ICT Performance Measures: Methodology and Findings

organizations to measure the relative level of development of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in individual economies. The multitude of efforts is evidence of the importance of ICT in a country’s economic and social transformation and as a cohesive force for integrating a country into the global economy. This report introduces a new approach—the World Bank’s country ICT performance measures—and this section describes the methodology behind the measures and summarizes the findings. The country ICT performance measures aim to provide a quick and effective way for policy makers to compare their countries’ ICT performance against that of other countries and to benchmark progress over time. Rather than creating an aggregate ICT index, the World Bank’s performance measures group indicators into various dimensions of ICT development, which allows users to see how a country has progressed within these dimensions relative to its peers, to use the measures as a tool to analyze relative ICT performance, and to understand the interrelations among various aspects of ICT development. More important, the measures are intended to stimulate policy dialogue about how to improve the scores through targeted sector policies and investments.