Smart Cities for All Partners with Mexican Cities on Digital Inclusion

Recently, Smart Cities for All, a project of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict), an international nonprofit with a history of leadership in digital inclusion and human rights, reportedly has convened in Mexico a team of global smart technology and inclusion experts to track and measure digital inclusion in Mexico City and Guadalajara.

The Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model tool is designed to help cities evaluate the current state of ICT accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in city digital and smart services. Focused on a broad range of functions important to all cities, such as communications, procurement, training, and technology standards, the group sets itself to define key performance indicators and metrics to support advancing accessibility and digital inclusion in a Smart City context.

“In Guadalajara we are working to be an inclusive city. In the Government Innovation Department, we developed this objective through digital inclusion, promoting accessibility to information technologies, to contribute to the social and economic development of the city,” said Saúl Jiménez, Director, Governmental Innovation, Guadalajara. “Together with the G3ict organization and with HearColors we will work on an exchange of information, with the objective of detecting the areas of opportunity and best practices to implement in the Municipality, in order to continue on this route, where each and every person will have easy access to the contents generated on the sites of this Municipal Government.”

G3ict has signed a separate Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each of the cities. The agreements reportedly call for leveraging resources and expertise to support each city’s digital transformation initiatives and promote the increased accessibility of Information Communication and Telecommunications (ICT) technologies.

“It is fitting that G3ict’s first assessments of Smart Cities outside the United States are these two cities,” said James Thurston, VP, G3ict, and Managing Director, Smart Cities for All. “Both Mexico City and Guadalajara are global cities that are taking important steps to be both smarter and more inclusive. G3ict and our Smart Cities for All global initiative want to support their efforts with our tools and resources.”

The result of this week’s engagements between G3ict and the cities of Guadalajara and Mexico City will be an assessment of each city’s efforts on digital inclusion and a roadmap for making greater progress.