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Global Citizenship: The Global Push for Digital Inclusion

It can be too easy to take the technology at our fingertips for granted: high-speed internet, cloud-based collaboration, and instant video calls across continents. Yet, for billions of people, access to these digital tools is a distant dream. As a global community, we must ensure that technology is available to all. Here is how technology is bridging physical, economic, and educational gaps in underserved regions and profoundly reshaping lives.

From Isolation to Inclusion
Underserved regions include rural, impoverished, or geographically isolated areas, where roads are unreliable, electricity is scarce, and traditional infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. For years, lack of economic opportunity and basic communication and information access isolated these communities. Technology, however, is proving to be the great equalizer. For example, Project Loon’s Alphabet initiative (Google’s parent company) used high-altitude balloons to beam internet access to remote areas in Kenya and Peru. Though the project didn’t scale commercially, it set the tone for a fresh wave of innovation aimed at breaking through barriers, literally floating above the constraints of land-based infrastructure.

Powering the Powerless
Many areas that lack the internet also lack stable power. This is where renewable energy has stepped in. Solar-powered microgrids are game changers in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, bringing consistent power to villages for the first time. For example, Kenya’s M-KOPA offers pay-as-you-go solar systems, enabling families to install panels and pay incrementally using mobile money—no bank account or credit history required. These small systems are enough to charge phones, light homes, and power radios or small appliances. For many, this has led to increased income-generating opportunities and educational advancement, and where there is power, there can be internet.

Connecting the Unconnected
We often think of internet access as a convenience, but in rural communities, it’s transformational. In rural India and Bangladesh, internet kiosks and mobile-enabled services help farmers get real-time crop prices, health information, and government services from their phones.

Satellite-based internet services, such as Starlink, are entering the fray with bold promises: low-latency, high-speed broadband in remote corners of the globe. Though still in rollout stages and relatively expensive, these services represent a vision of a world where no one is too far away to be part of the global conversation. However, connection alone isn’t enough.

The Digital Literacy Divide
The uncomfortable truth is that even with technology, there is often a digital literacy gap. In communities where there is limited education, many people have never used a smartphone, much less navigated a search engine, an email platform, or a government portal. This creates a new kind of exclusion: one not based on infrastructure, but on understanding.

To counter this, community tech hubs and nonprofit initiatives offer basic digital training. In Ghana, Curious Minds, a youth-run organization, teaches children how to use digital tools to advocate for health, education, and human rights. In Southeast Asia, companies like Grab provide digital literacy training to gig workers, helping them manage finances, navigate apps, and improve safety.

It’s not just about giving people the tools; it’s about empowering them to use those tools meaningfully.

Partnerships That Power Change
One entity cannot address the scale of the digital divide. That’s why partnerships between governments, NGOs, tech companies, and local leaders are the linchpin of sustainable progress. For example, Internet Saathi, a collaboration between Google and Tata Trusts in India, has trained over 80,000 women in rural villages to become “Internet Saathis” (internet friends), who have then taught millions of other women how to use smartphones and the internet. It’s a model of grassroots empowerment: women teaching women, in local dialects, on their terms.

Similarly, UNICEF’s Giga initiative, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aims to map every school in the world and connect them to the internet. The logic is simple: connect the school, connect the community. Schools become digital anchors, providing access to students, families, and village leaders. Transformative results emerge from partnerships grounded in cultural understanding and mutual respect.

Technology Changing Lives—One Story at a Time
Thanks to these efforts, individual lives are changing in dramatic ways. Consider Almaz, a young woman from rural Ethiopia. Before her village had solar-powered internet access, she had never used a computer. Now, she runs a small digital services shop, printing documents, providing internet access, and teaching basic tech skills to local youth. Her shop has become a local hub for information, connection, and a source of financial independence for her family.

In Guatemala, indigenous farmers now use GPS-enabled tools and weather apps to plan planting and harvest cycles, improving yields and reducing waste. In Myanmar, refugee students living in camps attend online high school classes powered by solar-charged tablets. In the Philippines, fisherfolk use mobile apps to report illegal fishing and monitor safe weather windows. These success stories are not isolated; they’re the seeds of systemic change.

A Shared Responsibility
As technology develops, we must ask, “Who gets left behind, and what are we doing about it?” Bridging global tech gaps is a matter of global citizenship, shared resilience, and mutual opportunity. Increased connectivity benefits everyone through new markets, ideas, stability, and richer cultural exchange.

It’s not enough to build faster chips or better algorithms; we must build inclusive systems by designing tech with accessibility in mind, pricing models with equity at heart, and distribution channels that reach beyond the profitable urban centers.

The Bridge Is Ours to Build
We are living in an era where technology can either deepen or bridge divides. The outcome depends on what we invest in, who we listen to, and how we collaborate across borders, industries, and beliefs. The goal isn't simply “digital inclusion” for the sake of connectivity. It's about enabling lasting empowerment: education, entrepreneurship, health, civic participation, and dignity. Technology has the power to be the bridge that connects us across valleys, oceans, and opportunity gaps.

Let’s make sure that bridge leads somewhere better for everyone.

This column originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of SMT007 Magazine.