In October, 2023, Microsoft partnered with M-PESA Africa in Nairobi to strengthen their efforts in digitizing small and medium-sized enterprises in various markets, and introducing businesses to digital skills training programs on the Microsoft Community Platform. Helping businesses become more comfortable with modern technologies and learning to use them may be the key to building resilience in rapidly transforming economies, and ensuring longevity and adaptability for enterprises of any scale. By partnering with local NGOs in targeted communities, Microsoft’s digital upskilling programs can be modified for a variety of local contexts, requirements, and problems – something that generative AI is becoming increasingly useful for.

Capacity-building for nonprofits across the world is a cornerstone priority for Microsoft, especially when it comes to closing the digital skills gap and allowing people and organizations the freedom, capabilities, and boosted efficiency brought on by emerging technologies. Their digital skills initiative came into full force at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, building the groundwork for long-term resilience in the wake of record unemployment rates across the world.

Today, Microsoft continues to engage with communities at the ground level through partnerships, provide access to powerful AI tools, and bolster the digital capacities of organizations at the front lines.

Global Washington spoke with Naria Santa Lucia, General Manager of Digital Inclusion at Microsoft Philanthropies, to learn more about their digital skilling enterprise.

How do you define “digital inclusion” and why is this so important?

That’s a great question. Our mission at Microsoft is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. There is, of course, a business model that will drive enterprise customers to pay and access all these technologies. But to truly bring that mission to life, we need to think about extending to everyone the chance to be empowered. That’s where, I think, Philanthropies as an organization itself sits. We really try to extend Microsoft to every single community, especially those that may be at the margins or at risk of being left behind.

Digital inclusion in general can mean a lot of things – in the global context, you hear it a lot in the case of connectivity, skilling or capacity-building. In our team, we focus on the skilling aspect, but across Microsoft, we have teams that focus on broadband access and connectivity to skilling through devices. Bringing all those together are the three legs of the stool to broader digital inclusion.

Read the full article about building digital capacities by Aneesh Chatterjee at Global Washington.