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BRIDGING THE GENDER DIVIDE
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper looks at the issues currently under consultation which include examples of good practices available to increase internet access and digital literacy for women and girls. Good practices that promote access and use of ITCs by SMEs, particularly those managed by women, available sources and mechanisms for measuring women participation in the digital economy as well as related policies.
While the developed world has made a lot of progress towards gender equality and empowerment, women and girls still suffer from various levels of discrimination. Gender equality is a fundamental human right and is also critical for a prosperous and sustainable world. It is also a key ingridient for the achievement of sustainable development goals SDGs.
According to the World Telecommunications ICT indicators data base 2016 ,ICT indicators for developed and developing countries and the world (totals and penetration rates), global Internet use has increased significantly over the past 10 years from 20.6% of the world online in 2007, to an estimated 47.1% in 2016. According to the ITU world facts, the global Internet user gender gap grew from 11% in 2013 to 12% in 2016. The gap remains large particularly in the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs), at 31%. In 2016, the regional gender gap is largest in Africa (23%) and smallest in the Americas (2%).
For Zimbabwe, According to the Country’s Census 2012 National Report, 8 777 094 people live in rural areas, while 4 284 145 live in urban areas. Of the people in rural areas, 4 390 228 are females, while 4 386 866 are males. According to an ICT access by households and use by individuals 2014 report produced by the Zimbabwe Central Statistical Office, in collaboration with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), more than 60.18 % of the rural dwellers were found to have no access to a computer, the internet, mobile telephone and financial services, compared to about 20%, in urban areas. Accordingly, given that the majority of the female population lives in rural areas, not only the Urban to Rural Digital Divide, but also the Gender Digital Divide is wide.
One cannot dispute the potential of ICTs as a tool for promoting gender equality and empowerment of women. However, with regards to ICTs themselves, the digital gender divide is also quite wide. It is necessary to bridge this gap for ITCs to make an impact on the general Digital Divide. Suggestions as to how, are contained under the consultation question headings in this Paper.
2. What approaches and examples of good practices are available to increase Internet access and digital literacy of women and girls, including in decision-making processes on Internet public policy?
The approaches and examples are outlined below:
• Embed ICT literacy training in early education systems that is, pre-school, primary and secondary education and then ensure that facilities that promote ITC learning and use are in place in tertiary educational institutions. The practice of introducing e-learning, particularly in schools can help. Examples of countries that have embraced the use of E-Learning include Senegal, Zambia, Somalia and Zimbabwe. For Zimbabwe the vision is to implement e-learning in 9000 Government owned schools starting with 1300 which are being connected to the internet currently. The Private schools are already doing a good job of embracing e-learning.
• For grown up women who have missed the ICT boat during their formal education a good approach is to ensure that they use basic ICT resources available on everyday gadgets like mobile phones.
• Providing computers for use in the activities of women in social communal clubs.
• Introducing ICT access points at the grass root level in the communities. Examples are India’s public libraries and Zimbabwe’s ICT Community Information Centres where people including women running small economic projects can access ICT equipment and the internet at very affordable charges or for free.
3. What approaches and examples of good practices are available to promote the access and use of ICTs by SMEs in developing and least-developed countries, particularly those owned/managed by women, in order to achieve greater participation in the digital economy?
The approaches and good practice examples include the following:
• To have good ICT infrastructure in place for easy and wide uptake of broadband services
• To encourage and promote technology transfer
• Introduce incentives for investment in ICTs, such as tax holidays
• Build confidence in the use of ICTs through cybersecurity in order to ensure protection of trade secrets , intellectual property and consumer protection
• Waive import duty on ICT equipment. Zimbabwe waived import duty on laptops and this saw most SMEs managing to buy computers for their businesses. A number of ICT companies headed by women also came into operation. Other examples of countries with Zero duty on laptops are Sri Lanka, South Africa and Israel.
• Incentivise e-procurement, as the benefit of reduction in leaks in revenue encourages uptake of ICTs
• Provide relevant content for SMEs. In some cases women and women owned businesses may not embrace the use of ICTs because of lack of relevant content. It is therefore necessary for Policy makers to ensure that appropriate content is developed and made available.
4 . Which are the available sources and mechanisms for measuring women's participation in the digital economy with focus on SME's and micro-enterprises?
• Incorporate questions to determine the extent of ownership of ICT gadgets such as computers ,smartphones, radios and television whenever a national population census is conducted
• Carry out regular surveys on access to ICT by gender
• Carry out survey using public statistical institutions to determine the number of women managed institutions that use computers and ICT applications to manage any and/or all aspects of their businesses.
Zimbabwe has adopted this approach and it has helped establish the extent of the digital divide in the country
5. What measures/policies could be envisioned in order to foster the role of women as entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs, specifically in developing and least-developed countries?
Intervention needs to be at education level as well as business level and suggested measures/policies are outlined below:
• Affirmative action in university intake of women both for business classes and ICT degree programmes. The university of Zimbabwe adopted this and the uptake by girls increased
• Developing countries should share best practices among themselves and with the Developed countries
• Multi-stakeholder cooperation involving Government, inter-governmental organisations, the private sector, academia and nongovernmental organisations will help find sound solutions.
• Introduce incentives for the girl child to take up science and ICT related subjects, that is, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and eventually careers. Zimbabwe’s STEM programme has made a difference.
• Policy consultations should involve gender activist organisations that have sufficient knowledge of gender needs.
6. What are the gaps in addressing these challenges? How can they be addressed and what is the role of governments
• Prohibitive costs in developing infrastructure which then limits access , particularly by rural communities
• Culture, particularly in some African countries where women are expected to stay pregnant and in the kitchen
• The content found on the internet may not be relevant to what the women are interested in
• Most people feel more comfortable accessing information in their mother language. Information accessed on the internet is generally in English or a few major languages which are foreign to developing countries
• ICT training is offered by private colleges, which are often very expensive.
For Zimbabwe concentration on ICT training is generally in universities, which means that those who do not get a chance to attend university remain with no basic ICT training
• ICT Gadgets are expensive and most developing countries generally do not manufacture gadgets, thereby having no choice but to import at high prices.
The Following is what Governments can do:
• promote investment in ICTs so as to drive costs down
• Have government institutions that offer ICT training at affordable rates to SME employees
• Come up with a sound research and Development as well as innovation policy.
• Improve ICT network infrastructure so that investment becomes cheaper for the SMEs
• Run e-business awareness programmes
• Encourage use of e- transactions at the local levels.
Zimbabwe is one country where more than 80% of the local financial transactions are now electronic. One of the reasons for this was the need to relieve pressure on the country’s cash resources which made the drive by Government to promote e transactions through public media vigorous. This was also supported by the publicity surrounding the country’s pipeline legislation on electronic transactions, cybersecurity and Data protection, which allayed the fears of SMEs and the general public on the security of e-transactions. To ensure that even women running market stores were not left behind, Point of sale machines were made widely available. Currently the informal sector and people’s markets, use not only point of sale machines, but internet transfers and mobile money, extensively. Point of sale machines are even made available temporarily at weddings and house warming parties or any other function where monetary gifts may be offered by attendees.
7 Conclusion
It is clear that there is no single method that can effectively bridge the Gender divide. If however most of the proposals proposed in this paper which include investment in infrastructure, embedding ICTs in education systems and women related affirmative action in ICT training and education are used, significant inroads will be made. Working closely with organisations that work with women and promote the interests of women will also help as such organisations are better placed to identify the needs of the female Gender. A multi-stakeholder approach when setting policies is recommended in order to achieve buy in, by women and girls to any policy changes. It is also important to look at good practices across the world so that measures that work in one country are shared, customised and utilised by other countries.
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