Powering Resilient Communities

In 2024, opportunity, disruption, and innovation intersected and accelerated at a previously unimagined pace. As a global community, we began to embrace AI to elevate work, government, economies, and the environment. But we also had to meet the accompanying risks - a widening digital divide, cyber threats, and the technology's vast energy consumption. With over 60 countries gearing up for elections and new administrations this year, the political landscape added complexity as did the global workforce shortage of skilled talent. All these forces at play showed us again why resilience is so important.

Looking back at the year, I reaffirmed some established beliefs and intentions, that:

1. we are all accountable for making sure no one gets left behind.
2. technology and digital skilling are a direct path to opportunity.
3. we will apply Cisco's unique capabilities - technology, scale, and trust - to drive change on a global scale.
4. we can't succeed without public-private partnership.

At the same time, I've never felt a stronger need to do things differently - to think about "resilience" in a new way, take a holistic approach, and build agile, data-driven models to guide and scale our work around the world, for decades to come.

Redefining Resilience

In 29 years at Cisco, I have come to see that resilience is more than just surviving adversity. Resilience is a set of conditions and capabilities that enable a system to convert disruption into opportunities for growth and innovation. But resilience can only exist when a community has equitable access to opportunity and the potential to thrive - an aspiration of humans throughout history. Today, however, we face the difficult truth that most of the world's communities aspire to be resilient, yet they face almost insurmountable challenges. The gap in global resiliency is widening as technology accelerates.

The Role of Technology

Today, technology is tightly integrated with resiliency, providing the access and capabilities needed to be connected and participate in society. But everything depends on having secure, high-quality connection. 2.6 billion people around the world are still without Internet access and even among those that are connected, there are disparities in quality and affordability. Fixed-broadband Internet needed for data-intensive apps is prohibitively expensive, if available at all. 3G - not even 4G - remains the prevalent mobile technology in less economically developed countries.

Reliably connecting populations is the first step toward inclusion, but connectivity without security only widens the digital divide and increases the vulnerability of all populations. We know that public-private partnerships and the relationships we've cultivated through a collaborative approach are vital to addressing this issue. When we take a holistic view that recognizes our interconnectedness, we can understand more why helping vulnerable communities become resilient matters to us all.

Cisco's Next Big Ambition: 40 Communities

As Cisco celebrates 40 years of impact - delivering innovation, serving our global customers, and positively impacting the communities that we operate in - we're also looking to expand the ways we fulfill our Purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All.

In 2016, we set an ambitious 10-year goal for the impact we drive by addressing some of the most critical challenges facing our people, planet, and society: One Billion Lives positively impacted by 2025. In December 2023, we were thrilled to share that we exceeded our goal. Now, we're setting our Next Big Ambition in motion, building on our deep commitment to the greater good and what we've learned by impacting over One Billion Lives. We're ushering in a new era of social impact by bringingthe full force of Cisco's capabilities, our people, our resources, our technology, and our innovation to entire communities.

Cisco's new 40 Communities initiative will invest in and support 40 communities around the world - including cities and geographical regions - over the next ten years. 40 Communities will build on Cisco's legacy of shaping the future within major technology revolutions and the urgent need to advance digital inclusion at this phase of the AI revolution. We're bringing together a coalition of customers, partners, and organizations who share our belief that connection and access to technology and opportunity can no longer be seen as a privilege for some, but a right for all.

Together with each community, we'll co-create action plans and innovative tech-focused solutions to:

• focus on what Cisco does best - connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital and data divides
• drive transformation by building essential infrastructure in underserved communities, empowering them to lead in the AI Revolution
• address what matters most within each community - from crisis response and food and housing security to education, skill development, career opportunities, and entrepreneurship
• and create connected, resilient communities that thrive.

An Ecosystem Perspective

We know that every community is unique and requires a different set of "building blocks" to harness and maintain resilience. Similarly, each is making the journey at a different pace. Many developing nations face a greater number of obstacles to resilience as they strive to meet basic, critical human needs. Some countries have more building blocks in place, and can turn toward advancing innovation, high-level upskilling and global leadership in areas like inclusion, AI readiness and cybersecurity. We have to ask ourselves, "what does resilience really mean to each individual community, how do we support communities holistically, and what is the best way for us to pursue our work in a target way that delivers real value?"

A Resilient Ecosystems Framework

We plan to answer these questions for Western North Carolina and our other communities with the help of Cisco's Resilient Ecosystems Framework which allows us to assess current state and needs, choose communities or countries of focus, determine technology's role, decide on actions and investments, and most importantly - measure and adjust to make sure we maximize our impact now and into the future.

At the heart of the framework is the Resilient Ecosystem Index, which expands on Cisco's Digital Readiness Index. Using the REI, we consolidate data and insights for five key dimensions shown below to arrive at a unique "resilience factor" for each community.

• People/Society - a society that can meet shifting demands while supporting citizens' needs and wants. It should be inclusive, healthy, happy, and skilled.
• Government - one that is stable, forward-looking, and able to protect citizens from disruptions. It should be fair, inclusive, and representative.
• Economy - one that is balanced, cooperative, and supportive of growth and innovation. It should be affordable and allow for economic mobility.
• Environment -one that is livable, protected, and responsibly managed. It should be stable, ecologically diversified and accessible to everyone.
• Technology - a landscape that is innovative, connected, and secure. It should incorporate governance, upskilling, and a thriving startup environment.

What to Expect

Looking at Cisco's FY24 Purpose Reportgives us a lens into the future and what we can expect for 40 Communities. This includes:

• Cisco Networking Academiesthat connect digital skills to jobs
• EDGE Centers that provide a physical space equipped with our technology, accelerating innovation and collaboration for start-ups
• Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) projects to leverage our technology to drive access to governments and services for citizens
• Nonprofit partnerships to help them securely deliver their programs and services, and support their work to reduce the digital and data divide by ensuring inclusive and equitable access to knowledge, resources, and opportunities.
• Innovation challenges to support entrepreneurs addressing critical social and/or environmental challenges

Success will take the work of many, including communities, governments, Partners, customers, institutions, and especially our Cisco employees.

Powering an Inclusive Future for All

We are eager to begin our 40 Communities work, knowing we will be adapting and learning every step of the way - especially from communities where we have a presence and are already making investments. We aim to build a legacy that extends far beyond our 40th anniversary and in success contributes to the world a model for driving resilience and true systems change based on lasting and enduring relationships - engaging, supporting and investing to power an inclusive future for all.

Read and share the full Cisco FY24 Purpose Report

Help Cisco Power an Inclusive Future for All: Partnering for Purpose

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