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October 17, 2025 17 mins
🎧 In this episode of ALDA’s podcast “Shades of Democracy”, we dive into the heart of digital inclusion — exploring how innovation, accessibility, and participation intertwine in shaping democracy in the digital age.

From the All Digital Summit in Malta, voices from the field share how technology can both empower and exclude, reminding us that inclusion is not just about access to tools, but about trust, confidence, and belonging.💬 Guest: David Mekkaoui, CEO of All Digital, discusses the role of local ecosystems, European policies, and shared responsibility in ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital transformation.

Tune in to discover how digital inclusion can turn innovation into participation — making democracy more open, accessible, and human.

Useful links:
ALL DIGITAL ➡️ https://all-digital.org/
ALDA Digital & Innovation Hub ➡️ https://www.alda-europe.eu/digital-and-innovation-hub/ 
Listen on ALDA’s website ➡️ https://www.alda-europe.eu/alda-podcast/ 
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello, and welcome to Shades of Democracy, the podcast by
aldac where we explore democracy in its many forms, from
institutions to everyday life. How do we make sure that
everyone has a voice in the digital age. In a
world where almost every aspect of life, from learning to voting,
from accessing public services to sharing opinions takes place online,

(00:43):
digital inclusion has become a democratic issue, Yet not everyone
is included. Now everyone feels part of this new digital society. Today,
on Shades of Democracy, we explore what digital inclusion really means,
white matters for democrac see and how innovation can both
empower and exclude. I'm anal and joining me for this

(01:05):
episode is David mccawie, CEO of All Digital, a European
network working to ensure that no one is left behind
in the digital transformation. But before we dive into our conversation,
let's start from the ground from the people I met
at All Digital Summits in Malta, more precisely, at the
Digital Village. I ask participants one simple question, how does

(01:30):
digital technology help you or your community take part in
democratic life?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
So with three D printing, it's more of a physical aspect,
all right, so in democratic life, we favor equality between
every demographic of people, all right, So you have those
which are, for example, the visually impaired and those that
are not. And the way that we can bridge that

(01:56):
gap is that we can make signs with bring all
right in public public areas that can be accessed by
everyone and keeping it as a level playing around for everyone,
so it increases accessibility for the independent people that are
visually impaired.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Accessibility I read that captures the essence of digital inclusion,
because democracy in the end is about access, access to spaces,
to information, to rights.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
We realized it was a big gap in the local
real estate market where a lot of clients, especially the
first time purchasers, couldn't really visualize the property before it
was built, just from the two D plants here Malta.
So what we ended up doing is we converted two
D plans into three D models and three D physical

(02:50):
walks rules that you can also integrate in VR. So
that gave a bit of a fresh kind of kick
to the real estate market that hasn't really seen any
difference for the past fifty or so years.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
From architecture to education, from data to design. Everyone at
the Digital Village seems to share one belief digital innovation
can reshape participation itself. VID. First of all, welcome to
Shapes of Democracy.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Thanks Manal, Thanks for having me on Shares of Democracy here.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
You need All Digital, an organization that connects over one
hundred members across Europe to start. How do you define
digital inclusion today?

Speaker 4 (03:33):
I used to say that digital inclusion changed lives and
probably shapes democracy too. Digital inclusion is about having access
and the skills to navigate the digital world with confidence,
and more and more we are adding well being as
the next objective of digital inclusion. You have to know

(03:55):
that forty four percent of European citizens don't have access
to the digital world today, either because they are missing
the skills or the access to the devices. And so
what we're trying to do with our one hundred and
plus members at All Digital is to make sure that
everybody can have access to digital societies. And we're training

(04:20):
every year two on five million people to really build
one Europe altogether. And when we do that well, we
also build democracy in Europe. And that's what makes it
beautiful work to do.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Thanks a lot, and indeed, it's I think a huge
work never enough nowadays, i'll big gap to be filled.
And also I think that also the idea of trust
in the digital inclusion is very interesting because I mean,
inclusion isn't only about hardware or I don't know, broadband,

(04:57):
also like confidence, awareness and also some sort of sense
of belonging, if you may say so. So. At the summit,
I heard people saying that innovation gives more possibilities and
connects us globally, but also that too much reliance on
digital tools could lose youngsters and elderly people. Let's listen

(05:20):
to a couple.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
I definitely believe that it's all make it more inclusion
because when you have innovation and you have technology at
your side, you have so much more possibility. You can
communicate but everybody over the whole wide world. You have
all the knowledge you need to become more educated and

(05:42):
contribute to democracy.

Speaker 6 (05:44):
I think that the bigger risk kits that we will
lose so much youngsters and elderly people if you really
too much on the tools, because none of them will
have access to the specific tool. And I think that
you would lead us to a cognitive depth of that

(06:05):
we really don't want to go through.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So as we can see two opposite visions, one full
of hope, the other full of question. David, what's your
take on this? Are digital tools truly making democracy more
inclusive or are they creating new gaps?

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Let's say that both forces exist, an opportunity and fear.
Since we left the cave, we can rely on innovation.
And I don't think that innovation is the issue, Esper said,
I think that fear is the issue, or lack of
skills is the issue. Innovation does not mean that being
slave of technology. It means empowered citizens a better version

(06:48):
of ourselves, if we can say so. Same as innovation
is not the enemy, I think that innovation is not
the safer nator. Let's be honest. The question is how
do we use It's how do we use it to
seize apportunities? So innovation doesn't make us less human, but
it gives us new ways to express what makes us human.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
So the biggest risk of relying on digital tools for.

Speaker 7 (07:12):
Participation, Okay, I will try to get a different angle
on that because I'm thinking that it's not necessarily a
risk involved in that. So I would try to rephrase
or rethink the question in a way. What can be

(07:33):
the greatest opportunities and at the same time the greatest
dangers concerning participation relied on digital tools. And I think
that in my mind it's not much different than any
use of a tool as an intermediate to communicate.

Speaker 8 (07:55):
So in this sense, it is not the tool itself
that creates a danger or an opportunity, but it's the
political and social background and context that's behind it.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Exactly. It's never just about technology, it's about how we
use it and who gets to decide all Digital often
stresses the importance of local ecosystems. So digital competence centers
and geos libraries, municipalities working all together. Can you tell
us how this approach helps to translate inclusion into real participation.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, participation doesn't start online, it starts locally, but it
changed the whole communities. And the reason is that the
purpose of participation is and the course of the competence
centers is not to teach how to click, but why
to teach. Think about a grand feather that is connecting

(08:57):
with their grandchildren. Think about migrant filling out their residence
paper online. Think about citizens that are kind of creating
a care sharing map. Together, these local ecosystems really make
digital skills socially meaningful and that shows immediate impacts. And

(09:17):
so digital perticipation, for me, it starts when people stop
feeling like users, but stop but start acting like citizens.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Okay, So we may say that somehow inclusion becomes not
a project but more a process, and it's a process
that grows from the community itself and starts from the local,
from the local ground. So let's try and zoom out
for a moment. From a policy perspective, what should the

(09:49):
European Union and national governments prioritize to make digital inclusion
a drive for democracy?

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Well, democracy needs inclusion and inclusion needs investments, not declarations.
And so let me give you three ideas that we
have developed at all digital with or members. First of all,
we need to support the local centers that is really
where it happens. So any funding which is very generic

(10:18):
at a European level will not reach its target audience,
will not make an impact. We need to support the
places where the digital inclusion really takes place, which means
the different competence centers in the different cities in different
regions around Europe. Number Two, we develop a very creative
idea which actually would make a big difference. We would

(10:38):
like that every research project, every innovation project include ten
percent of its funding dedicated to digital inclusion. And the
reason is the following. In the US, we have a
tendency to have a population which is quite early adopters
and very active into innovation. In Europe, we tend to

(11:00):
be a little bit more conservative, let's face it, and
that's one of the reasons why when we try to
launch new technologies while we are lacking the users. By
dedicating ten percent of every funding for every research and
innovation project to digital inclusion, we are basically guaranteeing ourself
a user base and with other people technology fail. That

(11:23):
suggestions would make it successful for all different type of technologies.
And third's proposal very specific, very pragmatic, is let's target
specific groups in all investments and fundings that we're doing.
Exclusion is not random. We're talking about women, we're talking
about migrants, we're talking about law income. So in every

(11:46):
funding that we're doing, we should be very targeted in
terms of what are the groups that we want to
kind of help and empower and support. Inclusion isn't charity,
it's a strategy. And Europe's competitiveness depends on every citizen's
a bit to take part in the digital academy.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Thank you very much. I think these examples really like
maybe even more clear and hope also for our listeners.
And I feel like this is like describing a sort
of shared responsibilities of course institutions, but also like somehow
educators and especially citizens two each play a role. And

(12:24):
maybe this is exactly where networks like all Digital and
associations like ALDA meet. We're building these bridges between citizens
and decision makers online and offline. Of course, So looking ahead,
what do you see as the main challenges for digital
inclusion in the next decade with artificial intelligence, data, ethics

(12:47):
and new forms of participation emerging.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Also, oh, it's.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Difficult to create the future on I want to make
the next digital battle not about access or skills, about
confidence and well being. I think that AI can really
give easier access to everybody, but makes trust harder. And

(13:13):
so if citizens feel stressed about technology or excluded from it, well,
this kind of polarization of society will continue. And that
is why I think that education programs and competence centers
must evolve. They must not only teach how to use technology,
but also how to use it in a way that

(13:35):
built this well being. Last week I was invited by
the United Nations to give a speech at the headquarters
in Geneva, and I was impressed how delegates from Asia
and from African countries were really seeing digital inclusion as
a tool for development and peace. And so we know

(13:55):
it's possible. When we look to our different educators, we
know that this able to teach the skills and to
teach the confidence. They are doing that every day. But
if we commit here today listening to this podcast, to
making digital well being central to all our investment, to
all those different strategies, then I think that this AI
driven digital society that we are seeing coming up, it

(14:19):
might empower every citizens and we will have this society
of a stabilty and opportunity for Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
And indeed, it's also interesting, as the example you mentioned,
to see how the opinions come from different perspectives in
this case, namely from different parts of the world, and
how the same issue, challenge or opportunity can be seen
in a completely different way from one place to another.

(14:50):
And if you could send one message to someone listening
who feels left out of the digital world. What would
you say?

Speaker 4 (14:59):
Many people feel that way, and it's not a lack
of ability, it's often a lack of opportunities. I'd say
that start with what matters to you, your family, your job,
reading sport news, whatever, reading news from the country, whatever, uh,

(15:22):
and then push the door. It's often the first step
that makes the whole difference. I have many examples in
mind of people that have met that one day, we're
just pushing the door of one of the competence centers,
or friends or family member or an administration. Push the
door and you'll see that you have. You will be
welcomed by a smile, and you will be empowered to

(15:45):
basically live a different life. And you know it's it's
it's really about changing life. The digital world is not
another world. It's the same world, and it's designed for
all of us. So just push the door.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thank you very much. I think this is a very
inspiring but also very concrete message to leave. And in
my opinion, I also think inclusion, of course becomes sorry,
begins with listening and today also through these voices, we've
heard the technology alone doesn't make democracy stronger. Of course,

(16:21):
it's the people behind it, those who create, question and connect,
and this can be a lot of things from I
don't know, brad signs to virtual models, from coding workshops
to policy tables. So digital inclusion is about making sure

(16:41):
everyone can participate and not just consume. I think so.
Thank you very much David mccarwie, and to everyone also
I met at the Digital Village in Malta. It was
really inspiring and this was shades of democracy. To learn
more about the topics that we discussed, you can find

(17:03):
links in the episode description and don't forget to follow
us also on social media to stay updated until next time,
stay connected, and stay engaged. Thank you very much, David,
it was very nice having you with us.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
Thanks a lot for having me on.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
You can find our podcast on Spotify, Sprecker, Apple Podcasts,
Amazon Music, iHeart Radio Teaser and of course on Alda's website.
Thank you and bye bye.
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