US Announces Commitments To Advancing Digital Inclusion In Africa

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, May 24 (KUNA) -- US Vice President Kamala Harris announced public-private partnerships to "Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE)" aliance and advancing digital inclusion in Africa.
The partnerships, coordinated on behalf of the US government and under the President's Digital Transformation with Africa initiative by the Department of Commerce, are responsive to her Call to Action in Lusaka, and a series of additional US government and private sector initiatives to promote digital inclusion on the continent.
Digital transformation requires an ecosystem of complementary partners to drive connectivity, skilling, employment, financial, and other critical services via digital access, a fact-sheet from the White House said on Friday.
To coordinate efforts and multiply their impact, the African Development Bank Group and Mastercard are launching today, in response to the Vice President's Call to Action, the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Africa, which aims to provide digital access to critical services for 100 million individuals and businesses in Africa over the next 10 years.
MADE Alliance: Africa will have an initial focus on supporting the agricultural sector and women, including a pilot program launching this year to provide digital access for three million farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria, and quickly expanding to Uganda, Ethiopia, and Ghana, and the rest of the continent thereafter.
Founding Alliance partners each commit to reach at least 10 million individuals with other Alliance partners over the first five years by focusing on their complementary strengths while working in the same communities.
The non-profit Partnership for Digital Access in Africa (PDAA) was created, in response to the Vice President's Call to Action, to bring together private and public sector leaders from Africa, the United States, and other parts of the world to bridge Africa's digital divide.
To advance the goals of DTA, PDAA will support African institutions to double the number of people connected to, and meaningfully using, the internet in Africa, from 40 percent to 80 percent, connecting one billion people by 2030, and to increase connectivity for women and girls from 30 percent to 80 percent.
The digital gender divide hampers women's economic participation and limits their access to critical online services, undermining economic growth, sustainable development, and women's full participation in the 21st century economy.
To help close this gap and improve women's livelihoods, economic security, and resilience, Vice President Harris launched the Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF) in 2023, with an initial USD 50 million investment from USAID and USD 10 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, half of which focused on Africa.
Today, the Vice President is pleased to announce that the Fund and related Women in the Digital Economy Initiative have now generated over USD one billion in public and private commitments to accelerate gender digital equality.
Together with the Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) Initiative, which Vice President Harris launched during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' week in November 2023, total commitments for women's economic empowerment initiatives announced by the Vice President have reached USD three billion.
Building on the Vice President's leadership, today's announcement includes an additional USD 500,000 in direct US contributions to the Fund and USD 46 million in aligned US commitments to the Initiative, for a total of USD 102 million in US direct and aligned commitments since the launch of WiDEF pending Congressional Approval.
The Vice President is also announcing USD 145 million in new, aligned partner commitments to the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative from government, multilateral, private sector, philanthropic, and civil society partners to accelerate progress towards the historic G20 Leaders' commitment to halve the digital gender divide by 2030. (end)
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