Digital inclusion programmes have a measurement problem. They track coverage, not capability. This piece breaks down the three-layer framework that separates programmes communities still use three years later from the ones that end up as line items in an audit report.

The Mamaila community network in Limpopo, South Africa, did something most connectivity projects skip. It built governance structures before specifying a single piece of hardware. The result was a women-operated ISP, 3,000+ connected devices, and zero external support contracts. This model holds lessons for anyone deploying infrastructure in resource-limited environments.