Last Thursday, November 20, a guide was officially presented to address the digital divide and learn how to identify, monitor and reduce it in small and medium-sized European cities. Promoted by the City Council of Mollet del Vallès , the initiative has the collaboration of the Barcelona Provincial Council and is part of the European Digi-Inclusion Network. "This adventure began during the pandemic. When we saw that classes had to be done online from home because we couldn't leave. At that time, we identified a problem as a city. There were nearly 200 families who didn't have the tools to be able to follow these online classes from home. We quickly got to work and the result was the leadership of the European Digi-Inclusion Network, which today has the support and collaboration of eight other European cities," explained Ferran Segarra, Councilor for Digital Administration of the City Council of Mollet del Vallès. "The purpose of this network is to identify the extent to which we suffer from the digital divide and, from there, what we can do as administrations, companies or associations to reduce it," said Segarra.
The auditorium of the Cultural Studies and Resources Centre of the Barcelona Provincial Council hosted the presentation, which was attended by technical staff and institutional representatives from the territory. Specifically, it included Mireia Dionisio, Mayor of Mollet del Vallès, and Ferran Segarra, Councillor for Digital Administration of the City Council of Mollet del Vallès. The event addressed the importance of promoting policies, measures, actions and actions from the Public Administration in order to work on digital inclusion among groups that are in a situation of vulnerability. "As a city council, the administration closest to citizens, we have an obligation and a duty to our neighbors: to guarantee everyone's right to any area of life. Since the pandemic, we found that there were many people who were excluded from many areas of society due to this digital exclusion," added Mireia Dionisio, Mayor of Mollet del Vallès.
Several presentations and round tables contextualized the European Digi-Inclusion Network, talked about digital exclusion and digital inclusion, the role of local agents, the strategic implementation of public policies and the international ecosystem and shared experiences and cases of good practices from different European cities. "The aim of the guide is for it to be useful for cities of all kinds. We want this guide to provide them with a tool to be able to develop actions internally around four dimensions: strategy, ecosystem, needs and actions", said Segarra. "We are nine European cities that share the same challenges and the most important fact: we want to find solutions", concluded Dionisio.