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In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been quite a bit of discussion regarding the readiness of the countries in dealing with this issue from the ICT point of view. Over the last three decades, ICT has been integrated with the governance structures of every nation. In 2002, the World Economic Forum launched a framework to assess the impact of ICT on the development and competitiveness of nations in form of Network Readiness Index (NRI) (Soumitra Dutta A. J., 2003) (Schwab, 2002). NRI is a framework that evaluates and ranks countries based on their allocated resources to technology, people, governance, and impact. It aims at integrating people with technology in a way that strategic policies of the government become more effective on the economy, society, and environment. It is a composite index that reflects on 4 main pillars, 12 sub pillars, and 62 indicators to measures these pillars (Portulans-Institute, 2020). Therefore, it can be a good measure to gauge the electronic readiness of the countries, especially in emergencies like pandemics. Given that, in the following paragraphs, an introduction over NRI structure, COVID-19 implications, and how to deal with that from an ICT perspective is provided. Following that, the NRI of the United States in 2019 will be explored thoroughly to shed light on its strength and weaknesses and how to fill the existing gaps.
Network Readiness Index (NRI)
ICT is often referred to as the most remarkable advancements of the 20th century. It is also considered one of the important drivers of development and especially economic growth in human societies. As such, the investment in electronic infrastructure will expedite development progress. In order to measure the capacities of the countries to use the opportunities provided by ICT, NRI (Network Readiness Index) was proposed in 2002 (Dutta S., 2020). It is defined as the degree of readiness of the countries to participate in the networked world (Geoffrey S. Kirkman, 2002). NRI is composed of 4 pillars that collectively measure the influence of ICT in the development of nations from different aspects. NRI raking is a number that reflects the overall level of readiness in different countries. The framework of the NRI is depicted in Figure 1. The main pillars of NRI include Technology, People, Governance, and impact; each of which has a number of sub-pillars shown in Figure 1. Some alternatives to the NRI model such as E-readiness, Human Development Index (HDI), and Human Development & Technology Index (HDTI) have been suggested over the past decade (Devaraj, 2014) (Srikant Devaraj, 2017). E-readiness is mostly concerned with the strength of the ICT infrastructure and refers to “the ability of a state to utilize ICT for sustainable welfare and development” (Kiprop, 2019). Human Development Index (HDI) is a “composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development” (United-Nations, 2019) (Stanton, 2007). However, compared to the other measures, NRI is a more comprehensive model, which considers all aspects of ICT including technology, people, governance, and impact through its main pillars and many sub pillars.
Figure 1.
Network Readiness Index (NRI) (Soumitra Dutta B. L., 2019)
According to Dutta et al. “countries are classified based on 4 categories of indicators: 1- the overall environment for technology use and creation (political, regulatory, business, and innovation); (2) networked readiness in terms of ICT infrastructure, affordability, and skills; (3) technology adoption/usage by the three groups of stakeholders (government, the private sector, and private individuals); and (4) the economic and social impact of the new technologies” (Silja Baller, 2016). This model aims to provide a measure of the impact of ICT on human well-being to the policymakers. If technology and especially ICT does not bring tangible positive effect on human life, its implementation will be futile and even destructive to human society.