The Diplomat
Barcelona will host the technology centre of the Unicef and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) agency Giga, which works to connect schools around the world to the Internet.
The agency’s technology centre will be located in the former Ca l’Alier factory in the Poblenou neighbourhood, following a bid by Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat and the central government.
Yesterday, the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, visited the facilities and met with representatives of UNICEF and the International Telecommunications Union.
According to Giga, 2.9 billion people do not have an internet connection -96% of them in developing countries- which means that many children have fewer learning opportunities to develop their potential.
With the aim of bridging the digital divide, UNICEF and ITU teamed up to create Giga, a global initiative to connect all schools to the Internet by 2030.
The agency is part of UNICEF’s Office of Innovation and ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, and “combines the expertise” of UNICEF in education with ITU’s expertise in regulation and technology solutions.
As it points out on its website, since it was created in 2019 it has connected more than 3,700 schools, and mapped more than a million centres, using tools and satellite images to then find out their connectivity.
Ca l’Alier was reopened in 2018 and converted into a centre for urban innovation, after opening in 1852 as a textile factory that went on to have various uses, until it closed in the 1980s and suffered four fires before its refurbishment, which began in 2014.
