Connect

The Giga Knowledge Spark kicks off! Starting in Switzerland, the programme, seeks to leverage the research capacity of academia in the policy, business, ICT, and technical fields, tackling one of today’s most pressing global challenges: ensuring that every student, everywhere can access and benefit from meaningful connectivity.

17-year-old Darlene Vakoko is a Congolese refugee, she lives in a small brick walled house with corrugated iron sheets. Along with her parents and her younger brother, she fled the ravages of the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking the relative peace and stability of the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.

In this interview, Mea Thompson shares her insights as Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of unconnected.org, a global non-profit bridging the digital divide through sustainable connectivity in underserved communities worldwide. She brings 15 years of experience in telecom and international development to her work.

Mei Lin Fung is Chair and Co-Founder of the People Centered Internet, begun in 2015 (with Vint Cerf, often called “a father of the internet”), which works to create a more equitable digital world. In this interview, she said it is time to shift the conversation from access to school to its impact. “These are the stories that need to be told—and the data that needs to be seen,” she says.

Mei Lin Fung is Chair and Co-Founder of the People Centered Internet, begun in 2015 (with Vint Cerf, often called “a father of the internet”), which works to create a more equitable digital world. In this interview, she said it is time to shift the conversation from access to school to its impact. “These are the stories that need to be told—and the data that needs to be seen,” she says.

Naveed Haq is Senior Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity at the Internet Society. He is focused on bridging the connectivity gap, particularly for unconnected and underserved communities in the Asia Pacific region. His background is in computer science and telecommunications, including regulatory work in his native Pakistan.

In Ampara, the largest district in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, education is taking a digital leap forward. With vast distances stretching over 150 kilometers from one end to another—schools and students have long faced challenges in accessing quality education. Yet, change is on the horizon, driven by innovative efforts to bring connectivity to classrooms and create new opportunities for young learners.

Fresh off the success of the Rwanda pilot, Giga is launching an innovative Ethereum staking initiative that lets anyone with crypto become a long-term supporter of school connectivity. This new impact staking program is a direct follow-up to the Rwanda project – a way to keep the momentum going and scale it further.

Giga’s innovative school connectivity pilot in Rwanda has reached a major milestone: Ownership of the internet service contracts to provide school internet access has now been transferred from UNICEF Rwanda to the Government of Rwanda. The transition to full government financed plan demonstrates Rwanda’s commitment to sustaining school connectivity and showcases how lessons learned from innovative financing and clearly defined connectivity standards can inform national programs. 

Until recently, Daniel B. Cavalcanti was the Coordinator for Digital and Telecommunications Policy at the Ministry of Communications for Brazil. He led the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) during the G20 presidency of Brazil (2024), which reached consensus on key issues in today’s digital economy, from new indicators for the measurement of “meaningful connectivity” to AI readiness and capacity assessment. These issues will continue to be a focus under South Africa’s G20 presidency in 2025.