In an increasingly digital world, access to the internet is becoming an essential tool for our personal, social and economic development.
Yet, for many, this is still out of reach. Today, millions of children around the globe, lack connectivity, creating a barrier to their access to educational and other opportunities. This is a digital divide: a gap that reinforces social and economic inequalities, leaving too many children behind.
To address the growing digital divide, UNICEF and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) partnered to form Giga, which seeks to support countries connect every school in the world to the internet. By December 2024, Giga was engaged with 34 countries, with more on the way.
It has mapped over 2.1 million schools across 141 countries, and is monitoring the real-time connectivity status of 94.1k schools across 28 countries. Giga is mapping and verifying the precise locations of schools, using data collected from government bodies, private companies, open-data sources, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence models. Having an accurate map of school locations and their connectivity status is critical to help governments connect schools to the internet.
This incredible achievement was reached just five years since its inception. And as Giga celebrated its 5th anniversary last year, the team sat down with colleagues from Sao Tome and Principe, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Botswana and Kenya, to reflect on some lessons learned in its journey of connecting every school in the world to the internet.
1. The Digital Divide Manifests itself in Different Ways
Globally 2.6 billion people were still offline in 2024 , and although 96% of the world’s population is now covered by a mobile broadband network enabling Internet access, there are still significant gaps, with no one simple fix to bringing them online. Bridging the usage gap means tackling multiple divides such as in income, urban-rural or gender.
Indeed for many schools across the world, internet access is still a luxury, making our quest to connect every school in the world by 2030 even more pressing.
African youth are the least connected in the world. Around 60 per cent are not online, compared to just 4 per cent in Europe[1].
Connecting schools is key to improved learning outcomes and more prosperous economies: a 2021 report by The Economist Intelligence Unit shows that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase the effective years of schooling for children by 0.6%, and GDP per capita by 1.1%.
2. Mapping is the first step towards connectivity
The first step is geolocating the schools, but once we know where the schools are, we need to know what the options are to connect them to the internet. That’s where infrastructure mapping and analysis comes in. Giga provides a comprehensive analysis based on the distance of schools from the available telecommunications infrastructure, and possible connectivity options such as fiber, cellular and microwave, among other options, to provide the respective governments informed options and costs for the realization of high-quality, sustainable school connectivity.
One of Giga’s biggest achievements over the past five years has been its data-driven approach to mapping schools. This foundational step provides governments with crucial information for decision-making and resource allocation:
- In Sao Tome and Principe, 100% of basic and secondary schools have been mapped, followed by infrastructural modeling to give policymakers the tools to plan connectivity initiatives.
- In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Giga’s mapping work enabled the creation of its first national school ID system.
- In Mongolia, 85% of schools are now using Giga’s Daily Check App to validate internet connections and improve decision-making.
3. Local Solutions Drive Lasting Impact
Delivering connectivity means choosing the right approach to fit the needs of communities on the ground, then empowering those communities to leverage school internet access to drive economic growth.
Mongolia’s Digital Community Information Workers (DCIWs) Programme exemplifies this approach by training school-based digital leaders who maintain connectivity and enhance local digital skills. In 2024, the programme launched its two-month training initiative: designed by experts in the Ministry of Education (MoE), in close collaboration with UNICEF Mongolia and funded by Giga. In addition, Giga provided draft materials which were adapted by the MoE.
By improving school connectivity and improving digital skills, trained DCIWs help bridge the digital divide, allowing students, teachers, and parents to access vital digital resources and services. These grassroots efforts ensure that the benefits of connectivity extend beyond the classroom and into entire communities.
4. Partnerships are Key to Success
Collaboration with governments, ministries, and international organizations has been a cornerstone of Giga’s progress. Giga operates through partnerships at every level – engaging governments, private sector leaders, research institutions, and educational organizations to achieve universal school connectivity. Our mission to connect every school to the internet is ambitious, and it cannot be achieved alone.
Giga is supported by over 15 partnerships with governments and industry leaders from the private sector, including the Swiss and Spanish Governments, Ericsson, IHS Towers, Meta, GSMA, Liquid Technologies, and the Equinix Foundation.
Partners provide essential funding, technology, and expertise that drive our efforts to map schools, model connectivity solutions and financing, establish reliable internet connectivity in-country, and maintain connectivity service levels. This support not only powers the infrastructure needed for connectivity but also fuels innovative solutions for reaching remote and underserved communities.
Over the past five years, partnerships have driven results:
- Giga actively engages with government and policy stakeholders to create an environment that supports sustained school connectivity, including key government partners, Switzerland and Spain, to develop world-class centres dedicated to advocacy, research and development for school connectivity. The Technology Centre in Barcelona is home to Giga engineers and data scientists who build open-source tech products. The centre leads in researching and creating new connectivity solutions enabled by blockchain, satellite imagery analysis and AI technologies. A booming digital hub for start-ups and tech companies, Barcelona puts Giga’s Technology Centre at the intersection of technology, creativity and innovation.
- The newly activated Giga Connectivity Centre at Campus Biotech, in the heart of international Geneva, will serve as the headquarters for Giga towards achieving universal school connectivity by 2030. It will be home to the joint ITU/UNICEF Giga team, where they get to meet, co-create, swap stories and collaborate with other stakeholders to advance Giga’s 2030 goal. The centre will facilitate innovation, capacity building, information sharing and showcasing of solutions across the entire value chain of school connectivity to help stakeholders advance their digital transformation journeys in education. The centre will also be the base for Giga’s work on supporting governments in mobilizing capital for connectivity and to streamline public procurement processes for contracting school connectivity services to reduce costs and accelerate implementation.
- In Kenya, Ericsson was the first private sector partner to make a multimillion-dollar commitment to Giga, which provided critical funding for it to grow in its early stages. Beyond funding, Ericsson has provided in-kind expertise in connectivity, experience with mobile operator data, and data science analytics to help map and understand the true state of school connectivity. This partnership with Giga has been a core part of Ericsson’s work to act as a catalyzer for providing quality education to all through information and communications technology.
Giga combines UNICEF’s experience in education and procurement, and ITU’s expertise in regulation and policy.
5. Connectivity Transforms Education and Communities
Connected schools can be catalysts for learning, inclusion, and opportunity. Whether it’s in terms of helping youth access information in Sao Tome and Principe or enabling data-driven policymaking in Mongolia, the ripple effects of connectivity are profound. Over five years, Giga has proven that connectivity is a game changer for the transformation of education and greater inclusion.
As we look to the future, Giga’s purpose remains clear: universal school connectivity, and to bring information, opportunity and choice to all young people everywhere.
Together, let’s build a more connected, equitable world.
Special thanks to Ana Albuquerque e Aguilar, Dr. Aune Victor, Tsend-Ayush Enkhtsogt, Md Khaled Mahmud, Minu Limbu, and Nishantha Subaschandrabose.
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[1] International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 2020. ITU_regional_global_Key_ICT_indicator_aggregates_Nov_2020 [Data file]. Available from https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx