 Welcome to the World Summit on the Information Society 2017. I am delighted to be joined by Cliff Schmidt, Executive Director at Literacy Bridge. Hello. Hello. Hi. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome. So talk to us about Literacy Bridge. Who are you and what do you do? Well, we are an NGO based in the US, but operating in countries where there is the greatest need for knowledge in the remote rural areas. So you have brought the Talking Book. It's something that you have created to help enhance access to knowledge in the field of agriculture. Yes, agriculture and health and in a number of topics. It's basically we focus on the individual on the family. And what is it that if they knew, they could double their crop yield or they could see when their babies are sick and then be able to treat them with the right treatment. So issues like that, that's the knowledge that we aim to bring to people. So this is proof that ICT can really help deliver the SDG goals of the UN. Yes, I think some of the most important targets in the SDGs are around human capacity, around how can we provide knowledge to individual people. And so if you want people to achieve the goals around reducing or ending hunger and having health, you have to make sure they're equipped with the knowledge to be able to take control of what they have available to them. So how do you work with all the organizations? We typically partner with a government or with another NGO or a civil society organization locally. Even in the private sector, we can also work with private sector organizations that have an interest in something that does build the human capacity of farmers or of anyone that is part of their value chain. And what we do is we work with them to understand what is the objectives? What is the knowledge that you wish people would have? What are the new skills that you would like people to have? And then we work locally with organizations that know the context to understand why do they not have that knowledge today? Or what is it that's in the way and try to go from there? So your product and solution is addressing SDG number two, hunger. But really, it has many applications. It could be used in health, in women's empowerment, in many other areas. Absolutely. It's really all the SDGs, some more than others. But those first few SDGs around poverty and hunger and health and gender equality and education, those are the ones that we've had 10 years of experience focusing on. So you have the talking book here. Can you explain how it works? Yes. It just speaks to people in their own language, actually in their own dialect. So I'll show you in English when you turn it on. Welcome to the talking book. Press the right hand to choose a subject. And so basically, every time you press one of the buttons, it responds to you and says, would you like to learn about health? Or would you like to learn about agriculture? Or maternal and child health specifically? Or examining roles of men and women in a community that could make that community more prosperous? So there are different topics areas. And inside each topic, there could be a drama or a song or an interview or an endorsement from a peer or local leader. And these are the kind of audio messages that people listen to again and again and start seeing the songs and talking about the dramas. And it engages conversation. And it's a way for technology to then lead to new behaviors or new skills. So do you have to be connected to the internet to use a product? No. It is a standalone device, because the places where we are focused on are the hardest to reach places where there's not always a mobile connection there. And so you don't need electricity in your village and you don't need the internet. You can connect a smartphone to this to update it with new content and grab all the usage statistics so we know what people are listening to. So it ties in with the high tech, but it is actually designed to be very low tech and work in places that are isolated. Cliff Schmidt, Executive Director at Literacy Bridge. Thank you very much. Thank you.