Bridging the gender digital divide through policy action
Kick-off event for a Network of Women Digital Ministers & Launch of Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender in Digital Policy
The next two years will be crucial in shaping an open, free, and secure digital future for all through the Global Digital Compact. To be truly inclusive, a human-centric and gender-transformative approach is imperative. Although the gender digital divide persists, with 69 per cent of all men are using the Internet compared with 63 per cent of all women (ITU, 2022), gender perspectives remain largely absent from the policymaking process: the current digital policy environment is mostly gender-blind and women are underrepresented in decision-making processes.
High Level female leadership has the potential to influence the entire digital ecosystem and make economic and sociopolitical opportunities accessible to everyone. In the spirit of the CSW67 priority theme ‘innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’, Germany and the ITU joint forces to bridge the gender digital divide by kicking off a Network of Women Digital Ministers.
The Network of Women Digital Ministers is to be a platform for exchange and joint advocacy to enhance the representation, participation, and leadership of women in global policy making processes in the digital sector seeking to promote more inclusive digital policies and to set standards for an accessible, safe, and gender-equal digital transformation. Moreover, during the event ITU and EIF will launch the Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender in Digital Policies and partners will discuss and reflect on the importance of gender in digital policy making processes, as promoted in Germany’s digital.global network.
Network of Women Digital Ministers with a panel at CSW “Bridging the gender digital divide through policy action – Kick-off event for a Network of Women Digital Ministers & Launch of Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender in Digital Policy”, among others with Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Minister Svenja Schulze (BMZ), Petra de Sutter (ICT Minister Belgium), Mats Granryd (GSMA),
- Discuss and present examples on how gender-transformative policy can change (digital) development outcomes and help achieve the SDGs
- Discuss gaps and the Network’s policy engagement in view of the Global Digital Compact
- Launch ITU’s Handbook on mainstreaming gender in digital policy (tbc)
- Future direction of the Network and outlook to launch event with UN Tech Envoy in September 2023