Voices Aspiring for Inclusion By Beverly MacIntyre, Certiport Chief Learning Officer Understanding our world today is very complex. It is one where technology can be used as a weapon of destruction or as a tool for peace.

The United Nations has set forth millennium goals that foster a creed for peace improving the socio-economic health and desires for inclusion and participation for individuals, communities, and nations.

One of our distinguished guests, Dr Joyce Malyn-Smith is a devoted professional championing this call-leading international youth to leverage their talents to be such affective 21st century citizens.

Tonight we have an opportunity to take a journey with leaders-champions who have pioneered ways in which to improve the lives of individuals, communities and nations.

Through their experience we will have the opportunity to reflect upon and learn from their journey to encourage each and every one of us to make our world a better place.

Before we begin the evening, I invite you to imagine if you lived in a very remote, rural area wherein you have no contact with the outside society, one presented with so many challenges that it leaves you to feel overwhelmed with the affects of isolation and desolation. You feel so misunderstood and believe that your voice doesn’t count.

Now imagine what it is like for that very same individual to have access to the Internet with the digital skills to not only interact with their global peers but to have a vehicle to proudly share her heritage. Last year’s Champion of Digital Literacy Jacqueline Sinclair is a testimony of how gaining such skills has enabled her to feel included: Her journey took her from a remote community in Northern Canada to present on the floor of the WSIS conference in Tunis. In her traditional dress Jackie proudly claimed that as a result of her new skills she now feels a part of the rest of Canada, a part of the world—stating she now had a voice.

Do we not all aspire for inclusion?

Can you think about individuals in your life that you can assist to gain a voice?

Take my hand and walk through the streets of a community, which quite often is right in our backyard or nearby, that has been raged by factors such as war, unemployment, and the severe impact of poverty. Bellies hungry and hearts and spirits broken. Can you imagine if we in this room could wrap our arms around this community and work with them to create a plan that would provide a sustainable environment that seeks to provide opportunities to its citizens so that they can heal their mindset of “There is nothing I can do” to “There is nothing I can not do?”

Out of the riches in the world we seek to gain, is not the best to feel at the end of our days that we have improved the lives of others? As my Grandmother often said, “You cannot take it with you, but your soul can hold a thousand memories of acts of kindness.”

When you teach individuals to fish instead of giving them a fish dinner, they begin to contribute to the health of their community. Now take a moment in envision a Nation that has committed to a plan that will connect and provide the ability for all of its communities to fish for themselves: Preservation of culture and national socio-economic health becomes attainable—“A rising tide lifts all boats.”

With this type of commitment any nation can leapfrog to become a thriving and leading nation—one that gains the confidence of foreign investors and trade partners, leverages economic opportunities to strengthen the fabric of all sectors and promotes the participation and inclusion of its citizenship.

Certiport, as a leader in the area of digital literacy, has taken on the challenge to support the UN millennium goals. The first step was to invest in extensive research to understand the concerns of nations and how digital literacy can provide support to these nations. Tonight we unveil the results of our ongoing research—The World Report on Digital Literacy—providing us with real data and insight to encourage and guide us to become a part of the solution.

May tonight be one of celebration, learning, and one that will light a torch within each of us to make this world one in which all individuals, communities, and nations have what we have—the opportunity to participate, the feeling of inclusion, and the ability to be affective citizens in the 21st Century.

I am so proud and humble to be a part of Certiport and its extended international network who I believe can and will overcome the challenges of the Digital Divide by building bridges for economic stability, peace, and individual inclusion.

Adapted from Aug. 5, 2006 PATHWAYS Awards Gala.