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Bridging the digital divide in Wales

SDGs Impacted

The digital divide is the gap between people who have easy access to the benefits of digital technology and those who don’t. That gap is not new, but the pandemic widened it, when online access to services became even more important. In Wales, 7% of the population aged 16 and over are not online (at around 180,000 people), that’s a higher percentage than the rest of the UK. To tackle this issue, the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) is improving the development of a directory of organisations to improve the digital skills for many who are already disadvantaged.

Impact / Outcome
Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales has more than 70 members, and hundreds of organisations have signed Digital Communities Wales’s Digital Inclusion Charter. Support includes digital training of staff and volunteers by the big, Welsh Government-funded programme Digital Communities Wales, who then pass skills on to other Welsh residents. The percentage of people who are not online in Wales has dropped from 19% to 7% in the past 6 years. We believe the digital inclusion directory can help to bring that figure down even further.
Funding sources
Public
Key Metrics
Improve digital transformation promotion for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
Location
United Kingdom
Sector
Education
Intervention lever
Policy
Operating model
Fully public
Year published
01 January 2022

The EDISON Alliance

A World Economic Forum Initiative