Close the Gap would not exist without the strong, supportive, and dedicated commitment of its partners in industrialized, emerging, and developing countries. Each partner contributes in their own way to help bridge the digital divide.
Our partnerships:
- Strategic partners not only donate computers but also help the organization on a day-to-day basis by providing equipment, financial or in-kind donations, and/or e-resource contributions or through project adoptions. Strategic partners can also be organizations that provide training, support, software, and expertise to the beneficiaries in the global South. They complement Close the Gap’s hardware donations with content, applications, or specific know-how that adds value to the project.
- Friends of Close the Gap are companies or organizations that help Close the Gap by donating their decommissioned ICT equipment.
- Service partners work as intermediaries between Close the Gap and the beneficiary organizations. They know and understand the local problems and challenges and have local project management expertise. Service partners are an important aspect of quality assurance as they are responsible for preparing the local infrastructure by making sure that donated PCs have a secure location with all the necessary utilities like electricity, the Internet if available, etc. They are also responsible for the distribution and transport of PCs to the beneficiaries, installation and maintenance of ICT equipment, training project managers/teachers/users, and finally, taking back the ICT equipment when it reaches its end-of-life.
- Supporting partners are usually North-based organisations that provide training, support, software and expertise to beneficiaries in the South. They complement Close the Gap’s hardware donations with content, applications or specific know-how that adds value to the project. Examples are e-learning software for children, training programmes on the use of ICT, know-how on how to use PCs in entrepreneurial ventures, content or information on HIV prevention, and smart energy solutions to provide electricity in remote areas.
