Human Rights, Sustainability & Technology: Digitally Organizing Communities

17.30h. Welcome. Carme Gual, Director of the Catalan Agency for Cooperation Development -Generalitat de Catalunya
17.35h. – 17.55h. Keynote speaker Grace Githaiga, Director KICTAnet , Kenia
17.55h. -18.40h. Debate
Natalia Anguera, Director ACNUR – Catalan Committee
Manel Rebordosa, Community Engagement – ICT in humanitarian crisis LAFEDE (Catalan NGOs Federation)

This side event wants to be a meeting space for the different development agents that incorporate the digital vector in their actions, and the representatives of the public administrations of the Global South, learn about good practices being carried out in various cities and by various organizations around the world, and to bring this “technological” approach closer to entities and organizations that have not yet incorporated it into the their performance.

It is important to emphasize that the situation caused by the coronavirus has highlighted the indispensable nature of ICT and, in general, the appropriate focus on basic service infrastructures such as energy or telecommunications, which allows us connecting and generating solutions from the community, as long as it can address the challenges faced with minimal conditions. Beyond the discussion of the world of cooperation and its entities, we need to start opening up the range of possibilities for joint intervention with other stakeholders in our societies. Only policy coherence and a true global / local vision will bring us the necessary changes.

Going back to the coronavirus, we need all the knowledge and expertise to get out of it, but no longer separately, but working together to solve the challenges of the 21st century: technology allied to health, through the world of makers, who have made respirators, masks … communities supporting the most vulnerable, creating neighborhood support networks; the fundamental work of caregivers of all kinds, including not only medical staff but also cleaning staff and supermarket replenishers; the importance of an adequate structure that allows food production and distribution in a closer way, and so many more examples that have totally upset the scales of preconceived social values.