The SDG of the Month series aims to explore the SDG-aligned work from Imperial’s staff, students, alumni and global partners. For the February edition, we focussed on Goal 10: Reducing Inequalities and the esteemed panel explored this topic with an emphasis on the digital divide in a COVID-19 world.

Synopsis:
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the importance of digital technologies for studying, communicating, trading, shopping, working and participating in much of modern life. However, due to the digital divide, nearly half of the world’s populations have been denied these opportunities during the pandemic, exacerbating global inequalities and providing a barrier to achieving the UN’s goal of reducing inequalities by 2030. To address this growing divide, the UN Commission on Social Development has highlighted the need to understand how digital technologies can be harnessed to support human development in an increasingly digital world. The Global Development Hub brought together an esteemed panel to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the digital divide and what is being done to address the gap between the under-connected and the highly digitised to help spread the benefits of technology in the new online age.

Speakers:

Sunita Grote - Co-Founder and Manager, UNICEF Venture Fund

Joseph Chambers - Researcher, Good Things Foundation

Sophie Coronini-Cronberg - Honorary Senior Lecturer, Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College



Chair:

Prof Tommaso Valetti - Professor of Economics and Head of Department, Department of Economics and Public Policy at Imperial College Business School