About
IDEA 2030 is a research initiative that aims to focus the minds of decision-makers through data-driven insights on inclusive digital economies. Housed within Digital Planet at the Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) at The Fletcher School, IDEA 2030 addresses two fundamental issues of our time: the need for inclusive growth and recovery, and the pervasiveness of digital technology.
This initiative brings together a global insight community of leading problem-solvers and researchers. Through these partnerships, the community serves as a “go-to-hub” for emerging markets and technologies by disseminating research and insights on how to make the digital economy work better for everyone, everywhere.
IDEA 2030 seeks to answer many questions, including:
- How do we learn from the experiences during and beyond the lockdowns around the world and ensure that the digital technology in each of the countries studied promotes inclusive growth and build systems to prevent it from deepening divides?
- What actions must be taken by policymakers, businesses, social sector actors, and ordinary citizens to power digital inclusion and mitigate the risks – and which areas present the biggest opportunities?
- What are the business and innovation implications of solving for digital inclusion?
- How do the answers to these questions help rebuild more widely shared trust in the digital economy as a force for socio-economic progress and development?
Research
- The State of the Gender Pay Gap: Earning Disparities Widen as Women Bear the Brunt of the Pandemic
- Digital Health Divide: Disparities in broadband access prevent telehealth policies from reaching millions of Americans
- Urban-Rural Divides: The Uneven Experience of COVID-19 Across the States
- Work from Home or Out of Work?
- Which governments can best deliver public services online during a lockdown?
- Uneven State of the Union: How US States Differ in Slowing COVID-19
- Are Countries Ready to Exit COVID-19 Lockdowns?
Webinars
One Month to Election, Seven Months of a Pandemic: How Equal is the State of Digital Survival Across America?
October 8, 2020
Immunity to pre-election social media misinformation, remote schooling, telehealth access, productive working-from-home: Who has it, and who doesn’t? What can be done? How can we ensure the nation’s digital and democratic health?
Bhaskar Chakravorti is joined by technology entrepreneur and policy expert Steven Koltai to discuss recent IDEA 2030 research across the 50 U.S. states and perspectives from the ground-up from one pivotal state to inform solutions to get us to a more inclusive post-COVID, post-election America.
An Uneven State of the Union: How the Pandemic Lays Bare America’s Coastal-Heartland Gap and How to Act to Close It
June 10, 2020
This webinar examines the key findings from the Uneven State of the Union study and how they can give policymakers and business leaders a sense of the future path of COVID-19 in the US, its ultimate economic impact, and what needs to be done next.
A World Online: Which Countries are Ready for the Great Lockdown and Which are Ready to Ease Up
April 22, 2020
The first webinar associated with IDEA 2030 featured a discussion around the Social Distance Readiness Benchmark, focusing on how easily countries can enter and exit lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the Record
- Make Surveillance Capitalists Pay Their Dues | Foreign Policy, September 24, 2020
- What does technology leapfrogging really mean for Africa? | CIO Online, September 14, 2020
- Dear Sundar Pichai: There’s a lot you take on when you take on the task of digitising India. Here are a few pointers | The Indian Express, August 8, 2020
- Why India Can’t Work From Home | BBC, Digital Planet, August 5, 2020
- Lawmakers keen to break up ‘big tech’ like Amazon and Google need to realize the world has changed a lot since Microsoft and Standard Oil |The Conversation, July 29, 2020
- Remote Working Can’t Last Forever | Barron’s Magazine, July 26, 2020
- Does Working from Home Actually Work? | Tufts Now, July 9, 2020
- Digital contact tracing is doomed in the United States | Fast Company, July 7, 2020
- Researchers track spread of virus through social distancing | ABC Tampa, June 26, 2020
- Who is Practicing Social Distancing Best | NBC10 Boston, May 15, 2020
- Lessons from 6 countries on how to end coronavirus lockdowns | Business Insider, May 12, 2020
Partner
The IDEA 2030 initiative was made possible with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
