DIGI-INCLUSION 4th TRANSNATIONAL MEETING IN IASI (ROMANIA)

Working sessions with the lead expert — Working sessions of the network partners with the lead expert.

On the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of September, the fourth transnational meeting of the DIGI-INCLUSION network was held in Iasi (Romania) and was attended by delegations from all network partners.

The meeting was also attended by a politician from each project partner involved because this transnational meeting have had a significant milestone; the signature of the Political Declaration on Digital Rights.

The first day started with an official welcome from Iasi Municipality, Lead Partner and a visit to the Culture Palace, a historical building which served as Palace of Justice until 1955 when it was intended to house some of the most important cultural institutions of the city of Iasi.

The second day began with a presentation by the Lead Expert, Ian Graham, about the importance of Digital Inclusion in our territories, since digital divide exists in our communities and triggers social and economic inequalities.

Following this introduction, Mr Ferran Segarra (Councillor responsible for Digitisation in Mollet del Vallès City Council), shared with the attendees the importance of the signature of the Digital Rights Declaration which aims to tackle inequalities such the digital ones. The politician emphasised how critical it is to disseminate the declaration in other cities, regions and countries across Europe to engage them to join the network fight to reduce digital exclusion.

After that, Mr. Mihai Chirica (Iasi Municipality Mayor) took the floor and officially welcomed the delegations and stressed the value of signing the political declaration for its municipality.

The morning proceeded with the official signature of the Digital Rights Declaration in the glass dome on the top of the Braunstein Palace.

In the afternoon, the Advisory Board took place, and the Lead Partner team provided guidance to PP on how to produce an IAP structure and draft sections 1 and 2. Afterwards, the Lead Expert moderated an ULG corner session focused on presenting the initial actions of the first draft of the Action tables produced by all PP. The session consisted on presenting the most ambitious action each partner wants to develop at local level, and to identify possible pilot actions to be implemented during the period October 2024-Arpil 2025.

The day ended with a breath-taking tour visiting the most emblematic buildings of the old town in Iasi.

The third day began with a paramount session on measuring and tracking digital exclusion at local level carried out by Ed Thorpe, Digi-Inclusion Ad-hoc expert. The expert presented how digital exclusion arises, its causes and clear at-risks groups. Moreover, participants engaged in a group discussions of pros and cons about how to build a better understanding about the digital exclusion despite the fact that cities do not have objective indicators. Ed Thorpe encourage city practitioners to try to capture the existing digital divide in their cities by using mapping the challenge using available data, surveys and targeted approaches.

At midday, the Lead Partner team ran the Steering Committee session which included the Mid Term Reflection process, evaluation of the first reporting round in 2024, budget management, and the network communication and dissemination plan.

The session was followed by a review session to encourage project partners to pilot actions at local level as part of the IAP co-production process. This will ensure the possibility to experiment and test specific actions in order to validate it before adding them in the IAP, getting quick wins and engaging ULG members around a specific activities.

In the following months, all Digi-Inclusion PP will be attending National Campuses in order to improve their understanding of the Urbact method and tools, and to meet and exchange with national peers.

The day ended with an interactive session leaded by Ian Graham, which aimed to feed the playbook that Digi-Inclusion intends to create as an output of the network. PP selected the main topics which should be included in the playbook such us the 2 digital divides, motivation, trust the Digital Rights declaration and the identification of the digital divide at local level. All those areas will be transformed into chapters of the playbook.

This meeting reinforced project partners’ commitment by creating momentum with the Digital Rights Declaration. All attendants will continue working intensively to tackle the digital divide in their cities.

The nine partners of the Digi-Inclusion network have one year of work ahead to complete nine Integrated Action Plans that will contribute to trigger digital inclusion in their cities and across Europe.

Submitted by AlbertMollet on 04/10/2024

AlbertMollet

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