Nepal was one of the pilot countries for the IDES in 2020 – together with Burkina Faso, Solomon Islands and Uganda. The Government of Nepal and most particularly the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) were instrumental in reviewing the tool and finalizing the 2019–2020 version of the IDES.

The country’s efforts to grow its digital economy are currently focused on strengthening an enabling regulatory environment, supporting the private sector to expand mass-market digital services and building the necessary telecom and financial infrastructure. This will lay the foundations for the innovation sector to grow in the future.

The inclusive digital economy scorecard (IDES) is a policy tool developed by UNCDF to help governments set the priorities for their countries’ digital transformation. It identifies the key market constraints hindering the development of an inclusive digital economy and helps to set the right priorities with public and private stakeholders, to foster a digital economy that leaves no one behind.