Project CREATE
We are living in a Digital age, and increased technology adoption should lead to job creation. Still, we see mass layoffs across the tech industry, and this will continue, which brings to the fore the biggest challenge of ‘job creation’ for countries, more so, for the LMICs (Low- and Middle-Income Countries) – which have huge populations to serve but lack the financial wherewithal, and the digital divide is increasing, with nearly 3 billion of the world kept out of the internet era.
We can reverse this. For that, we have to create decentralized technology models around individuals and communities to ensure ‘Internet for All & Livelihood for All’.
We need to engage multiple stakeholders (Academia, Government, Industry, Multi-lateral bodies & Civil Society) to come together with a goal to :
a) bridge the digital divide by connecting everyone to the internet
b) create a tech-enabled ecosystem to provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to everyone.
Project CREATE was announced by Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman of Dynamic Coalition on Internet & Jobs, Internet Governance Forum (IGF), at the 17th Annual IGF meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 30th November 2022. Earlier, he had talked about creating jobs using technology during the closing ceremony of IGF, Paris, in 2018, and later, at the IGF platform, in 2021, he talked about the idea of having ‘a large number of small companies driving the internet than a small number of large companies’.
We believe that internet technologies can create a tech-enabled ecosystem that can connect the world seamlessly and provide a pathway for ensuring ‘Livelihood for All’ through ‘Internet for All’. Hence the Project CREATE (Collaborate to Realize Employment & Entrepreneurship For All Through Technology Ecosystem).
Project CREATE is supported by United Nations’ IGF Dynamic Coalition on ‘Internet & Jobs’, and the secretariat is hosted by Digital Health Associates.
