I was delighted to discover a recent report by Koi Tū, the Centre for Informed Futures, Reframing social cohesion and societal resilience in New Zealand. The report makes a compelling case for investing in digital inclusion. What is perhaps even more significant is that this report was commissioned by The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), so maybe policy makers are listening as well.
The report is also a powerful endorsement of your work as Jump Partners by highlighting libraries and local community organisations as critical social infrastructure.
This will not be news to you, as you support people every day in so many ways. But what is new is that independent researchers are now raising a flag about your critical role in achieving social cohesion and societal resilience.
I have worked for 30 years in the community sector pursuing a digital inclusion agenda and despite many reports (some Government, some community, and others Corporate) there has been little Government recognition of the critical importance of having digitally connected and engaged communities.
This report reframes the focus of efforts over many years from simply promoting the benefits of digital inclusion to connecting this with social fragmentation, and even highlighting how this impacts national productivity and our capacity for responding to future crises.
There are six specific digital inclusion insights in the report:
1. Digital exclusion is a risk to national resilience
2. Digital trust needs to become a core digital inclusion competency
3. Libraries and community organisations are critical social infrastructure
4. Digital inclusion contributes to social inclusion
5. Digital inclusion needs a place-based approach
6. Digital inclusion should be measured as a contributor to resilience
Some of these issues are embedded in our existing digital inclusion programmes, such as digital trust, libraries and community organisations as trusted place-based support infrastructure and the need for measurement. But we have consistently failed to get digital inclusion on the mainstream agenda for either central or local government.
The big question now is what does DPMC intend to do with this report? Our colleagues at DECA (Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa) are equally excited, as they too have been championing a more digitally-inclusive agenda for some years.
So how about sharing this report with the leaders and policy makers in your organisation.
