Barcelona will host the headquarters of the Giga project, an initiative by the United Nations, UNICEF, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that works to ensure the educational and digital inclusion of children, clearly affected by the pandemic, especially in developing countries. Currently, it has already digitally connected 2.1 million students and 5,700 schools worldwide, with the goal of achieving universal connectivity by 2030.
As explained to ACN by the program's technology leader, Naroa Zurutuza, the one in the Catalan capital will be the first purely technological UN center in the world. "It is possible that this will open the doors for other United Nations institutions and headquarters to establish themselves in the region," she highlighted after participating in a talk at the Mobile World Congress.
Regarding the new center, it is expected to be made up of a team of between 15 and 20 technologists specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, connectivity, or infrastructure. Their task will be to create open-source technologies to aid in the project's implementation.
Specifically, from Barcelona, they will create the open-source map that will locate all schools on the planet by scanning satellite images and identifying their connectivity levels, creating a real-time visualization. According to Giga officials, this step is essential since many countries do not know where all the educational centers in their territory are located.
The administrations have committed to supporting the project for a period of three years. The Barcelona City Council will contribute 4.5 million, which includes the transfer of Ca L'Alier to house the offices, and the Generalitat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will allocate 6.5 million euros each. The Government will approve the collaboration agreement this March to establish the center in Barcelona, a preliminary step to the 6.5 million euro subsidy that the Catalan coffers will provide.