WEF's Edison Alliance initiatives improve lives of more than 454m in 90 countries.

GENEVA -- Since its launch in January 2021, the EDISON Alliance, convened by the World Economic Forum, has had a positive impact on the lives of 454 million people in 90 countries by activating over 250 initiatives in health, finance and education.

Through its 1 Billion Lives Challenge, the alliance is accelerating digital inclusion solutions by harnessing commitments from government, the private sector, civil society, academia and international organizations globally, improving affordability, usability and access to digital services and connectivity for 1 billion people by 2025.

'In today's world, digital inclusion is critical to meaningful opportunity in life. It is foundational to economic growth and the Sustainable Development Goals. We might say that universal digital inclusion by 2030 is our 'SDG Zero'. With 2.7 billion people still offline, we have tremendous amounts of work to do. But through their commitment, collaboration and execution, the progress made by our EDISON Alliance partners has not only improved hundreds of millions of lives and families already - they have demonstrated that universal digital inclusion is an achievable goal,' said Derek O'Halloran, Head, Shaping the Future of Digital Economy and New Value Creation, World Economic Forum. According to a report published by the International Telecommunication Union, universal connectivity remains a distant prospect in some countries of Africa and South Asia, where only about 40% of the population is online. With a strong focus on countries with the most profound need for digital inclusion, the four countries with the most improved lives are in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia). The combined population of these five countries is over 2 billion...