Connectivity & devices
Getting people online affordably.
Focus — Education, Knowledge & Human Capability — Digital access
DIGITAL ACCESS
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve who can get online and use it well for the households, students, and workers currently offline.
Why this area
DIGITAL ACCESS
IN CONTEXT.
Access is device, data, power, skill, and reason to use it. Ideas qualify when all five are considered for the people described.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Digital skills
Using digital tools for work, learning, and services.
Local content
Material in the right language and form.
Safety
Privacy, fraud, and harm online.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A DIGITAL ACCESS
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where who can get online and use it well fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — connections, data cost, active use, or tasks completed online.
- Explains what the households, students, and workers currently offline do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of who can get online and use it well in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier connectivity and digital literacy programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the households, students, and workers currently offline, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — users connected, devices distributed, or learners trained.
- A stated measure of success — connections, data cost, active use, or tasks completed online.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves access to services, learning, and work for the households, students, and workers currently offline.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named operator, school, or community centre able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of who can get online and use it well in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the households, students, and workers currently offline or the operator, school, or community centre.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about digital access with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
DIGITAL ACCESS IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about who can get online and use it well that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.