The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly put a spotlight on the growing importance of digital literacy and connectivity — for individuals, communities, and entire economies. When everything from health services to education to business moved online in response to pandemic restrictions, those who lacked internet access or digital skills were suddenly left with zero or limited possibilities to work, study, or keep in touch with friends and family.
In the Palestinian territories, digitalization has accelerated over the past years. 80% of all households in the West Bank and Gaza had internet access in 2019, as compared to only 52% in 2017. Yet, as in many other parts of the world, the pandemic exposed some of the obstacles the region is still battling when it comes to access to digital technologies and the skills needed to reap their benefits.
In a study conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, almost half of the households reported their children missed out on education during lockdowns because they couldn’t access the internet. While people face several barriers to connectivity, poverty is a major cause. Many Palestinians still cannot afford to buy a laptop, or a running internet connection, said Peter Nasir, general secretary of East Jerusalem YMCA. “The poorer the communities are, the poorer the internet quality is,” he explained.
For YMCA — a global nonprofit working to strengthen communities by empowering young people — advancing digital connectivity and literacy is a priority, and part of its wider focus on youth employment. Present in 120 countries, local YMCA chapters are supporting young people around the world to acquire digital skills through different initiatives and programs, including a partnership with Hewlett-Packard.
“I think we need a multitude of partnerships to advance digital equity,” Nasir explained. “We need partnerships with the government, with the public sector, and the private sector more importantly.”
Devex spoke to Nasir about the challenges of advancing digital equity in Palestinian territories, and the actions YMCA East Jerusalem has taken in response.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
2.9 billion people globally are still not connected to the internet. What’s the situation in your community?
We are better off than many places as we are in direct contact with Israel, which is extremely advanced in IT. In East Jerusalem, we are under complete Israeli control, which means we have access to some of the best infrastructure in the world.
“Governments, the private sector, and the public sector need to come together and find solutions to boost digital accessibility and digital equity.”
— Peter Nasir, general secretary, East Jerusalem YMCAIn the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, the cities have accessibility, but the villages less so. And the prices [for internet] are much lower in cities than they are in villages. In very remote places, people sometimes have to rely on microwave connections [internet connection delivered by radio waves] which can be very expensive, and also unreliable in bad weather. A fiber optic network has just been developed for private use, but it is unbelievably overpriced.
Prices are a challenge even when it comes to smartphone data, as there are only two companies on the Palestinian market. You have to pay for 3G, and you get a certain limit, while in Israel you have the option of purchasing unlimited packages. If you go above your limit in Israel, your speed goes down, but you still have internet access. In the Palestinian territories, you need to make another purchase to recharge. This is something we try to address to improve equity.
How are local YMCA chapters around the world working to accelerate digital equity, and what specific programs have been implemented?
YMCA has developed a “Vision 2030” strategy, and part of this [vision] is youth employment. For East Jerusalem, it's a very important issue. When you have a job, you have something that takes you off the street — and that keeps you safe and away from any violence you may be exposed to as part of the reality we live in. And the digital space is where the world is moving. COVID-19 just cemented that. Technology has a chance to level the playing field between the rich and the poor.
YMCA East Jerusalem is part of the HP LIFE program — a library of 32 online courses with very rich content. We are offering these courses to very marginalized youth in order to improve digital equity. We have access in five languages — one of them Arabic — which is great and enables us to extend education opportunities to vulnerable youth, women, and other marginalized groups, as fluency in English tends to be limited to the richer urban areas.
What are some of the main obstacles young people are facing when it comes to digital equity?
Many cannot afford to buy laptops or to have a running internet connection. Also how willing parents are to invest in computers for children. The mindset in marginalized areas is sometimes that youth are most probably going to have lower-skilled jobs that don’t require computers. What the YMCA can do is open up its community centers and have workspaces available for youth to come and use computers when they wish. In Jerusalem, we have 10 of these workstations. Those who cannot afford to pay can come for free, and those who can afford it only pay $10 a month.
Aside from access to hardware, a big challenge is to include women. And it's highlighted in patriarchal societies like ours. We work as hard as we can to challenge this and to invite girls to be a part of our HP LIFE program. Of the 200 youths that we’ve worked with, over half of them were girls. We got a small grant to pilot HP LIFE, that we spent on mobilizers in the community to go around [and promote the program to girls]. That's how we were able to get more girls than boys — we specifically targeted them.
Conservative cultures are also a problem. Those who are very religious in Israel have what are called kosher phones — phones without internet or access to anything that shows pictures or videos. On our side, we don't have that, but it might come in the future, and this hinders access to information as well.
What are some of the lessons you’ve learned in your work to promote digital equity?
A lesson learned is that there are challenges in terms of connectivity, and different areas have different connectivity challenges. The poorer the communities are, the poorer the internet quality is, which doesn't encourage digital equity. And this is something that we have to find a way to address through partnerships. Governments, the private sector, and the public sector need to come together and find solutions to boost digital accessibility and digital equity. At the end of the day, the private sector has the most to gain out of this, because they will have more potential employees.
Part of what we've learned from COVID-19 is also that it just accelerated the process of people moving online, probably by 10 years. Today, we are so dependent on computers. And if we don't address the gap in the poor and marginalized areas, including the fact that women are having less access to internet, this will only increase the gap between the rich and the poor in the future.
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