Giga is a global initiative that helps connect every school on the internet and every young individual to information, opportunity and choice. Giga was launched in 2019.
The cooperation between UNICEF and Liquid Intelligent will first focus on Kenya, but it hopes to expand into other Liquid markets in the future. Liquid will provide anonymized data to help Giga map the location and connectivity status of African schools.
Liquid will also provide Giga with information regarding the proximity of schools to telecoms infrastructure and will assist with the development of a connectivity monitoring platform.
The data gathered will serve as a foundation for better-targeted investment in school connectivity, even in hard-to-reach places. The cooperation will begin with Kenya, but it will eventually expand to include additional Liquid markets like South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda.
“Our Giga team will get a deeper awareness of the connectivity landscape in Kenya and beyond Africa as a result of our cooperation with Liquid,” stated Thomas Davin, Director, UNICEF Office of Innovation. “This insight will assist UNICEF in bringing more schools online, providing children with the opportunities they require to thrive.”
The Group Chief Technology (GCT) and Innovation Officer at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Ben Roberts, said:
“Giga’s Initiative from ITU and UNICEF resonates the company’s vision for Kenya and Africa as a whole which is to build a digital and sustainable economy. There is no better place to start than our schools that shape the minds of our children, thereby securing our future.”
We will assist UNICEF in mapping school connectivity data across Kenya by providing real-time information to monitor effect, leveraging our knowledge in the digital and telecom sector.
This project also reinforces our parent company’s ambition of establishing a digitally linked continent that leaves no African behind.”
Around half of the world’s population continues to lack effective Internet connection.
UNICEF and Liquid are committed to closing this digital divide, which has increased significantly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak. Giga has now mapped over a million schools and their connectivity globally, as well as connecting over 3,000 schools.
Liquid has connected almost 4,000 schools throughout Africa to the internet. The organization intends to continue strengthening schools through digital technology, having already mapped more than 150,000 schools across the continent. This data collection has a public record that can be accessed.
Giga is a part of UNICEF’s Reimagine Education program, the UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda and Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, and the International Telecommunication Union’s Partner2 Connect Coalition.
It has the ability to alter efforts to bridge the digital gap by providing a foundation for digital empowerment programs.
