09/07/2020
‘Attaa Digital’ Initiative Announced First Place Winner Of United Nations WSIS Prizes 2020
Saudi Arabia’s digital giving initiative ‘Attaa Digital’ -empowered by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT)– has won today the 2020 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize, awarded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in the category of cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content.
Attaa Digital initiative has played a significant role in enriching the Arabic technical content and spreading digital culture in the society through training courses and activities in several digital fields delivered at centers as well as its digital platform and innovative means and tools, with the participation of volunteers including technology experts, specialists and amateurs, keeping pace with the global technology developments and the magnificent transformation that the Kingdom is witnessing.
This global prize comes as a result of the efforts made by the Initiative that was launched from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the heart of the Arab and Islamic worlds, for all Arabic speakers around the world. It developed an ambitious action plan to achieve its goals in propagating digital culture among various segments of society and raising the level of technical capabilities of individuals, government sector and civil society, in addition to supporting non-profit organizations in the ICT field and spreading technical awareness among the target groups to facilitate the use of ICTs in carrying out the work of daily life.
The Initiative delivered over 1000 training courses for up to 2.2 million beneficiaries and the volunteers outnumbered 131 thousand, and the total beneficiaries reached about 12 million beneficiaries. Its advanced media and technical tools, supported and managed by MCIT in cooperation with some relevant authorities, have contributed to the delivery of the initiative's message to the largest range of beneficiaries, in addition to answering technical inquiries, and digitally stimulating and developing digital giving in the non-profit sector.
Commenting on the Initiative’s winning of the prize, Deputy Minister for Digital Capacities Development at MCIT Dr. Ahmed Althenayyan indicated that it is an international standard for honoring and appreciation of efforts made by governments, civil society associations, research institutions and private sector companies. He expressed the Saudi ICT ecosystem is proud of winning this important and prestigious prize, thanks to the unlimited support provided by the Kingdom’s good leadership to the sector and the efforts of all volunteers, specialists, and initiative’s partners. He also noted that winning this prize will motivate and inspire more enthusiasm to continue working towards achieving the initiative's goals and maximizing the societal impact through the integrated ecosystem built by MCIT to spread digital knowledge and digital literacy among members of society. He added that the Kingdom began to reap the fruits of its ambitious Vision 2030 and is steadily moving towards the future, leveraging an agile roadmap leading to the desired future as well as qualified national cadres capable of achieving ambitions.
In coincidence with the current conditions of COVID-19 pandemic and as governments urge people to stay home and use remote education and work systems, Attaa Digital initiative earlier launched the first phase of ‘Kollona Attaa’ campaign to provide members of the society who lack technical tools with PCs and tablets from donors, which contributed to the provision of more than 28 thousand PCs and tablets in addition to 110 thousand data SIM cards. The second phase of the campaign prepared a guide for best educational technology practices in remote work and education, and provided digital lectures to prepare students, parents and teachers for the new academic year, in addition to offering discounts and special offers for students on PCs, tablets and internet packages, together with the activation of the ‘Ask an Expert’ service provided by the initiative.