SHENZHEN, China, April 22, 2023 /THETECHMUSK=TTM/ — At a media roundtable held yesterday at Huawei Global Analyst Summit 2023, Huawei and its global partners shared the latest TECH4ALL practices and discussed how digital technology enables a more inclusive and sustainable digital world.
During the session, several of Huawei’s global TECH4ALL partners also made updates on projects that are currently running across the globe. A key message was that for each project, the powerful combination of technology and partnerships has been fundamental to driving positive outcomes.
“All our efforts in TECH4ALL initiatives have only been possible due to the combination of technology and partnerships.”
Jeffrey Zhou, President of ICT Marketing for Huawei
Since the initiative’s launch in 2019, Huawei has worked closely with governments, customers, international organizations, research institutes, and NGOs to make the social value of digital technology as far-reaching as possible.
Driving Equity and Quality in Education
To drive inclusion and help build sustainable futures, TECH4ALL education projects have so far reached 220,000 beneficiaries globally. Priority beneficiaries are remote and rural communities and underserved groups, including women and girls, unemployed youth, people with disabilities, the elderly, and K12 students and teachers.
During the roundtable, YouChange China Social Entrepreneur Foundation shared its vision underlining how technology-based support platforms empower early-career teachers in rural areas by providing online training to develop their professional capabilities and confidence.
“The greatest development is the development of human beings. In the future, we would love to continue working with Huawei, enhancing rural education through technology.”
Hui Ling, Secretary General for YouChange China Social Entrepreneur Foundation
Conserving Nature with Technology
In the area of sustainability and nature conservation, TECH4ALL projects have helped conserve biodiversity efficiently and manage natural resources sustainably in 46 protected areas across the globe, including 5 pilot projects under the Tech4Nature partnership set up in 2020 between Huawei and International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“When we talk about biodiversity and area-based conservation, technology can really help us in assisting in monitoring and strengthening reporting on biodiversity, climate and area-based conservation targets.”.
Khalid Pasha, Asia Coordinator, IUCN Asia Regional Office
During the roundtable, TECH4ALL partner C Minds shared on the Mexico Tech4Nature project. Launched in May 2022 with IUCN, C Minds and other local partners, the project is harnessing the power of AI and community centered approaches to safeguard biodiversity in the Dzilam State Reserve, including the endangered North American jaguar.
“The use of technologies provides the ability to scale up conservation action to unprecedented levels and ensure shorter time frames, which we achieved in this case, that the results of years of manual tagging and data interpretation were achieved in less than 1 year of working together with technology and partnerships. It also provides the ability to create transparent and measurable impact.”
Regina Cervera Pacheco, Project Coordinator for C Minds
Using ICT to Boost Rural Development
ITU-D also attended the session to update on the Smart Village Pakistan project. Launched in January 2023, this project model accelerates the impact of multiple SDGs by increasing last-mile access and provides remote villages with access to a range of digital services, including e-health, e-education, and e-commerce with a view to improving the quality of life and economic opportunities.
“Pakistan is ITU’s first smart village programme in Asia Pacific under the Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative. We are very proud of partnering with the Government of Pakistan and Huawei in this. These kinds of pilots also bring in new partners, who can bring about even bigger changes. I’d like to thank all those who have stepped in to make this a success.”
Ashish Narayan, Program Coordinator at the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
With the TECH4ALL partners at the media roundtable clearly showing what working together with common goals can achieve in practice, Huawei hopes to continue enabling inclusion and sustainability through innovative technologies and long-term partnerships.