The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative, Mr Deepak Bhaskaran, says, the need to bridge the digital gap, particularly among youth, children and women is key for progression in this area.
This will go a long way in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) with regard to digital transformation he said.
According to Mr Bhaskaran, children, youth and women particularly in the rural areas are still lacking behind in this regard, thus UNICEF aspires to bridge the gap by giving provision for training, where amongst others participants are offered digital literacy training.
“This will go a long way in bridging the digital gap amongst these vulnerable sectors of the society, for attainment of SDG’s,” he stressed.
He indicated that this would be done through their e-governance programme, saying more areas are to be explored to also ensure infrastructure development.
He said they would be working hand in glove with the Ministry of Information especially at this crucial time when the Ministry is on digital policy amongst others.
The Agency has established that as part of complementing UNICEF efforts, the Ministry is currently on an e-government project seeking to improve good governance by deployment of a modern and secure e-government broadband infrastructure.
The 2024/25 fiscal year budget has highlighted the need for digital transformation and as such M166 million has been allocated for expansion and managing the Information Communication Sector (ICT).
The phase II of e-government infrastructure project has yielded significant outcomes as according to the budget as twenty-seven Base Tower Stations (BTSs) have been constructed and commissioned across ten districts.
Furthermore, broadband coverage in rural and underserved areas will also be enhanced by establishing an additional twenty-one sites to bolster 4G coverage. This project will also ensure building the required digital payments infrastructure, as well as improving access to legislation process hence the digital policy.
Source: Lesotho News Agency (LENA) 07/05/2024
