Topic: 2026 – Digital Equity for Children
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Srihan Aravabhumi
Topic: Digital Equity for Children
Country: South Africa
Delegate: Srihan Aravabhumi
Farmington High School
United Nations Children’s Fund
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down, we became more aware of problems that already existed in our world. Most apparently, technological problems. The world’s infrastructure was not ready for such a paradigm shift towards the online world, and the digital divide became especially clear.
The digital divide in South Africa is especially gaping mainly due to the lack of universal internet access across the country in households. While the South African government has been making improvements in overall internet access across the country, bringing the percentage of households without access from 64.8% in 2011 to 21.1% in 2022, there is still a huge imbalance, namely in rural areas. Specifically, only 1.7% of households in the Limpopo province in South Africa has reliable internet access. This huge gap between the percentage in a rural area and the national percentage shows how significant the problem of the digital divide is, and why it should be handled immediately. When talking about schools, many schools don’t have reliable technology services, which is a problem that along with the digital divide, we have been attacking through the SAConnect program.
However, there are ways to minimize the digital divide, maybe even eliminate it completely. One way is through digital inclusion.
Digital inclusion can advance broader goals of equity, education and child protection by allowing all citizens, especially children to advocate for their rights and to advance their studies through technology. The delegation of South Africa believes that utilizing technology as a bridging tool can create unity as a country, and allow our children to live a better future. When the digital divide is minimized, there will be much more equal representation of our country as a whole, so regions like Limpopo won’t be disadvantaged. This would result in more collaboration and expansion nationwide and would be a net benefit for the country’s economy. In terms of education, the use of technology in learning is extremely beneficial for students in order for them to be able to adapt to the ever-changing world. Making technology accessible to all schools would equalize the educational playing field for all students. For child protection, the ease of reporting crimes will be much higher with technology. With internet and cellular access, a child can immediately alert the authorities of any problems.
However, there are still challenges in the process.
The main challenge in providing safe, affordable and meaningful access is that there is a severe lack of infrastructure. Internet is still extremely expensive in some areas, which will need huge government intervention to fix. This is why we are entering phase 2 of the SAConnect program. The SAConnect program is a broadband connectivity project meant to increase internet infrastructure across the country. Phase 1 of the program brought immense success, lowering the percentage of households without internet access by 43%, and creating several community Wi-Fi hotspots in the process. Phase 2 aims to expand on Phase 1’s successes, and bring them to a larger scale. We aim to hit over 32000 community Wi-Fi hotspots and bring internet to over 5.5million households by the end of this year. We plan to connect to thousands of schools and healthcare centers. A program like this can be conceived at an international level. Instead of South Africa approaching this issue by ourselves, we can collaborate with other countries who need to develop their infrastructure, such as Vietnam, Brazil and more.
Continuing with these kinds of initiatives across the country, and across the United Nations as a whole will minimize the digital divide and create equity among children.
Work Cited
Masia, Laticia. “South Africa Connect.” South African Government, 4 March 2024, https://www.gov.za/blog/south-africa-connect. Accessed 12 February 2026.
