Strategies for Bridging Digital Inclusion in Rural South Africa,

The digital divide persists in rural South Africa, where access to technology and internet remains uneven, exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities. A scoping review approach was employed, encompassing a comprehensive search strategy across academic databases and grey literature to identify relevant studies from onwards. Studies suggest a significant proportion (35%) of rural communities have limited or no access to digital resources, with strategies like community-led initiatives showing promise in enhancing connectivity and usage. While existing efforts demonstrate potential, there is room for improvement in scaling these solutions effectively across diverse rural settings. Future research should focus on developing scalable models that can be replicated, alongside assessing the sustainability of current interventions. Model estimation used $\hat{\theta}=argmin_{\theta}\sum_i\ell(y_i,f_\theta(x_i))+\lambda\lVert\theta\rVert_2^2$, with performance evaluated using out-of-sample error.