Commentary: Singapore wants a brand new Sensible Nation imaginative and prescient that does not depart any citizen behind

SINGAPORE: In a particular version of the World Financial Discussion board annual report launched on Dec 16, Singapore was listed as one of many digitally superior international locations well-placed to handle the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The town-state was ranked sixth on this planet for data and communications know-how adoption and digital expertise, and third in digital authorized frameworks.

This bodes nicely for Singapore’s development in direction of changing into a Sensible Nation. The pandemic has sped up efforts within the rollout of digital authorities companies and the implementation of {hardware} options.

More moderen measures just like the Seniors Go Digital and Hawkers Go Digital programmes rolled out in 2020 concentrate on offering those that want extra assist with higher entry to the digital area.

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Nonetheless, changing into a Sensible Nation requires going past offering {hardware} entry. There are additionally “software program” challenges impeding full participation and pleasure of the advantages of a quickly digitalising Sensible Nation.

As current debates on using TraceTogether information for severe crimes exhibit, elements equivalent to customers’ belief in, and luxury stage with know-how, have an effect on their adoption of digital companies as nicely.  

As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted on the Sensible Nation Summit in 2019: “Being a wise nation is just not about flaunting glitzy know-how, however … making use of know-how to resolve actual issues that can make a distinction to individuals’s lives, and throughout the entire of society.”

In an effort to realise the imaginative and prescient of a Sensible Nation for all, the following part of Singapore’s Sensible Nation should pivot and concentrate on securing affect on residents in 3 ways — strengthening our digital psyche, closing the participation hole, and scaling up partnerships.

STRENGTHENING OUR DIGITAL PSYCHE

The speedy tempo of technological change has led to residents being bombarded with digital scams and misinformation, which they could not recognise on first sight.

In our current examine on false data, carried out with over 2,000 Singaporeans and everlasting residents, seniors, and people from decrease socio-economic backgrounds, had been discovered to be extra vulnerable to false data.

Even individuals we might think about informationally savvy, equivalent to youthful Singaporeans with tertiary schooling, are equally susceptible. About 47 per cent of respondents from this group did not recognise a manipulated article, indicating that no one is proof against false data.

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Individuals with excessive affirmation bias and low information of the digital media panorama had been extra susceptible. They had been extra more likely to consider falsehoods aligned with their present beliefs and had been unaware of how and the place data on-line originated from.

These findings spotlight key areas of enchancment in strengthening Singaporeans’ digital psyche. Particularly, public schooling encouraging residents to be introspective about particular person biases when navigating the net area might be ramped as much as construct nationwide resilience towards misinformation that exploit such vulnerabilities.

One other is to equip individuals with extra information on the digital media and tech panorama, to allow them to higher admire and assess the credibility of the net data they obtain.

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There are instructive abroad examples. Digital literacy programmes like MediaWise for Seniors within the US have been profitable in encouraging seniors to undertake the habits {of professional} fact-checkers when assessing data on-line. Seniors are inspired to ask questions like “who’s behind the data?”, “what’s the proof?” and “what do different sources say?”

About 85 per cent of seniors who accomplished the course may precisely establish disinformation, a 22 proportion level improve from earlier than they began.

Such interventions are assets we are able to flip to when enhancing digital literacy programmes right here by adapting what works for our native context.

CLOSING THE PARTICIPATION GAP

A second thrust of our nationwide Sensible Nation technique ought to concentrate on closing the participatory gaps fashioned alongside age, revenue, and occupational strains.

The success of our Sensible Nation ambitions relies on whether or not each Singaporean can totally leverage the affordances of know-how.

But, a survey carried out by non-profit organisation Picture Mission that helps underprivileged girls safe employment discovered that just about half do not need a desktop or laptop computer to entry the Web.

Their lack of entry hinders their on-line job searches and talent to attend on-line job coaching and interviews. If left unaddressed, such eventualities the place some are unable to make use of know-how totally may additional widen social and financial inequality.

A primary step to closing these disparities is to ascertain a nationwide framework that maps out key digital expertise all Singaporeans ought to possess to totally take part in in the present day’s digital world.

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Nations which have established such tips setting minimal requirements residents ought to work in direction of have seen their efforts bear fruit.

The UK authorities launched an Important Digital Expertise Framework in 2018 that outlined a ladder of skillsets wanted for all to learn from and contribute to the digital economic system.

These embody digital foundational expertise that underpin all different digital expertise, equivalent to understanding how to hook up with the Web and preserve on-line login data.

The framework additionally outlines digital communication expertise, equivalent to speaking with others through e mail or instantaneous messaging apps and utilizing phrase processors to create and share paperwork like a private resume.

Yet one more group of expertise checked out these wanted for on-line transaction expertise, like with the ability to entry digital monetary companies and fill in request varieties for public items and companies.

Establishing the same framework for Singapore will assist map out fundamental however crucial digital literacies and establish the digital expertise hole for various segments of society. This can help the design of focused interventions whether or not by the Authorities, self-help teams or non-profits to plug present participation gaps.

SCALING UP PARTNERSHIPS

In Singapore, there was a rising variety of initiatives making an attempt to deal with digital inequality. Within the space of accelerating digital entry, the Authorities launched the aforementioned Seniors Go Digital programme and is rushing up the rollout of the Nationwide Digital Literacy Programme.

The personal sector has been additionally been bolstering public sector efforts in assembly the wants of focused segments. Organisations such because the Singapore Chinese language Chamber of Commerce and Business, Singapore Airways and Temasek Basis donated and distributed cell phones to numerous communities through the pandemic, along with face masks, hand sanitisers.

The individuals sector has additionally stepped as much as present ground-up solutioning to assist fill present gaps. Initiatives like Engineering Good collected and donated laptops to low-income college students. Others, like SG Bono and Readable Asia, have carried out lessons for youngsters on the right way to entry the Web safely.

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To fight the continued “infodemic”, the place falsehoods referring to the pandemic had been broadly circulated, people and ground-up teams have developed data dashboards to assist unfold advisories and correct data.

Others helped make fact-checking accessible to the general public by producing movies in vernacular languages and creating parodies to debunk faux information. These are crucial to spice up individuals’s digital psyche.

Whereas individuals, organisations and businesses ought to have the flexibleness and autonomy to reply to issues and gaps in digital psyche and digital participation, there could possibly be overlaps and duplications of efforts. Whereas the Authorities has been main Sensible Nation efforts, the individuals and personal sector have proven they’ll play significant methods in fulfilling these wants.

The Authorities may look into the right way to catalyse motion by these actors. A method is to develop a one-stop digital platform for the sharing and bridging of efforts would assist foster partnerships throughout totally different segments of society.

In so doing, these whose work helps develop digital inclusion will be capable of minimise overlaps, optimise assets and scale up their efforts.

Singapore has come far in its Sensible Nation efforts, even taking an enormous leap throughout this pandemic yr to assist companies and residents undertake digital know-how. Shifting ahead, it may afford to concentrate on inclusivity in guaranteeing that no residents are left behind.

Carol Quickly is Senior Analysis Fellow and Head of the Society and Tradition division on the Institute of Coverage Research. She can be Vice Chair of the Media Literacy Council. Shawn Goh is Analysis Assistant on the Institute of Coverage Research.