SDG Digital Inclusion Framework (2020)

This report provides commentary and recommendations on how the City of Toronto’s digital inclusion and digital equity initiatives can align to help accelerate progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Student researchers of the Media Ethics lab at the University of Toronto worked under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Granata to create a SDG Digital Inclusion Framework. Universal in scope and benefitting from a coordinated effort across all sectors, the framework encourages a digital inclusion approach to the UN Sustainable Development Goals with the aims of: contributing to existing efforts to advance and integrate digital inclusion strategies in the SDGs in order to gain a more holistic and systemic perspective, and provide practical guidelines to further illustrate how an equitable digital access can accelerate the progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The report examines 24 selected SDG targets and their indicators, which were chosen based on the potential benefits that digital inclusion initiatives bring to them. While the selected targets are those that are most advanced by information and communication technologies, the Media Ethics Lab approached the framework with a holistic thinking perspective. As such, targets were cross-listed in order to identify connections, discover opportunities for cross-collaboration, and ensure that no targets were left behind.

The Framework functions as a practical tool to review how public institutions and organizations are aligning their digital inclusion practices to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

• first, by identifying the main issues related to the target that must be addressed by the digital inclusion strategies, while emphasizing who is negatively impacted by these issues (Key Overview);
• second, by addressing how digital inclusion strategies can help advance this target (Direct Impact) and facilitate this target in connect to other targets (Holistic Impact);
• third, by recognizing groups, organizations and institutions needed to advance this target in the context of digital inclusion (Key Stakeholders); % fourth, by determining how to measure the effectiveness of any strategy implemented (Indicators);
• lastly, by presenting a successful implementation of digital inclusion strategies that advance the target in hopes of inspiring cities to implement good practices.