This self-paced introductory course is structured around five key pillars of digital transformation:

1. Government – digital leadership, online public services, open governance, and national planning.

2. Infrastructure – meaningful connectivity, interoperability, open platforms, and digital public infrastructure (DPI).

3. Regulation – enabling regulatory frameworks, data protection, and digital security.

4. Private sector and entrepreneurship – local innovation, fintech ecosystems, trade digitalization, and digital ventures.

5. People – digital literacy, inclusion of vulnerable groups, gender, and digital culture.

The course content integrates up-to-date data on digital transformation in SIDS and is grounded in real-world case studies, including Samoa as a pioneering country in establishing a whole-of-government rights-based approach to digitalization. Additional examples highlight innovations in digital health, financial inclusion, and disaster resilience from other SIDS, emphasizing the specific opportunities of island economies and their scalability potential.

The course also offers access to strategic analysis tools such as the UNDP’s Digital Readiness Assessment and the UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES), as well as specialized literature from institutions like the World Bank, GSMA, ITU, and UNDP. These resources enable participants to assess their countries' digital readiness, identify gaps, prioritize investments, and develop strategies aligned with the SDGs.

This training experience addresses the urgent need to strengthen capacities in countries facing high levels of economic and climate vulnerability, ensuring that digitalization does not deepen inequalities but rather serves as a catalyst for inclusion, resilience, and prosperity. The course also fosters collaboration among governments, civil society, and the private sector, recognizing that sustainable digital transformation must be a whole-of-society effort.

In summary, this course is an essential tool for institutional capacity building in SIDS, enabling public actors to lead inclusive, ethical, and development-aligned digitalization processes, while also supporting climate adaptation goals.

This article was originally published in: https://academy.itu.int/training-courses/full-catalogue/inclusive-digital-transformation-achievement-sdgs-and-samoa-pathway-sids