Digital Literacy and the Challenge for NIST Compliance in Developing Economies

The trend towards increasing digital integration across global systems is limited by significant differences between countries with high technology literacy, and countries that remain digitally nascent. This study examines the critical challenge of implementing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework in developing economies. While NIST provides a robust and globally recognized model, its successful adoption is often hindered by context-specific barriers. This research argues that digital literacy (DL) is the most fundamental of these barriers, as it underpins other challenges, including resource constraints, inadequate policy frameworks, and limited public-private partnerships (PPPs). Through a comparative case study analysis of South Africa, Kenya, and India, this paper proposes that a successful pathway to compliance requires a contextualized, multi-stakeholder approach that prioritizes grassroots digital skills development and creates frameworks tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper introduces the SACyber SME Framework as a model, emphasizing that top-down policy adherence must be supported by bottom-up capacity building. This work shows how a complex, technical standard can be translated into an accessible and actionable guide in countries with limited digital literacy.