Reducing the digital gap: Mondo’s digital competencies program

Julia Gerda Sokk
Mondo digivõimekuse programmi juht

Which challenge feels harder today – spending 24 hours without clean tap water or without the internet? This was the choice presented last year in the Estonian Women’s Voluntary Defence Organisation’s (Naiskodukaitse) crisis preparedness month challenge. At a time when 66% of the world’s population uses the internet and spends an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes online per day, 24 hours without internet indeed sounds like a challenge. Many might choose to give up tap water for a day before giving up the internet.

Internet is an essential tool in our daily lives. Often, all we need when leaving home is a smartphone with connection. The digital world helps us grow businesses, learn new skills, complete tasks more efficiently, and stay connected to the rest of the world. Estonia’s digital achievements are highly regarded internationally, and the image of the successful “e-Tiger” follows us to nearly every country we visit. In today’s society, those who know how to use digital tools and the internet smartly are inevitably more successful.

A third of the world’s population is not online
More concerning however is the other side of the internet usage statistics – in 2023, 34% of people worldwide did not use the internet. They lacked access, devices, or the skills to participate in the modern and rapidly evolving digital world. This has created divisions within societies and between countries, generating a new kind of growing segregation – the digital gap. This divide exacerbates existing social, cultural, and economic inequalities. Those who end up on the “wrong side” of the digital gap suffer from economic, social, healthcare, and other forms of marginalization.

The digital gap becomes even more visible as we zoom out from Estonia on Google Maps. Here are two examples of communities that Mondo works with.

While only a bit over 6% of people in Estonia didn’t use the internet last year, in Uganda, the figure is the opposite – 73%. Uganda aims to improve children’s and teachers’ digital skills, but efforts don’t reach large parts of the country. Rural areas, already economically disadvantaged, are particularly left behind. And so, the digital gap continues to grow within societies, even though efforts should especially target poorer and more marginalized groups.

Chalk alone won’t cut it in the digital age
“The world is changing. Soon no one will use chalk anymore, so we’ll just be left behind,” says Jane, a student at Arua Teacher Training College in Uganda who teaches in a rural school and participated in Mondo’s digital skills training program.

Her quote sums up the situation in a country where less than 10% of schools have computer labs and only about 5% of students have access to computers. For comparison, in Estonia in 2018, 97% of children used the internet daily, and when it comes to computer labs, we ask not about their existence, but about the power of the computers.

If computers aren’t available, smartphones could help bridge the digital divide. Africa’s digital narrative often highlights a smartphone revolution, transforming societies, economies, and people at an unprecedented pace. Smartphones are cheaper than computers, connect to mobile networks, and offer versatile functionality. They can be a lifeline for communities with unstable electricity and limited access to expensive equipment.

According to Uganda’s 2024 census, 43.3% of the population owned a mobile phone. However, as Mondo’s experience shows, not all of these are smartphones. In fact, many rural teachers come to digital training sessions with basic phones, and a great deal of fear around touchscreen smartphones, worried they might break the screen with a finger tap.

Digital skills help people adapt in crises
A second example comes from Lebanon, where the need for digital skills and knowledge is especially acute among people affected by crises – namely refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Lebanon is home to an estimated 1.7 million refugees, many from Syria. Displaced people, especially women and children, need significant support to successfully navigate life in a foreign country. However, the local population also struggles to offer support, as Lebanon itself is facing a severe socio-economic crisis. Over 80% of people live below the official poverty line, and recent Israeli airstrikes forced over a million people into internal displacement. Many of them lost their homes, jobs, and sources of income.

Practical digital skills, combined with basic entrepreneurship training, can help people cope quickly and flexibly, even launch successful businesses. This is exactly what we see with the women and youth who participated in Mondo’s 2023 program, supported by The Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV). Women with the most promising business plans also received small grants to start their ventures.
“This program opened doors I didn’t even know existed. With my crocheting skills and new digital competencies, I turned a hobby into a source of pride and income,” said one woman in the project.

Bridging the digital divide
There are many more examples of people who have improved their lives through growing digital skills. Last year, through Mondo’s digital empowerment program, people in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Lebanon, and Ukraine gained new skills – altogether 1250 women, youth, and educators with refugee backgrounds.

In addition, Ukrainian refugees in Estonia received training to help them thrive in our e-state. The training focuses on essential skills and devices—especially smartphones—that help people participate in the digital world safely and successfully. The goal is to offer both practical skills and introduce innovative tools they can use to improve their lives—and, in the case of educators, the lives of their students.

These basic digital skills and knowledge are the first steps toward creating more equal opportunities in communities where people may not even have heard of deepfakes or digital signatures.

Bridging the digital gap is our shared responsibility and opportunity—because even Estonia’s excellent digital solutions can’t be widely implemented elsewhere if communities don’t know how to use them.

The digital world is evolving fast, full of exciting and useful solutions—but many communities risk being left behind. Estonia has the chance to share its knowledge in a way that ensures no one is excluded from this progress.