1,000 Digital Village Initiative. An initiative to expand digital innovations in rural villages for inclusive rural and agrifood systems transformation

Digitalization and internet use are transforming every aspect of our lives. Digital technologies are profoundly changing how we grow food, pack it, transport it and even shop for food. Digitalization and use of digital data, applications, and platforms are opening new possibilities for developing and restructuring the agrifood system. Digital agriculture is turning to digitalizing agrifood, rural economy, and rural societies. This report introduces the FAO Digital Village Initiative, which aims to facilitate through knowledge and information. It approaches countries and communities to develop, accelerate and deploy digital technologies in rural villages and communities. The report introduces the Digital Village Ecosystem approach. It describes an instrument (tool) to gather information and provide a village ecosystem assessment to help generate recommendations for future interventions to deploy beneficial, inclusive, and affordable digital innovations by rural residents. The DVE approach identifies five core attributes: basic infrastructure, demand and needs of digital services (from end-user), enabling services, digital supply possibilities, economic and business sustainability, and finally, local ownership of the proposed or piloted digital village innovations. The DVE approach is currently being implemented in 8 countries covering over 100 digital villages (covering a wide range of digital readiness statuses from emerging up to smart villages). The report provides a summary of a sample of digital village cases under DVE assessment. Results of the DVE assessments and recommended follow-up action by country will be released in future reports.