Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

Rodrigo Baggio, Founder and Executive Director, Committee for Democracy in 
Information Technology (CDI)
Social entrepreneur Rodrigo Baggio has gained international recognition for his unique 
approach in combining digital and civic education. In 1995, Baggio, a technology 
consultant from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had a dream about poor children using computers 
to discuss their realities and solve their problems. Deeply moved by the dream, he set out 
to make it a reality. He founded the Committee for Democracy in Information 
Technology (CDI) and opened CDI’s first technology school, called an IT & Citizens’ 
Rights School, in Dona Marta, then one of Rio’s most violent slums.
The innovative model garnered broad support and rapidly spread throughout Brazil and 
then internationally. Today, CDI is a network of 900 schools in eight countries – Brazil, 
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay and South Africa. More than a 
half million people have benefited from CDI programs. Empowered by technology, CDI 
students have gone on to find better jobs, open small businesses and transform their 
communities.
Baggio has been named by the World Economic Forum as one of “100 Global Leaders 
for Tomorrow” and by Time Magazine as one of the 50 leaders in Latin America that will 
make a difference in the third millennium. Baggio and CDI have also been profiled in 
Fortune, the Financial Times, Newsweek and others and granted awards from Ashoka, 
UNICEF , UNESCO, IADB, Schwab Foundation, Tech Museum and others. More 
recently, Baggio was invited to join the Strategy Council of UN’s new Global Alliance 
for ICT and Development. He was also named by CNN, Time and Fortune’s Principal 
Voices project as one of the world’s three leading voices in economic development along 
with Jeffrey Sachs, head of the UN Millennium Development Goals, and Nobel Peace 
Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank.