Just a year ago, residents of the remote Tongan island of Hunga would gather near a school fence, hoping to catch a flicker of 3G signal on their mobile phones. The connection was unreliable—too slow for video calls, online banking, or smooth browsing—but it was the best they had.
“You’re connected, but somehow you’re still unconnected,” said Mr. Stan Ahio, Acting Director for Communications and Chief Engineer at Tonga’s Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC).
That changed dramatically with the launch of Hunga’s Digital Hub, housed in a primary school building. The island now has reliable high-speed broadband, along with laptops, tablets, printers, large screens, and teleconferencing equipment. More importantly, residents are gaining the digital skills needed to improve their lives.
A Hub of Opportunity
Hunga’s Digital Hub is part of the ITU Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative, under the Joint SDG Fund Programme. It was implemented by the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau, in partnership with MEIDECC and UNOPS.
A digital hub serves as a community-based platform offering access to digital resources and connectivity. Its goal: to expand digital inclusion and support economic and social development.
In Hunga’s two primary schools—serving just 33 children—teachers now have access to the full range of online educational resources. This has transformed how they teach, allowing them to enrich lessons, update qualifications, and communicate more effectively with the Ministry of Education.
For older students, online learning has become a lifeline. When the sea is too rough to travel to high school on the main island of Vava’u, they can now continue their education remotely—something that was previously impossible.
Mr. Ahio noted a ripple effect of positive changes since the Hub’s installation. For example, the island’s only primary school teachers, a married couple, were planning to relocate so their daughter could attend high school. Now, thanks to the Hub, the first year of high school is being offered in Hunga for the first time, benefiting not just their daughter but other local teens as well.
Digital Transformation in Daily Life
The Hub has made everyday tasks significantly easier. With improved connectivity, e-banking is now possible—a crucial development for the 70% of Hunga households that rely on remittances from family abroad. Residents no longer need to spend time and money traveling to the main island just to access their funds.
Women’s groups are also reaping the benefits, using the Hub’s conferencing tools to connect with peers across Tonga without leaving their communities.
Local entrepreneurs are seeing new opportunities. Artisans, fishers, and farmers can now market their goods on platforms like Facebook Marketplace, arranging sales before making costly trips to the main island. There’s even growing interest in expanding to international markets with products like vanilla and coconuts.
And the digital journey isn’t over. By June, the island hopes to expand connectivity to the town hall and health centre using fibre optic cables.
About the project
The launch of the Digital Hub in Tonga is part of the Advancing the SDGs by Improving livelihoods and resilience via economic diversification and digital transformation project, under the umbrella of the ITU’s Smart Villages and Smart Islands (SVSI) initiative. The initiative is designed to provide affordable connectivity and sustainable digital services to remote communities in developing countries. It aims to improve the well-being and livelihoods of people by empowering them with digitally enabled solutions and skills that address their daily needs.
Note:
All joint programmes of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
