In 2014, Alexander De Croo was appointed Minister of Development Cooperation and the Digital Agenda. For the first time, these two very important initiatives have been linked together presenting an amazing opportunity to drive forward the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs) through digitalization. It was recognized that building partnerships across civil society, public sector and the private sector would bring about new opportunities to translate this transformational potential into a deployable strategy for the Belgian Development Cooperation.

Close the Gap, having been an actor in digitalization for development (D4D) since 2003 and a strong track-record of bringing together the private sector and beneficiaries of ICT for Development initiatives in developing countries to realize its mission to bridge the digital divide, has been invited to participate in this dialog.

As a first step, a series of workshops on ICT for Development (Education, Health, Governance to name a few areas of focus) has been launched. In practice, this means that any new intervention evaluated by the Belgian Development Agency requires a digitalization component or a strong justification why digital is not suited to play a role in the intervention.

The first of these workshops took place earlier this month, attended by members of the Ministry of Development Cooperation, BTC/CBT, various non-profits and the private sector including start-ups and multi-nationals. This diverse cross-sector collaboration proved to bring a rich level of debate, all sharing their experiences and lessons learned, as well as new opportunities in the development and implementation of digital technologies and tools for developing countries.

The next event will be held in the coming weeks, with a focus on ICT for Healthcare.