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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the importance of information and communication technologies. Reference to ICT can be found explicitly as a target under Sustainable Development Goal 9 "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation", while ICT is also referenced in the targets related to climate change, gender equality and women empowerment, private sector development, education and health. The 's 2016 World Development Report4 focussing on digital dividends, all stressing the gains of using digital solutions for development. Additionally, several individual EU Member States have adopted strategies to integrate digital aspects into their development policies and actions.

Development of single e-Marketplace leveraging state of the art Shared Services Platform recognises the significant impact that digitalisation can have on growth and job creation for economies of developing countries. . There is great scope for further translating the key principles of the Single e-marketplace to wider development policy by promoting digital economies in developing countries.

The Digital Development global practice of the has been active in the promotion of digital technologies and services in client countries and has accumulated many good practice use cases. We are now working to develop appropriate framework for mainstreaming digital technologies, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs and ensuring an effective delivery of inclusive services.

This forum has been created to accelerate the Digital Development Partnership among governments, industry, academia and multilateral agencies for sharing the learning practices and jointly financing proof of concept platforms to help developing countries realise the benefits of Digital Single Marketplace models.