policy making purposes. • Proposals to revise some of the core indicators are being presented at this meeting – it is hoped that they will improve the availability and comparability of ICT data.

Thank you • Are there any questions? • You can contact me on sheridanroberts@hotmail. com