World Leaders Seek to Bridge Digital Divide

By NICOLE WALLACE

Governments, grant makers, corporations, and non-profit organizations are turning their attention from the domestic to the global digital divide.

The gap between technology use in North America and Western Europe and in the rest of the world was on the agenda at last month’s G-8 Summit — the annual meeting of the leaders of seven major industrialized nations and Russia — in Okinawa, Japan. Among the agreements coming out of the summit was a call for the creation of a Digital Opportunity Task Force to tackle the problem.

At the meeting, the United Nations Development Program and Andersen Consulting, in cooperation with the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, announced a new one-year program, the Opportunity Initiative, to support the work of the task force.

The program will develop a plan to bridge the global digital divide by the end of the decade and create or expand model projects. The Opportunity Initiative will present its plan in time for next year’s G-8 Summit.

Andersen Consulting will provide a 10-person team to work on the program full time. The company estimates that the value of the pro bono work will approach $3-million. The contributions of the United Nations Development Program and the Markle Foundation are expected to bring the total commitment to the program to $5-million.

For more information: Go to http://www.markle.org.