During the pandemic, 1 in 3 children worldwide are losing the equivalent of a year of schooling, due to a lack of internet access. Though telecommunications companies have been connecting us for the last 25 years, 3.7 billion people remain offline. In the US, over 42 million people do not have access to broadband. Once considered a luxury, internet access is now recognized as a human right and part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 9.c.

On January 28th 2021, the student group Technology in Public Policy (TIPP) hosted a community conversation with Chris Worman and Jochai Ben-Avie about the need for greater political momentum and policy solutions to end the digital divide. 

A central topic of discussion was the dire implications of being unconnected for civil society. Digital rights are critical for local community-based organizations to operate in many “last mile” communities around the globe. In addition, as the digital divide continues to worsen, underserved communities lack proper data representation in global governance and business practices. The digital economy in effect only benefits those that it was designed for.

To meet the urgency of this moment, Worman and Ben-Avie are on a mission to rally policymakers, technologists, community organizers, philanthropists, and investors around the shared goal of universal connectivity.  They emphasize the necessity for large-scale, cross-sector collaboration to widely disseminate best practices and learnings to be able to better address the challenges of affordability, infrastructure, policy context, and locally-relevant content. 

Jochai Ben-Avie is the Executive Director at Connect Humanity, an international non-profit that supports, catalyzes, and scales efforts to connect the unconnected. He is also a current Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum, and a Board Member at Code for Science & Society. He previously served as the Head of International Public Policy at Mozilla and was the former Policy Director at Access Now.

Chris Worman is a Vice President, Alliances and Program Development at TechSoup, an organization that helps connect non-profits to mission-critical tech resources, knowledge and change-makers. Chris also founded the TechSoup chapter in Romania and has helped expand programming across other European countries. He also serves as a program designer and lecturer at the University of Vienna School of Economics. Previously, he was an advisor to the Peace Corps and was a member of the European Foundation Center steering committee.