In an effort to bridge the worldwide digital divide and foster inclusive alternatives, HP Inc. and the HP Basis invite submissions for the 2024 Digital Fairness Accelerator. This system affords 10 chosen nonprofit organizations a USD $100,000 grant, HP expertise (~USD $100,000 worth), and 6 months of digital coaching to scale digital fairness options targeted on instructional, healthcare, and financial alternatives. HP will settle for purposes till March 1, 2024, and organizations in Brazil, Canada*, and Poland are invited to use.
“At HP, we consider within the energy of expertise to create optimistic, sustainable affect and we’re dedicated to accelerating digital fairness for these most impacted by the digital divide,” stated Michele Malejki, World Head of Social Affect, HP Inc., and Director, HP Basis. “We’re excited for the progressive options that can emerge from 2024 Digital Fairness Accelerator as we collaborate to create a future that’s extra inclusive and linked.”
A $1 trillion-plus digital divide is limiting billions from attaining equal entry to instructional, healthcare, and financial alternatives. By way of the Digital Fairness Accelerator, HP helps to create a extra equitable world by entry to {hardware}, connectivity, digital literacy, and high quality, related content material. The Accelerator helps organizations strengthen capability and scale affect for digital fairness options, significantly amongst people who find themselves historically excluded.
Since 2022, Accelerator alum have targeted on serving to to drive progress for ladies, advancing expertise for folks with disabilities and growing old populations, and growing digital fairness in underrepresented or under-resourced communities together with girls and ladies, folks with disabilities and growing old populations, traditionally disconnected teams, and educators and healthcare practitioners. Over the primary two years, the Accelerator helped lengthen the attain of 17 collaborating organizations by 8.1 million folks.
2024 Program Nations: Driving Digital Fairness in Brazil, Canada* and Poland
HP has strategically chosen nations to handle particular digital fairness gaps. These nations symbolize various challenges in digital fairness, aligning with HP’s dedication to fostering inclusive entry globally.
- Brazil, regardless of elevated residence web entry, has a pronounced digital hole affecting weak teams, together with Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian populations and growing old demographics.
- Canada*, regardless of excessive web utilization, has persistent inequalities amongst Indigenous and rural communities and different marginalized teams, with focused efforts to bridge connectivity gaps.
- Poland faces lingering divides, particularly in rural areas and amongst refugee populations.
World Digital Divide Limits Equal Entry to Academic, Healthcare, and Financial Alternatives
The rising digital divide is reshaping the tutorial panorama, impacting studying experiences of younger people and influencing the long run workforce, as highlighted by World Enterprise Coalition for Training (2022):
- Digital Inequity: In 2020, solely (34%) of main, (41%) of secondary, and (68%) of tertiary schooling college students had entry to an internet-connected pc at residence.
- Academic Shortfalls: Over half of younger people are falling behind in buying important expertise for employment by 2030.
- Looming Expertise Deficit: Projections point out a big ‘human expertise scarcity’ exceeding 85 million folks by the 12 months 2030.
Communities that bridge the digital divide have larger entry to healthcare and financial alternatives:
- Enhanced Healthcare Attain: In 2021, (37%) of adults accessed telemedicine companies, with utilization correlated to schooling ranges, household revenue, and urbanization, as reported by the CDC (2022).
- Bridging City-Rural Gaps: Globally, (82%) of city residents utilized the Web in 2022, marking a 1.8-fold improve in comparison with rural areas. This ratio has steadily lowered from 2.3 to 1.8 over the previous three years, showcasing a narrowing divide, in response to ITU (2022).
HP’s Dedication to Digital Fairness and Sustainable Affect
As practically half of the world’s inhabitants stays offline, closing the digital divide by equitable entry to expertise, expertise and content material will remodel lives and communities and create a extra equitable world. For the reason that starting of 2021, HP has been on a journey to speed up digital fairness for 150 million folks by 2030. HP’s imaginative and prescient is to turn into the world’s most sustainable and simply expertise firm, which is mirrored in its focus areas of local weather motion, human rights and digital fairness.
For extra data on the Digital Fairness Accelerator, please go to the web site.
* Excluding the Province of Quebec
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