Digitisation: Sustaining livelihoods in an increasingly digital world

Across South Africa, digital technology is no longer a luxury, it is the backbone of opportunity. For a young entrepreneur in a township, access to online marketplaces can open doors to new customers and income streams. For smallholder farmers, digital tools can connect them to markets, finance, and climate-smart technologies. For communities, it provides access to education, health services, and financial inclusion. Yet, for millions, this promise remains out of reach.

While urban areas enjoy advanced connectivity, rural and underserved communities face high data costs, limited access to devices, low digital literacy, and unreliable infrastructure. Women, youth, and small enterprises remain disproportionately affected, unable to fully participate in the digital economy.

The South Africa Business Initiative for Impact (SABII), anchored in the UN’s Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI), aims to transform emerging digital opportunities into tangible, inclusive development outcomes. By strengthening collaboration between business, government, and development partners, SABII seeks to accelerate digital transformation across key sectors of the economy, including fintech, e-commerce, agritech, artificial intelligence, and digital public infrastructure, to support sustainable growth, innovation, and job creation. In her remarks at the launch of SABII in Johannesburg on 17 November 2026, Ahunna Eziakonwa, the Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director, emphasized that these gaps should not be seen as a crisis, but as an opportunity. 

“Africa’s youth and innovators are not waiting to be invited into the future. They’re building it now,” she said. “When we invest in them and connect them to capital and markets, the results are transformative.” Her words underline the potential already existing across the country from township startups to university innovation pods waiting to be scaled into platforms that empower communities.

Her remarks emphasized the work ahead. Digital transformation must be inclusive, intentional, and scaled. Connectivity should be treated as a public utility, with broadband extended to underserved areas, data costs lowered, schools fully connected, and digital literacy scaled for youth and women. Small pilots must evolve into platforms, interoperable, secure, and rights-based, that provide access to essential services, financial tools, and economic opportunities.

By bridging the digital divide, South Africa can create a digitally empowered society where opportunities are shared. Women, youth, small businesses, and rural communities gain access to markets, education, and health services turning digital inclusion into a pathway for resilience, innovation, and equity.

A Call to Act — Now

Other speakers at the gathering highlighted that the moment was urgent. Expanding connectivity, lowering data costs, investing in local tech startups, and scaling digital literacy are not optional, they are essential to sustaining livelihoods in a digital world. South Africa has the talent, ingenuity, and ambition to lead a digital revolution that is inclusive, impactful, and unstoppable. By acting decisively today, technology can become a bridge to opportunity, a tool for equity, and a foundation for shared prosperity.