The Covid-19 crisis has shown that digital services can reduce the impact of pandemics and crises for citizens, patients, students and businesses: staying connected with institutions and partners is an effective response to crises.
Aware of the importance of digital technologies for health and socio-economic response, the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union have launched an ambitious programme: the DIRECCT Programme – Digital REsponse Connecting CiTizens.
The DIRECCT program supports the connectivity and digitization of health, education and small business actors to better cope with current and future shocks.
Financed by the EU through the 11th European Development Fund and endowed with an amount of 15.4 million euros, DIRECCT is implemented jointly by the French Development Agency (AFD) and Enabel, the Belgian Development Agency.
Digital technology to build health and socio-economic resilience
Health, education and the economy are three fundamental pillars of development and well-being for the populations of each country. The crisis has weakened them all over the world. Although the responses of the countries in the ACP regions have been rapid and effective, the impact of the pandemic has disrupted these sectors, mainly affecting the most vulnerable populations.
Digital Development, a new ambition from the EU and its partners
With the digital platform D4DHub (https://eufordigital.eu), the EU has adopted a new ambition, one of its priority objectives being the development of access to digital services and tools in developing countries.
Stemming from this new ambition, the ACP-EU DIRECCT program implements a series of projects in 50 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries involving dozens of partners. The program focuses its interventions on building the capacities of users of digital technologies.