One Gigabit Rural & Island Scotland - the report, recordings and outputs from the 2021vSRP Session on 11th March 2021
Session curated by Scottish Rural Action and chaired by Dr Brian Cameron, Director, Scottish Rural Action.
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The Scottish Government set up the Social Renewal Advisory Board (SRAB) as a short term group in June 2020 to make proposals that can renew Scotland once we start to emerge from the pandemic. The Board’s primary focus was on reducing poverty and disadvantage, embedding a human-rights based approach to policy-making and advancing equality. It published a report in January 2021 – If not now, when? - with 20 Calls to Action.
Call to Action 9 of the report addresses the need to end digital exclusion with a summary below:
“We call on the next Scottish Government to set a target to end digital exclusion in the next parliamentary term…more investment – and more proactive and tailored approaches – will be needed if we are to meet the needs of those furthest removed and facing a wide range of barriers.”
The purpose of the Scottish Rural Parliament session was to examine opportunities around ‘more investment - and more proactive and tailored approaches’ in the context of rural and island communities.
Speakers:
- Dr Megan Palmer-Abbs, the University of Aberdeen and the Nordland Research Institute
- Graham Curran, Cloudfire Services and Kyles Community Broadband CIC
- Joe Fernand, Newlands Community Development Trust