Putting women, girls at the centre of digital development

Gender equality and digital development are inextricably linked. Yet globally, men are 21 per cent more likely to be online than women, a figure that rises to 52 per cent in low-income countries.

The Web Foundation estimates that barriers that keep women and girls offline, high device and data costs, lower digital skills, and restrictive social norms, to name a few, have cost developing countries about $1 trillion over the last decade.

The Digital Development Global Practice recently launched a new approach to accelerate its work on gender equality, with an ambitious vision that centers women and girls across its financing and analytics.

The approach orients solutions to the five foundational pillars of the digital economy: digital infrastructure, digital public platforms, digital financial services, digital businesses, and digital skills. It also emphasises the need for more and better sex-disaggregated data and to tackle risks, such as algorithmic bias and online gender-based violence.

 Digital infrastructure

Within infrastructure, practical solutions that increase access, affordability, and usage are critical.  Intentional design that locates public Internet access points in safe spaces (for example, libraries and community centres) is a good start.

Other interventions that support the closing of adoption gaps improve the affordability of devices and data plans and tailor digital skills programmes for women. Traditionally underutilised universal service and access funds can help.

However, only four out of 69 countries have deployed these funds to close the gender digital divide.  Device affordability schemes also show promise. The recently approved Uganda Digital Acceleration Project will test some of these innovations.

 Digital public platforms

Access to digital public platforms often requires digital identification, which women lack compared to men. Barriers that women face often include legal requirements to present additional documents, for example, a marriage certificate.

High registration costs and inconveniently located registration points also deter women. The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project conducted a qualitative study designed to understand the needs of women and marginalized groups, which surfaced several solutions.

These include working through trusted networks and women’s groups to share information; locating registration centers close to communities; and designing registration policies that prioritise vulnerable groups. Other options include women-only registration centers, mobile registration services, and female enrollment agents.

 Digital financial services

Digital payments, whether to provide wages, social assistance, or agricultural transfers, can save women time and provide added privacy, security, and control , thereby contributing to women’s empowerment.

This is a key focus on the G2Px initiative, launched in early 2020 in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In Benin, where an estimated 19 per cent of women make or receive digital payments compared to 38 per cent of men, another World Bank initiative aims to provide women smallholders with a safe and private place to store their money and connect them with other financial services.

Complementary training on digital financial literacy for recipients and promoting a network of women agents can also help, as social norms often limit women’s ability to interact with male agents.

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