Building Smart Villages
A Blueprint: As Piloted in Niger

A blueprint for a locally led, integrated and holistic approach to providing access to digital services to all citizens of rural communities, with the integration of digital technologies serving as a crucial enabler of equitable, qualitative and efficient delivery of SDG-related services for all.
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Executive Summary
This blueprint serves as a step-by-step guide on how to establish, manage, and lead a smart village for sustainable development project. With almost 80 per cent of the world’s extreme poor living in rural areas where most are dependent on agriculture, rural villages become a critical focus to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)1 through digital transformation. High levels of poverty, low-income levels, poor infrastructure and lack of connectivity to the Internet rank among the biggest challenges in rural life across the world. At the end of 2018, ITU confirmed that 49 per cent of the world’s population are offline. Those reside mainly in least developed countries and rural areas.
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Click to download PDF - 467.42KBPDF
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Click to Read online and shareREAD