Singapore’s president launches national Digital for Life movement

Source: Smart Cities World Published: February 9th, 2021

Singapore’s president Halimah Yacob has launched a national movement that seeks to galvanise the community to help Singaporeans embrace digital technologies as a lifelong pursuit and enrich their lives.

She has also announced the President’s Challenge 2021 (PC2021), which will raise funds for 92 benefiting agencies and help to equip groups, including seniors, persons with disabilities and low-income families, with digital tools, skills and connectivity so that they can remain socially and economically active in Singapore’s “digital-first” way of life and work.

The Digital for Life movement seeks to bring the whole of nation together in collective efforts to help all Singaporeans have the necessary digital tools, skills and habits to succeed in the future. It will build on the momentum of many community efforts seen during Covid-19, serving as a platform to bring together corporates, community organisations, government agencies as well as individuals to play a part in coordinating efforts, co-creating solutions and catalysing change.

The movement aligns with the President’s Challenge theme of Building a Digitally Inclusive Society, and the overall theme of Empowering for Life.

The Digital for Life Fund has also been established to support digital inclusion projects and activities. It will provide seed funding of $2.5m in donation to the fund.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has hastened Singapore’s digitalisation efforts, but also has the potential to widen the digital divide,” said Yacob. “The President’s Challenge hopes to support efforts to build a digitally inclusive society, where all Singaporeans feel excited, empowered and enriched by digital technologies. The Digital for Life movement and fund brings us a step closer to achieving Singapore’s vision of becoming a digitally-inclusive society.”

The fund will support projects initiated by the community for the community, through to 2023. It will also serve as a channel for community contributions. With the government matching dollar for dollar, the target for the fund is to grow to $10m over the next three years.

The Digital for Life Fund will support projects and activities promoting:

  • Digital technology and inclusion: which will focus on building digital resilience and excite different segments of society on how new digital technologies can enrich their daily lives

  • Digital literacy and wellness: which will focus on promoting good digital habits as society engages in the digital domain, including in the areas of cyber safety, media literacy and mitigating the risks of online harms.

When announcing PC2021, the president highlighted that, as society capitalises on the opportunities arising from digital technology, it is important that all segments of society stand to benefit and that no one gets left behind. PC2021 will continue to support a broad range of social causes this year to help them through the difficult times caused by Covid-19.

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Chelsea McCullough