Bridging the digital divide in Yemen

Nosary, A. N.; Al-Asadi, G. M.

This paper conceptualizes the current information and communication technology (ICT) development progress in Yemen to provide an indication of the growing digital divide between Yemen and the rest of the world. It presents a detailed analysis of the indicators related to ICT status, which can give a clear indication of the width of the digital divide. It also explores the main barriers of ICT development in Yemen including political, economic and social difficulties in addition to the ongoing war impact on the overall progress. Furthermore, we underlined Covid-19 role in spotlighting the essentiality of ICTs. The results of the study show clearly that there is a huge digital gap in Yemen depriving its people of many new technologies advantages. To shrink this gap, we proposed a number of practical solutions to overcome the ICT development main obstacles in order to avoid any further decline and to enable Yemen to start moving forward towards the emerging ICT trends and applications such as the Internet of things and artificial intelligence. Such progress in bridging the digital divide can improve all aspects of people's lives in Yemen, and accelerate sustainable development at the national level. © 2021 IEEE.