Contribution to digital transformation in Indigenous communities

Partnership
Initiative

Background

The Fundación Gran Chaco - FGCH (Argentina) works to promote sustainable development and the improvement of the environment, Indigenous peoples and communities of the American Gran Chaco forest area. It focuses on strengthening local organisations, promoting the arts and productive activities within a social and environmentally-conscious economy, as well as highlighting diversity, with a special emphasis on youth and women. The FGCH has extensive experience in co-designing digital solutions for Indigenous communities, such as georeferencing their territories in order to provide information to identify resources and protect their lands from threats, such as land-grabbing. There is a specific need to incorporate existing solutions in the region to support this process and share insights on digital inclusion.

The Asociación de Municipios de los Pueblos Indígenas de Panamá (Association of Municipalities of Indigenous Peoples of Panama - AMPIP) brings together 12 municipalities that share a strategic framework to foster the country’s comprehensive development, starting at the regional level with Indigenous communities. AMPIP seeks to adopt geotechnologies as part of its digital transformation process, with a focus on territoriality, resource management, water, sustainable tourism and risk response. The association also lends its expertise in the promotion of public policies with respect for Indigenous cultures.

EAN University (Colombia) has experience in sustainable territorial planning and management projects, as well as in the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in development plans, especially in the structuring of territorial development plans in various municipalities throughout the country. It also offers methodologies for assessing risk and vulnerability to climate change in order to ensure that vulnerable communities are prepared, in addition to its experience in developing sustainable productive ventures. The university offers its virtual reality laboratories, where training, research and simulation projects for sustainability-oriented processes are carried out in collaboration with partners from the public and private sectors.

In addition, Paris Lodron University Salzburg - University of Salzburg (Austria) is a leading European institution with a strong track record in training in Geographic Information Systems. Through its Geoinformatics Department (Z_GIS), which offers UNIGIS postgraduate programmes throughout Latin America through a network of regional hubs, the university lends its expertise in applied academic research projects, as well as its network of teachers and alumni in Latin America. It also lends its expertise in geospatial technologies for territorial assessment and sustainable land management. The University of Salzburg has a long history of collaboration with the European Union in projects such as Erasmus+ University Alliance, GeoInformation Sciences Erasmus+ and Training and Education EC Erasmus, among others.

These four entities, driven by the opportunity to collaborate within the framework of the ADELANTE Window, have formed a Triangular Cooperation Partnership which aims to harness their respective knowledge and expertise to develop solutions to a common challenge. They will be supported by Esri Panama as a collaborating entity, which will provide solutions based on geographic information systems through its ArcGIS platform.

Entities and roles

Beneficiary entities

Asociación de Municipios de los Pueblos Indígenas de Panamá

Panama

Fundación Gran Chaco

Argentina

Noaike

Ecuador

First provider entities

Universidad Ean

Colombia

Second provider entities

Paris Lodron University Salzburg

Austria

Collaborating entities

ESRI Panamá, Panama

Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador

Development challenges

Through this Triangular Cooperation Initiative, the knowledge and expertise of the Partnership's member entities and the collaborating entity in the field of sustainable territorial planning and management, as well as in Geographic Information Systems, will be used to design a digital transformation strategy for Indigenous communities in Argentina and Panama, focused on territorial management, climate change risk management, and environmental and cultural preservation.

The aim is to achieve inclusive and sustainable development under SDG 4, contributing to ‘eliminating gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for vulnerable people, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations’; as well as under SDG 9, contributing to ‘significantly increasing access to information and communications technology and striving to provide universal and affordable access to the internet in the least developed countries’, among other challenge.

This Triangular Cooperation Initiative aims to share the knowledge of the Partnership entities to jointly develop tools to strengthen digital capacities in Indigenous communities, with a comprehensive approach to territorial development and a focus on inclusion and sustainability.

Triangular approach

One of the main issues facing Indigenous peoples in Latin America is access to and sustainable management of land and natural resources, along with the growing digital divides in their territories. The Partnership provides an opportunity to share experiences, introduce digital tools that strengthen the Partnership member entities, and provide training to the Indigenous representatives who will benefit from this Initiative.

On the one hand, it will draw on the experience of the Fundación Gran Chaco - FGCH in the digital inclusion of local communities and the adoption of geospatial systems. These advances will benefit both the Gran Chaco and Panama's Indigenous regions, enabling greater territorial management. In Panama, the incorporation of new technologies for the management of local data will broaden the impact of the Initiative, as it will address multiple issues, especially those related to the environment and risk factors inherent to its geographical location. These actions will also contribute to preserving local economies and ensuring the generational transmission of cultural elements, with a particular focus on the participation of women and youth.

EAN University will contribute to generating knowledge in communities on sustainable territorial management, addressing problems such as environmental pollution, land-use conflicts, inequality and lack of access to education. In turn, these communities will develop knowledge and skills in the use of tools to assess their territory and the climate change risks faced, and will be able to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their development plans. The University of Salzburg will also share its expertise on the application of geospatial mapping tools and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to provide comprehensive and sustainable solutions to the territorial challenges.

New insights will emerge from an assessment of the maturity of communities in relation to their contribution to the SDGs and digital transformation needs. This will allow synergies to be identified and solutions to be optimised in each community. Based on these assessments, the Partnership will create a roadmap for digital transformation that responds to development challenges; aligned with the cultural and geographic requirements of local communities, with inter-cultural and gender-sensitive approaches, and co-designed together with the communities themselves.

The knowledge acquired on sustainable land management and the development of digital skills will enable communities to carry out their own georeferenced assessments, apply impact and risk assessment matrices, draw up their development plans and monitor them through self-designed indicators, using digital tools. Adopting a systemic approach and geospatial analysis, together with the use of digital tools, will enable communities to improve their connectivity, address development challenges, tackle environmental and climate change issues, improve training and reduce gender gaps, and empower women and vulnerable communities.

The roadmap for digital transformation, together with digital skills development, will provide these communities with the necessary tools to manage their territories sustainably, contribute to the SDGs and improve their quality of life.

Sectoral approach - Contribution to the 2030 Agenda

Primary SDG

Goal 4.5 By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

Goal 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Secondary SDG

Goal 9.C Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

ADELANTE SDG

Goal 10.1 By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average

Goal 17.6 Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism

Goal 17.16 Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

Territorial approach

Intervention methodology

This initiative is structured around five activities, which, based on an initial assessment, aim to create opportunities for reflection and training in order to jointly develop a roadmap for digital transformation. To this end, a consultancy, two workshops, a course and a final seminar will be held.

The consultancy, which will provide cross-cutting expertise, will support the Partnership from the start of the Initiative in the management and optimisation of the knowledge generated, as well as in the development of the roadmap for the digital transformation.

The first workshop, which will be held in a hybrid format, will allow for a participatory assessment of the development priorities and the level of knowledge on digital issues among Indigenous communities in Argentina and Panama. This workshop will help to understand their needs, and propose appropriate digital transformation methodologies and tools to meet these needs.

The second workshop, also in a hybrid format, will focus on a first draft of the roadmap for digital transformation, which will be further developed with the support of the consultancy.

In addition, a virtual course will be offered on the use of digital tools and mapping applications, such as GIS (Geographic Information Systems), GPS (Global Positioning System) and other mapping tools. This course will enable representatives of Indigenous communities to acquire skills to improve the planning and management of their territories.

Lastly, for the fifth activity, a seminar will be held in Colombia to present and disseminate the final results of the Initiative.

Across the Initiative, a cross-cutting approach to gender, environment and climate change will be integrated. These approaches will be incorporated as part of the joint work sessions and in the outcomes of each activity, especially in the development of the roadmap for the digital transformation of Indigenous communities.

Direct beneficiaries (individuals)

According to Rule 9 of the Guidelines for Applicants: all persons participating in the activities of the Initiative.

More than 80 direct beneficiaries will participate in the Initiative; mainly representatives of the Indigenous communities of Formosa, Argentina, belonging to the local population of the Fundación Gran Chaco, as well as representatives of the Indigenous communities of AMPIP. At the institutional level, representatives of central and local governments in Argentina and Panama that have a direct impact on territorial management will be invited to participate. Representatives of EAN University and the University of Salzburg will participate in all activities.

In addition, various Indigenous representatives from different Latin American countries will participate in the activities, to be carried out in a hybrid format, with the aim of having several perspectives that contribute to developing the roadmap for the digital transformation of Indigenous communities.

Budget

EU contribution: 109,455.69 €

Co-financing - Triangular Cooperation Partnership: 38,934.00 €

Total budget: 148,389.69 €

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