Bridging the digital gap: challenges and opportunities in the global south (EN)
02.10, 10:00–11:30 (Europe/Berlin), birne
Sprache: English

What does digitalization mean in the global south? What are the challenges and opportunities it brings to rural and ethnic communities? What can the contributions be to traditional knowledge? Whats the impact on education? These are some of the questions we'll address to understand the contexts of the global south, so we can think of better ways to approach the bridging of the digital gap.


Talking about digitalization varies according to the contexts worldwide, so it is necessary to understand the differences and implications for each one. Especially in rural areas of the global south, where rural and ethnic communities have limited access to technological equipment and connectivity, it is pertinent to inquire about the challenges and opportunities that digitalization poses; for example, opportunities to access complementary knowledge for land management in times of adaptation to climate change, access to better educational contents for rural schools, but also the challenges regarding the possible impacts in the traditional dynamics of knowledge transmission.

For this reason, we propose to hold a workshop in which professionals, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, community leaders and other interested parties can share from their experiences what is happening with digitalization in these contexts to better understand them, and to brainstorm on ​​how the opportunities can be enhanced and the challenges worked on to contribute to closing the digitization gap. As a result of this, we will have some ideas that can be shared later in political advocacy spaces.

This space will be led by Latin American professionals from different backgrounds -engineering and ecology-, that have contributed to local communities in providing access to education and environmental governance. This complementary knowledge will allow having the Bits & Bäume visions during the planning, facilitation and systematization of the workshop.

I am a Colombian ecologist, passionate about environmental governance. I really enjoy working with local and ethnic communities, in which different knowledge can be put into dialogue.

Educator. Cofounder & Director of Kaanbal - Mexican NGO bringing digital educational platforms that don't require Internet access to rural indigenous communities in Mexico & Latin America.

Award winner social entrepreneur and internet development educator. Cofounder at Kaanbal.org