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HP structures its e-inclusion work to advance social and economic development while accelerating achievement of our long-term business goals. By empowering people in developing communities, we enhance our own competitiveness - creating innovations we would not have thought of otherwise, discovering talent we never would have found, and spurring revenue growth as we devise new business models to serve emerging markets.
Our e-inclusion efforts have evolved over the last four years as we have recognized that aligning e-inclusion to our business objectives allows us to have an even greater impact. What began as a broad effort to apply technology to closing the digital divide, has become focused largely on using information and communications technology (ICT) to accelerate enterprise and entrepreneurship, and thereby stimulate economic growth.
Increasing access to technology
Our e-inclusion strategy is grounded in collaboration with the international development community and governments to realize the power of ICT to stimulate economic growth. We also engage in on-the-ground research and development with communities to explore how ICT can improve their lives, and we co-invent solutions to address their needs.
With an understanding of how the private sector can stimulate economic growth and knowledge gained through interaction with these communities, we are pursuing projects worldwide to incubate new products, solutions and business models for underserved communities. Ultimately, our goal is to leverage what we've learned from each of these projects to scale and replicate specific programs globally that will have the greatest impact on social and economic development.
Learn more about our strategic approach and our signature projects that are making a difference:
Global collaboration
We believe that the private sector has a role to play in poverty alleviation and economic growth in underserved communities. Thus, collaborating with multilateral organizations like the United Nations, governments and development agencies is a key foundation of our e-inclusion work. We participated actively in the United Nations ICT Task Force to assess and explore the role technology might play to improve the effectiveness and impact of economic development efforts globally. We also led a working group on business enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Local research and development
To understand how technology can impact individuals' daily lives, we work deeply with a few communities that have limited exposure to technology to create new products and solutions specifically for their needs. These engagements last at least three years, allowing us to listen, experiment and learn. We apply a myriad of business techniques to understand the critical issues within the community and gain agreement across multiple constituencies to prioritize and develop solutions to meet those needs. These projects provide an invaluable foundation of knowledge for the company and function as test beds for new products and solutions that may be leveraged to assist additional communities. HP has two signature programs in this area, Digital Villages and i-communities.
Digital Villages
Baltimore Digital Village
East Palo Alto Digital Village
Southern California Tribal Digital Village
HP i-communities
Kuppam HP i-community, Andra Pradesh, India
Mogalakwena HP i-community, South Africa
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As a result of our participation in global development discussions and our learning from local research and development, we are currently piloting several programs around the world. Our goal is to increase access to technology, education and enterprise development resources while expanding our understanding of how ICT can improve the effectiveness and impact of economic development. Through this process we gain valuable experience in transferring knowledge and skills across country boundaries and learn which solutions have the greatest impact. As there is no single roadmap for economic development, we are pursuing multiple approaches through our UNICT initiatives, our Micro Enterprise Development Program, various information access and skills building projects and through new products, solutions and business models that are piloted in these projects and our i-communities.
Digital Community Centers
HP Digital Garage
Microfinance Development Initiative
Our goal for our e-inclusion work is to leverage what we've learned and globally replicate those programs, products and solutions that will have the greatest impact on social and economic development. Based on what we've learned from our e-inclusion programs, we are focusing our next major global program on entrepreneurship and the acceleration of micro enterprise growth.
Through this new initiative, we seek to advance the use of technology in micro enterprise development programs to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of micro enterprises in underserved communities worldwide. We will focus not only on providing technology to micro enterprises, but also on training micro enterprises to use technology to build and grow their businesses.
Microenterprise
Acceleration Program
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