​​​​​​​© UNESCO/Rob Dobi​

Connecting a school to the internet is the first step toward digital transformation. Turning that connection into lasting educational value requires something more: digital foundations that are secure, interoperable and governed in the public interest. 

The Gateways to Public Digital Learning Initiative helps countries establish and improve national and subnational public digital learning platforms. It gives governments a shared international space to exchange knowledge on how these platforms are developed, funded, governed, owned and implemented — and what impact they have.  

The Initiative is a joint effort of UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU, each bringing a distinct and complementary mandate: UNESCO brings the educational vision, UNICEF anchors the work in children's rights, and ITU contributes the technical foundations that allow public digital learning platforms to work in practice – openness, interoperability, open standards, and responsible data governance.​​

ITU's role in the Initiative 

​Through its work on Giga​, the ITU–UNICEF initiative to connect every school in the world to the internet, ITU has long supported the connectivity layer of digital education. Its role in the Gateways Initiative extends this into the shared digital building blocks that sit on top of connectivity: interoperability, secure data exchange, digital identity, and the policy and regulatory environment needed to sustain them. ​​​