We are immersed in a process of digital transformation that is opening up endless new possibilities in the way of conceiving work, education, social relationships or the treatment of our health. However, the most vulnerable people are excluded, for various reasons, from many of the opportunities that technology offers to improve their levels of well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic confirmed the value of applying the solutions that digitization allows to improve the processes and conditions of the people involved in social action, from the beneficiaries to the workers, including volunteers, partners and donors.
However, this paradigm shift is still, in many cases, a "pending issue". As confirmed by the White Paper on the Digital Transformation of the Third Sector, published by Fundación Telefónica, in Spain there are some 27,000 social entities that serve almost 13 million people at risk of social exclusion and poverty. 44% have not yet implemented a digital strategy and 19% do not plan to do so in the long term. In this context, Fundación Telefónica has launched various actions to promote a process that serves to multiply the opportunities for progress for society as a whole, placing a special focus on the creation of employment opportunities for the most vulnerable, through training in digital skills and bringing emerging technologies closer to accelerate their positive impact.
With this objective, the company has organized, together with the Taula d'entitats del Tercer Social Sector de Catalunya, the Congress of Digital Transformation of the Third Sector in Catalonia, which was held yesterday, July 11, in the auditorium of the SOCIAL HUB of Barcelona. The conference, developed in 5 panels, addressed crucial issues related to new technologies, from the most global, such as the digital revolution and the motivation to promote change, to the most specific, such as Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity.
The event included experts Ousman Umar, founder of the NGO NASCO Feeding Minds; Pau Garcia-Milà, entrepreneur and communicator; Maite López-Sánchez, professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Barcelona; Richard Benjamins, Chief Responsible AI Officer of Telefónica; or Javier Serra, a cybersecurity expert from the same company. Representatives of the organizing entities also participated in the congress, such as Joan Cruz, Director of Institutional Relations of Fundación Telefónica; Francina Alsina, president of the Table of Entities of the Third Social Sector of Catalonia; o Carlos Palacios, Director of Social Action and Volunteering at Fundación Telefónica.
In addition, social entities such as Acción Contra el Hambre, La Rueca Asociación, Fundación Pasqual Maragall, Fundación Esplai, Suara Cooperativa, Fundación Good Job, Fundación Quiero Trabajo, Fundación Ergon or Asociación SinergiaTIC, participated in round tables and panels to report first-hand their digital transformation experiences. The main Catalan institutions were also present, with the inauguration by Sonia Fuertes, Commissioner for Social Action of the Barcelona City Council and the closing ceremony by Carles Campuzano, Social Rights Counselor of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Despite the work that still remains to be done, Third Sector organizations have been joining, parallel to other areas, a process of technological change that offers innumerable advantages. In the presentation entitled Why Digital Transformation is vital for social entities?, Palacios explained the main issues to take into account when addressing this process. Benjamins, for his part, in Artificial Intelligence: uses, abuses and opportunities, showed the opportunities that this technology currently offers and the challenges in the future, providing a road map for the use of AI in the social field. While Umar exposed his personal story of how he came to "the paradise of the whites" to change the paradigm of humanitarian aid, promoting the development of Ghana through technology.
García-Milà, entrepreneur and FPdGI Princess of Girona awardee, addressed the key aspects so that Third Sector entities can successfully join these changes. In The digital revolution of social entities, Pedro Álvarez, deputy director of the SinergiaTIC Association, shared his experience on this journey towards digitization, providing 15 valuable tips applicable to any social entity. The last of the presentations, led by Roger Civit, director of the Taula d'Entitats of the Third Social Sector of Catalonia, revolved around digital employment opportunities for the most vulnerable people.
Fundación Telefónica promotes meetings like this to value the role of technology in improving people's lives, and prepares the White Paper on the Digital Transformation of the Third Sector, a free download publication that brings together knowledge, resources, learning and good practices useful for organizations. It also holds other thematic meetings with social entities, to publicize the opportunities that technologies offer in aspects other than social intervention.
Its training program in digital skills for these entities proposes various itineraries, which provide the essential tools or specialize in digital communication, the management of digital social projects or employability. Soon, they plan to incorporate another specific itinerary on emerging technologies, with content on Big Data, cybersecurity, blockchain or AI.
The Telefónica Lab Foundation, for its part, has launched, together with the Red Cross, a training classroom to boost the technological skills of vulnerable people with the aim of improving their immersion in an increasingly digitized labor market. Volunteers, both from Telefónica and the Red Cross, with a high level of specialization in digital skills, accompany the participants in this training so that they understand each concept well. With all these proposals, Fundación Telefónica thus reaffirms its willingness to play an active part in building a fairer society, in which people can develop their full potential, using the transformative power of digital, so that this can reverse in further collective progress.
