Minister Bernard Clerfayt and the BRIC ratify the Digital Inclusion Charter!

Over the past few months, 11 companies, 6 social organisations and 7 government bodies  have been working hard to present six practical solutions to bridge the digital divide. To this end, the participants of this consortium, named the Digital Inclusion Ecosystem, were inspired by various experts from academia, business, social organisations and the public sector at 6 workshops held between November 2019 and February 2021.

Solutions identified include creating an awareness campaign, reinforcing existing initiatives, developing a digital inclusion index that encourages businesses and governments to be more digitally inclusive and providing a mobile solution for hard-to-reach target groups.
Moreover, the Digital Inclusion Ecosystem is convinced that only a collaboration between the private, public and voluntary sectors will promote digital inclusion in Belgian society. It intends to help public and private organisations to become more involved in the digital inclusion of all Belgians.

The ecosystem has therefore seen fit to draw up a Charter that reflects the commitment of the signatory organisations to work together to this end. The aim is, on the one hand, to have the Charter ratified by all members of the Digital Inclusion Ecosystem and, on the other hand, to promote the Charter in order to attract other potential signatories, in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Thus, on 14 September 2021, the Brussels Minister for Digitalisation, Bernard Clerfayt and the BRIC (represented by its Director-General, Mr Locoge, its Deputy Director-General, Mr Van den Bossche and the Digital Inclusion Coordination led by Tania Maamary) signed this Charter. Together with the other ecosystem members, they have committed to, among other things, continuous sharing of good practice between signatories, promoting digital inclusion within and outside their organisations, supporting any campaign that seeks to promote this issue, setting up systems for evaluating organisations and the work they undertake, taking measures to strengthen confidence in digital tools and investing in online safety. Each signatory is also required to evaluate this charter after 3 years, in order to determine the state of play and possible next steps.

For more information on the Digital Inclusion Ecosystem, please visit Digital Inclusion Ecosystem.

*For the business world: AG Insurance; BNP Paribas Fortis; Colruyt Group; Deloitte; DNS Belgium; De Watergroep; IBM; itsme®; Microsoft; Proximus; VRT. For social organisations: Beego; Close the Gap; DigitalForYouth.be; Hobo; Maks; Mediawijs. For public authorities and public administrations, at federal and regional level: Actiris; the Digital Agency; Opgroeien autonomous agency; Brussels Regional Informatics Centre (BRIC); FPS Strategy& Appui ; FPS Finances; Wallonia Public Service - Economy, Employment and Research