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Lindsey Hall: Hi. I'm Lindsey Hall, Head of Thought Leadership at S&P Global Sustainable1.

Esther Whieldon: And I'm Esther Whieldon, a Senior Writer on the Sustainable1 Thought Leadership team.

Lindsey Hall: Welcome to ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast, where Esther and I take you inside the environmental, social and governance issues that are shaping the rapidly evolving sustainability landscape.

Esther Whieldon: Our society is increasingly reliant on computers and other digital technologies primarily every aspect of what we do. And we were reminded of this last month when a faulty software update by cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike caused a major disruption to IT systems around the world. It resulted in thousands of flight delays and cancellations and temporarily affected the operations of certain emergency services, banks and other businesses. We depend on the Internet and related technologies for so many things, from e-mails and Zoom calls to virtual doctors' visits, television streaming services, paying bills, and the list goes on and on. And of course, Lindsey, pretty much all of what you and I do for our job depends on access to the Internet.

Lindsey Hall: Yes. But it's so easy to take these technologies for granted and forget that many people around the world still lack basic access to the Internet and related services. And this matters because this lack of access has both a negative impact on the economy and also exacerbates existing inequalities, particularly in developing countries.

Esther Whieldon: In today's episode, we're talking about how to close the global digital divide and ensure that people around the world have access to not only the Internet but also to the training, equipment and other tools that they need to thrive in today's rapidly evolving society.

We're talking with Michele Malejki, Global Head of Social Impact at Computer and Information Technology company, HP. Michele is also the Director of HP's nonprofit philanthropy, the HP Foundation. We'll dig into how both the company and the foundation are working to close the digital divide. Michele starts off by describing her role. Here she is.

Michele Malejki: My name is Michele Malejki. This role is an interesting one because it's a way to think about how digital equity can be activated, both through the business side, which is through HP, but also thinking about what does it mean to have philanthropy drive accelerations to digital equity as well through the work of our foundation.

Esther Whieldon: Thank you very much. So Michele, I understand your company set a digital equity goal. Can you tell us a little bit about that goal? And give us context for what you're trying to address?

Michele Malejki: Absolutely. So a few years ago, back in 2021, HP set out on a vision to be the world's most sustainable and just technology company. And as part of that, we took a look at all of the areas that we have under our sustainable impact umbrella, and set real, tangible, transparent goals around each of the 3 pillars where we work, which are climate action, human rights and digital equity. And within the digital equity pillar in particular, we set out to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030. Actually, I'm excited that just recently, we announced through our Sustainable Impact Report that we've already reached 45 million people, which is nearly 1/3 of the way to our goal.

Esther Whieldon: So on this podcast, we really haven't covered the digital divide topic before. For people who are just hearing about this topic, what do they need to know?

Michele Malejki: Yes, it's a really interesting question because I think when you step back and look at digital equity, and frankly, this is truing so much of the social impact space. The definitions can vary, right? There is really no one standard way that companies or individuals often think about this problem. And so for us at HP, it was important, first and foremost, to talk about what does it mean for us and how are we going to define not only the problem, but frankly, the way that we can help to close the gap.

And so for us at HP, digital equity is going to be achieved when every person has equitable and inclusive access not just to the skills and knowledge, but really to the services and the opportunities that will allow them to thrive in a digital economy. 

And the other thing I will say is it's about so much more than just access to a PC, right? We're a technology company, and frankly, that might be one way that people think HP discuss its digital equity, and it is. But I will also say, it's a much broader and more holistic solution when you actually are able to say, what are the other elements beyond just a PC that really make digital equity come to life.

And so for us, this meant stepping back and thinking if you have a PC, what else is needed for success? And this is where, of course, there's opportunities to think about Internet connectivity, electricity in parts of the world and what that would require to have all of the technological solutions come to life. It allows us to acknowledge the fact that we know that quality and relevant content, whether that's for learning purposes, whether it's to drive skills in new economies, all of that also plays a role and allows us as well to think about what is the power of learning through things like a PC, but also through the materials that could be printed from technological solutions and advancements.

And I think the last piece that I'd really like to touch on is this notion of digital literacy. And what I mean by digital literacy is, do you have the meaningful and useful skill sets needed to drive the right kind of engagement with the technology or the tools that you've been given. We see this time and time again through the example of say, a teacher or an educator, right, who has a new computer who's being asked to deliver a learning through a new type of platform, but they haven't been trained on how to use it. And so all of the initial solutions are, in theory, fantastic, but without that digital literacy element, it's not actually going to drive the expected outcome or maybe hit the metrics for success that someone might have felt are already there.

So I just wanted to share that as well because it's such a holistic way to look at it. And I'm proud that we can step back and say, even if HP itself doesn't have the technology or the solution that the organization is maybe looking for, it allows us to also activate a spirit of partnership and to think about where as a collective community, we can all advance together.

Esther Whieldon: So can you give me some examples of how you are reaching this digital equity goal?

Michele Malejki: Absolutely. I think there's a number of different programs that we run through both HP Inc. as well as through the HP Foundation, but I'll use one that kind of crosses upon both of those areas of our organization. And it's our flagship digital equity program called the Digital Equity Accelerator. And so this is something that we run yearly. It's in its third year right now.

Every single year, we basically step back and we say, let's pick three countries in the world where we think there's a digital divide and understand from our partners on the ground, whether that's colleagues, customers, stakeholders, what can we do to help bridge a local perception, definition and reality of a digital divide. 

And so every single year, we'll work with 10 different nonprofits, all of whom have responded to a call for action around what are you doing, how are you advancing opportunities to bridge a digital divide, and frankly, what do you need? And what I love about this is we get an amazing number of applications every year. But as we sift through them, it's not just my team that does this, it's frankly all of HP that we bring in. Technical experts, individuals who are located in the countries themselves, people who have perhaps the lived experiences of those organizations that we're seeking to serve.

And so it lets us do two things. The first is to think about how do we take the technology, the solutions, frankly, what makes HP magical and take those solutions and customize them to what the nonprofits need, but then we also activate through the HP Foundation, the opportunity for purely cash and [indiscernible] of giving. And I love this just because, frankly, I come from the nonprofit space prior to joining HP, and I absolutely acknowledge that just running these programs oftentimes with our amazing partners, there is a reality to having that extra support beyond just some sort of a tech drop or some other type of thing that we maybe could have approached this through.

Esther Whieldon: What are some examples of like the NGOs you've worked with or the kinds of work they're doing?

Michele Malejki: Absolutely. There's one actually just through the Accelerator that we worked with a few years ago in India, and this is an organization that's called Fourth Wave Foundation. And basically, what they do is they work with children who have varying disabilities in different states throughout India. They found children who frankly may have never gone to school to begin with in their entire life. And now they're at this stage where they're potentially about to be in their teenage years, they need opportunities to learn. They want to get out there, have greater socialization and opportunity and thrive the way every child should have an opportunity to do.

And what they are doing is helping to bring these children into different opportunities for education. They are using technology to drive learning experiences, but their staff is also doing some really cool and innovative stuff around taking technology and helping it to connect to, say, physical or occupational therapists that are in the cities that maybe these rural communities of children would not have reached. They're thinking about ways that they can help to inspire greater teacher trainings and learnings and share their knowledge with other organizations, both within India but also more broadly.

And finally, just to be very truthful, what I find to be exciting is we also, as HP get to learn from the organizations we learn with. And so this is where an example of how can technology have different accessibility features. What are the opportunities that our product teams can have to learn from what these organizations need on the ground? How does it unfold in real-time cases? And oftentimes, this allows us to go back and to continue to drive both our own innovation and learning while we also set out to reach our goal of accelerating digital equity for millions of people worldwide.

Esther Whieldon: Can you talk a little bit about how our society in general depends on digital technologies and literacy, just a function and sort of how missing that connection can affect people over the long term or even short term?

Michele Malejki: Absolutely. I think -- listen, there's no denying that we live in an increasingly digital age. And actually, just a few weeks ago, we released a new study that we did with Oxford Economics that showed both business and government leaders agree that technology is truly the key to expanding economic opportunity. And so for us, it's about thinking when they are emerging technologies, so there's opportunity, frankly, to use technology that's been around for years, but maybe hasn't been as pervasive with different groups in society, both here in the U.S., certainly where we're sitting, but certainly at a global level as well, how can we make sure that we don't exacerbate issues related to a digital divide or other ways that people maybe have not been able to thrive equal to that of others around the world.

And I think it just boils down to this, which is really intent. Are we thinking about the problem and making sure that we're not exacerbating it? What are the nuances that come in a space like digital equity? Back to my point, right, if there's no one global definition that everyone's adhering to, it really does allow us to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to reach out across our customers, our industry, like-minded partners, those that we know are doing the work day in and day out on the ground and to step back and say, if we believe technology is key to expanding opportunity, what are some of the ways we can drive progress through our own partnership, but also just through because we know it's not just good for society, but business as usual as well.

Esther Whieldon: And then just thinking about some of the countries that I visited, how even 10 years ago, when I was like in Hong Kong, everybody did everything through their cell phone. So to the extent to which not having access to this technology could impair you in your life, in your health and business or even job search. Can you talk a little bit about that area?

Michele Malejki: Yes. I love that you brought this up. First of all, thank you. And fully agree. In fact, just from my own nonprofit days, I was working for many years in Cambodia to support smallholder farmers. And it was always fascinating to see how technology in particular, mobile advances in technology were what people were looking for in terms of how do they connect with one another, to learning, to opportunities to be banked. And so it's a really fascinating space and one that I think we need to acknowledge is truly in the equation of digital equity, right? It's about more than just a PC to some of my earlier comments.

And so I think that's where, again, it's this holistic approach to digital equity that's needed. It's the realization that no one company, no one organization is going to solve a digital divide alone. And how do we reach out to think about what is the authenticity that we can bring through the power of partnership. I'll use an example just to make this a little more contextualized, which is through a free program that we have from our HP Foundation called HP LIFE. And it's an acronym. It stands for a Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs. And what I love about this platform is it is a snack-bite-sized skill set of courses that help people say, who have gone through something like a 6-month boot camp on either coding or other types of technology skills that are needed, but it steps back and says, "What else do they need?"

And so for example, if someone needs just basic skills on how to write a business e-mail, this is a short and sweet course that you can take through a website link, very much classic PC-enabled platform. But we also said, we realize the majority of people are learning through their mobile phone. And so if that's the case, and that's how we're trying to reach out, we need to make this in an app as well. And not only that, we also realized that not everyone is going to have consistent connectivity or, frankly, credits to access this. And so we want to make sure that we can also partner with organizations that can take this amazing content and drive skills, but put it in an offline content capacity as well. And there are some amazing nonprofits such as Learning Equality that are actually helping to take those HP LIFE courses, make them available in offline capacities, and thus, again, another example of how do you reach people truly where they are and not just make it about a one-size-fits-all approach.

Lindsey Hall: Michele went on to talk about the importance of empowering communities that have been the most excluded from digital solutions.

Michele Malejki: When you step back and you think if we are becoming an increasingly digitized world, and there's no denying that we are, going back again, who was historically and systemically being excluded from digital solutions. And frankly, this is what when we stepped back at HP and said, what does a digital divide mean? It didn't just mean thinking about how do we close it, but it focused on the who. And this was where we, frankly, to use the wording, created our own theory of change. And this wasn't done just through us. It was through the different think tanks we partner with, organizations on the ground, again, folks with lived experience, and you won't be surprised, a lot of the same groups continue to come up, right? It's women and girls. It's people who have disabilities. It's historically disconnected communities globally. So for the United States, that could mean communities of color. In other parts of the world, that might be refugees and immigrants.

We're stepping back and saying, what does that mean? But I'm also going to bring in one final layer of the who and what they could be missing out on. And I think this is something that is definitely a global problem, and that is around supporting teachers and educators. 

We saw this during the pandemic just a few years ago, right, where teachers were overwhelmed. Everyone was trying to connect in this new virtual learning world, but we also stopped and said, even before the pandemic, there were 216 million or more children that were not in school and learning, that did not necessarily have access to tech-enabled solutions. And so let's start from there. Let's start from who has been systemically and historically excluded. And why is that? I don't want to say just what is the opportunity to leapfrog because I think that gets thrown around quite a bit, but it's more what is the opportunity to intentionally bring them in and help them to drive solutions.

And that's why I'm really proud to say that so many times when we are looking for partners, it's not coming in with, again, that approach of we know the answer, here's what you need, let's go out and do this together. It's more in the spirit of that Accelerator approach that I said, which is, tell us what you're already doing and what do you need. Because more times than not, we're going to learn alongside you, and it's actually a great way for us to understand if this isn't going to work, how do we pivot in year 2 and maybe shift up the solutions we offer, shift up the partners that we have involved and kind of allow us to step back and do this with authenticity.

Esther Whieldon: It's interesting to say that I think we hear that quite a bit of the importance of listening to the people on the ground, the local organizations who can really tell you the best solutions for their location. Big picture. So HP is working towards this goal of digital equity. On a bigger scale beyond your company, what needs to happen to achieve digital equity? What do we need from governments, society and otherwise?

Michele Malejki: I think for digital equity to really be realized. It's going to require a couple of things. But one of the first and foremost, and I know maybe it sounds like a broken record, but it's the opportunity to say we need to approach this much more holistically as society. It's not going to be one solution. It's not one partner. So to make it seem like you're going to solve this on your own is something that I think does a disservice not just to the scale of the problem but to the realities and the local needs of people on the ground. And so I think that opportunity to really partner with authenticity, to be very clear on roles and responsibilities and to make sure that you're thinking about every single step along the way is key.

But I think there's another part as well, which is, again, going back to being intentional, and I'll use just even the example here of the importance in everyone's favorite topic today, which is AI, right? It's an immensely powerful tool to help people enter a digital economy. But if we don't start by addressing it now in a way that we're intentional about how it could be used, there could be opportunities that are missed. And so I think just as one basic example, right? Now on top of all the other technologies that already exist today, it comes back to, are we doing this with authenticity? Is their partnership for purpose? Is everyone clear on what success looks like? And I think the final piece, of course, is are the partners that we're aiming to serve, is this what they're actually asking for? And are we doing it in a way that we know it can be sustained for the longer term?

Esther Whieldon: Is there anything we didn't get to today that you wanted to mention?

Michele Malejki: Sure. So just back to the topic of AI. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, we at HP are definitely working on initiatives, again, that are intentional and are really aiming to help people adapt to how they could leverage this new and emerging technology in a way that is also aligned to social good, right, and social impact overall. And so just recently, in partnership with MIT Solve, we launched the AI in Social Impact Award.

And what this is essentially doing is, it's taking three different start-ups, all of whom are organizations that have already been doing this work for some time in their own right, thinking about what's the next chapter for them? How can they continue to leverage AI for good? Think about what does it mean for their own capabilities and giving them both a grip to continue the work that they're doing, but also giving them workstations that are the HP AI-enabled technology and devices that it will help them to make this a reality as well even more strongly in the future. And I will share just one of the amazing examples of these organizations that we're working with to further contextualize that it's a group that's based in Brazil, and they're called LiveVox.

And what I love about this team is that they're actually enabling millions of nonverbal individuals to communicate, to learn, and, frankly, to better engage with society through an innovative, generative AI, content generation platform. And I love this because the AI technology is essentially being deployed in a way that's simplifying and enhancing the creativity and communication process for disabled individuals in a way that hasn't been happening prior to this emerging technology coming to life. And the founder himself is someone who always says, I started this because I see the power of what LiveVox can do for people. I'm a father and my daughter has cerebral palsy. So for me, this is a real lived example of what can happen, and I am able to test this and drive this and think about what is the next stage of this for generations to come, hopefully.

Esther Whieldon: On this podcast, we talk about sustainability issues and how so many are interconnected. And I wonder if you have thoughts on the extent to which digital equity ties into other equity and potentially even environmental or other social issues?

Michele Malejki: I think for any challenge that's been in the entire ESG space today, whether it's related to climate, whether it's related to digital equity, it's a complete miss if we don't find ways to connect all of these groups together and frankly, to look at this in a way that going back to the word I love, right, a holistic solution. We know it. We see it on the ground. It's not new. It's been in society for years. For example, I know when my team is working on something that might help to drive education and learning opportunities for our group.

Very much, this is something I want to have a conversation with my colleagues that do all of the climate action work of HP because the communities where they are seeking to drive climate solutions forward are exactly the type of communities that oftentimes will say, we want the additional resources or thinking about what could also be possible for us from an enablement and education perspective.

And so I love that in my job every day. I get to wake up and come to work with this amazing social impact and digital equity team, but that I also have an enormous amount of calls and collaborations with my colleagues from across HP, all of whom have some aspect of sustainable impact in their job even if it's not just particularly related to digital equity.

Esther Whieldon: Today, we heard from Michele how closing the digital divide requires thinking of the challenges holistically as a society. That includes forming partnerships, but also finding tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of individuals and their communities.

Lindsey Hall: And we explored some of the ways that HP and its philanthropic foundation are working to help solve these challenges.

Esther Whieldon: Please stay tuned as we continue to track how technology and AI are evolving and the implications for companies and society.

Lindsey Hall: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of ESG Insider. If you like what you heard today, please subscribe, share and leave us a review wherever you get your podcast.

Esther Whieldon: And a special thanks to our agency partner, The 199. See you next time.

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