Impact ReportJ A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4ContentsForeword 03Executive summary 04Appendix 30Contributors 31Acknowledgements 31Endnotes 323.1 By focus area 093.2 By problem solved 103.3 By geography 115.1 Our community 245.2 Partnerships 26a Initiative marketplace 26b Spotlights and Topic 27 Area Sprints 5.3 Best practices 28a Lighthouse Countries Network 28b Navigator 294.1 Access 144.2 Usability 174.3 Affordability and financing 191 Partner testimonials 053 Progress overview 084 Stories behind 13 the numbers 5 Impact enablers 212 A global alliance 06 committed to closing the digital divide www.edisonalliance.org This report has interactive elements: Look out for this symbol throughout the reportThis PDF should only be opened with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Adobe AcrobatEDISON Alliance Impact Report January 20242ContentsForewordIn a world where basic life services such as education, banking or healthcare have rapidly moved online, being able to access and thrive in the digital realm has become an absolute necessity. While significant strides have been made in recent years (we connected 800 million new internet users around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic), 2.6 billion people remain offline. This digital divide cannot be allowed to persist. Everybody, no matter where they were born or where they live, should have access to the 21st century’s infrastructure.To meet this challenge, we formed the EDISON Alliance in January 2021, bringing together leaders from the private sector, governments and civil society to finally bridge the digital divide. Recognizing that no one can tackle these challenges alone, the EDISON Alliance cultivates collaboration to turn vision into action through partnerships that drive local impacts towards global scale. The alliance set an ambitious goal to improve the lives of 1 billion people through affordable and accessible digital services by 2025. For its part, Verizon has committed to providing digital skills training to 10 million young people and to bring resources to 1 million small businesses working for success in the digital economy. Combined with the efforts of our partners, we have made great progress in two years and have identified affordability, accessibility and usability as barriers we must address to connect everybody.With this second edition of the EDISON Alliance Impact Report, we are proud to present examples of initiatives and partnerships catalysed through the alliance that are improving the lives and livelihoods of underserved individuals and communities around the world.We must avoid complacency. As we approach the midpoint of the world’s Sustainable Development Agenda, the world is behind on many counts and risks sliding backwards on others. In that regard, we hope the success stories presented in this report will encourage leaders to step up their individual and collective commitments toward...
