Giga

Giga Annual Report: 1 million students connected to the Internet

Giga has now helped over 1 million learners get life-changing access to the Internet. Working with 14 corporate and non-profit partners, the initiative has connected over 3,200 schools since its launch in 2019.

Released today, Giga’s Annual Report summarizes the joint UNICEF-ITU initiative’s progress against its objective of connecting every school in the world to the Internet. It also sets the scene for the further work needed if all schools are to be online by 2030.

“Imagine what Giga can do by connecting young people around the world to the Internet. That means giving them the chance to change the world.”

Since its launch in 2019, Giga has:

  • connected over 1 million students and over 3,200 schools to the Internet in Africa, Central Asia, Latin America and the Eastern Caribbean;
  • mapped the location of over 1 million schools on its open-source platform, Project Connect;
  • mapped connectivity infrastructure in 18 countries, enabling Giga to propose technical solutions to help governments get more schools online; and
  • secured the support of 14 partners including Ericsson, Dubai Cares and the Musk Foundation to develop solutions for affordable, sustainable connectivity.

In addition to these direct contributions, Giga has helped mobilise over US$210 million to accelerate school connectivity around the world. In 2022/3, we expect these funds and Giga’s technical models to help get a further 25,000 schools and 8 million students online.

“The Internet benefits us. It helps with studying subjects that we do not know, such as computer science.”

With over 2.9 billion people still offline in 2021, urgent action is needed to give more children and young people access to the information, opportunity and choice available online.