And it's been ten years since the Taula d'entitats del Tercer Sector Social has participated in the technology fair. This year, the celebration has gone through all the events, and closed with a day on data management.
Once again, the M4social project , from the Third Social Sector Organizations of Catalonia, has participated in the Mobile World Congress. This year marks the tenth anniversary of this visit, which, as always, has been spread over the four days of the fair, and has culminated in an event of reflection and exchange around the social use of technology , the result of the collaboration with the European Social Network (ESN) and the Mobile World Capital Foundation. The event took place last Thursday, March 5, under the title ' Governing data, caring for people: challenges and opportunities for the third social sector ', and focused on the importance of creating a framework where data management allows the administration and third sector entities to act proactively for the good of citizens.
The Mobile World Capital Foundation stand, in Hall 6 of the Fira Gran Via, was, once again, the setting for the day, this time covered by a wooden structure that symbolized a data cloud. Under this roof, the two spaces of the day took place , the round table ' Sharing data, multiplying impacts: third sector and administrations for better care for people' , and the experience table ' Data for social action: projects for better care from the third sector '.
The anniversary of the decade of m4Social participation also coincided with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Mobile World Congress , a double anniversary that was present throughout the event.
Institutional welcome
The event began with a speech by Xavier Trabado Farré , president of the Board of Third Sector Social Entities of Catalonia , who referred to the importance of putting the social counterpoint to technological development , and of working together to create frameworks where phenomena such as data management overcome the challenges of citizen application. A perspective that was also defended by Alfonso Lara Montero , director of the European Social Network , in an intervention in which he asked for the collaboration that makes this event possible to continue to be strengthened year after year, and where he affirmed that the transformation in the use of data is a phenomenon at different speeds that must be worked on together to get the most out of it in the third sector.
Next , Francesc Fajula de Quintana , CEO of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation , spoke , recalling the motto of his Foundation, ' Humanzing technology ', 'humanizing technology', a slogan that is no more than three years old, but which refers to the very important task that entities have to promote a technology, such as the use of data, that really responds to people's needs. Along these lines, Ester Manzano Peláez , general director of Digital Services and Citizen Experience , Department of the Presidency. Generalitat of Catalonia, spoke, underlining the difficult balance that must be maintained in the use of data, between European regulations and the desire to personalize services to citizens, with the aim of linking data to trust.
The institutional welcome was closed by Raquel Gil Eiroá , 5th Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Economic Promotion, Work, Feminisms and Democratic Memory of the Barcelona City Council, pointing out the evolution that has taken place in the two decades of MWC in the digitalization of society: at first, it was exclusive to some companies, but it has quickly become the competence of all sectors, and the social perspective has not been left behind , represented in various ways at the MWC, in addition to this day.
On data interoperability between the third sector and the administration
The first panel of the day focused on the reflection on data management in the administration at three levels, local, national and European , and the need to take a step towards data sharing that allows a more adequate response to the demands and challenges of society . The dialogue included Guillem Vidal Lorda , director of the Office of the Universal Basic Income, of the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion of the Generalitat of Catalonia; Sonia Fuertes Ledesma , Commissioner for Social Action of the Barcelona City Council, and David Mekkaoui , CEO of All Digital , a European association dedicated to promoting digitalization in countries and regions of Europe where this phenomenon is still incipient.
All the participants in the table agreed that the fragmentation and compartmentalization of data makes it difficult for the services offered to citizens to be truly efficient and respond to the real problems of each person. “They do not allow us to see beyond the specific moment, towards improving life”, said Fuertes. Good data governance involves sharing, and the trust of citizens , according to Vidal, depends on this. But the trust must be reciprocal: “Now data is used out of distrust of the person, it is requested before applying a service, but we would like verification afterwards”, complemented Fuertes.
For all this, Mekkaoui stated that “what makes the difference is the interoperability of the data ”, making it a common management , of all parties, but coordinated. He gave as an example a situation that had previously occurred, where photographers from different media were struggling to have the best perspective: “Everyone was taking photos at the same time, one on top of the other. Wouldn't it be easier for one person to take all the photos and then share them? Well, the same thing”.
Social projects and human data
The second table of the event was a space for exchanging experiences where representatives of different projects shared how they use data to improve care for people. The first initiative to be presented was SimbiòTIC , which is part of the SinergiaTIC Association. Its director, Jaume Albaigès Rosselló , explained the mission of the entity, that is, to provide technological support to social entities, “always taking into account the values that define us as a sector”, which is why they had launched this project in collaboration with the Taula d'Entitats del Tercer Sector. With SimbiòTIC, they have supported the digital transformation of 80 entities through the implementation of CRM, allowing access to more complete and updated data with a more automated process for work teams, giving rise to a more personalized view for the people served, and improving, as a result, the impact of the entity.
Next, Cristina Mataix Perelló , a consultant in data and digital transformation, presented the Open Data Space , a recent initiative, launched in 2025, by the Taula del Tercer Sector, which aims to be a tool for sharing data, adding the effort to trends already launched at the state and European level where different sectors share knowledge. On the platform, however, “ the objective is not to accumulate data for the sake of it , but data transformed into knowledge, which is useful, in order to have evidence and make informed decisions ”, said Mataix. And useful not only for entities, but also for administrations and citizens.
The last program presented was DO Impact , led by Silvana Sanfeliu Giaimo , head of internationalization and development of European projects at Fondazione Piemonte Innova , the organization to which she is attached. This initiative aims to understand the digitalization needs of social economy entities , in order to act accordingly and help them improve their internal processes and the ways in which they provide services to users. It is a technology cluster that has consortia with entities and organizations from five countries, and they work both at European and local level, always starting by asking about the needs to implement the strategy.
A decade of m4Social
The Third Social Sector Table of Catalonia has been participating in the MWC for ten years now through the m4Social project, a decade in which the entity has seen how incipient digitalization grew to occupy every space of life, public and private , and which has made clear the urgency of applying a perspective committed to human rights , which acts as a counterpoint to the acceleration that characterizes these processes, and which stops to think. This is the objective of m4Social, which since 2016 has managed to change the perspective of entities towards technology towards a strategic necessity, raise their awareness of the importance of collecting data and incorporating digital resources, form alliances with the academic, technological and business sectors, make the social sector visible in the technological sector , make institutional advocacy to avoid inequalities in the application of technologies, and create knowledge and resource networks at a national and international level.
With the intention of continuing this work, for another year, m4Social has closed its participation in the MWC with an event where, by opening conversations between non-profit entities and administrations , it has claimed balanced digitalization , because truly effective data management will not only facilitate processes for work teams, but will also allow for care that preserves the rights and well-being of users.
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