Innovation and Technological Change for Achieving Gender Equality: Commonwealth Perspectives and Pathways

Hon. Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s Minister of ICT & Innovation set out three areas for Rwanda’s term as Commonwealth Chair-in-Office as key in mutually reinforcing the global and Commonwealth agenda which were adopted at the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference 2022 held in Rwanda immediately before CHOGM (of which she was President):-

1. Fostering emerging technologies and innovation ecosystems. Objective: To foster an enabling digital innovation ecosystem that can navigate technological revolutions and the establishment of a sustainable environment conducive to the utilization of emerging technologies and the development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and start-ups.

2. Effective support for digital transformation and innovation ecosystems through scalable, funded and sustainable connectivity projects

3. Building capacities and encouraging digital innovation, entrepreneurship and future foresight. Objective: To build capacities, increase awareness of the culture of innovation, future foresight and entrepreneurship among all groups of society, in particular youth, and empower women in order to harness telecommunications/information and communication technologies (ICTs) to drive economic projects and activities that focus on providing job opportunities and supporting small and medium enterprises.

Report of the UN Secretary-General: Recommendations for CSW67

Prioritizing digital equity to close the gender digital divide: 

• Mainstream gender perspectives in national digital policies, to include time-bound gender-specific targets, allocate resources, increase coherence to remove the multidimensional and discriminatory barriers faced by women and girls, especially costs of devices and data, lack of skills and safety and restrictive social norms, and coordinate actions, subsidies and incentives to provide universal meaningful connectivity and public access facilities for women and girls, especially for underserved areas; 

• Implement programmes to increase the digital literacy and skills of women and girls, focusing on their needs and building confidence and trust for meaningful use, including support for registering for identification papers, community engagement to challenge stereotypes, public awareness campaigns and the development of online content for women and girls with limited literacy or accessibility, including older women, women with disabilities or women living in remote areas.

Fostering gender-responsive digital and science and technology education in the digital age: Transform digital literacy teaching to combine technical and transferable skills allowing women and girls to be both safe and empowered in their use of digital technology, and to eliminate gender stereotypes and bias from curricula and educators’ behaviours and attitudes.

Promoting the participation, employment and leadership of women in technology and innovation; Provide targeted support for women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs, including training programmes to use digital tools and services, and access to incubators and accelerators for start-ups.

Preventing and eliminating technology-facilitated gender-based violence and protecting the rights of women and girls online: Adopt a comprehensive definition of technology-facilitated violence against women, as well as international methodological guidance, to understand and track patterns of harm and rights violations to guide evidence-based policymaking and programming.

CHOGM 2022: Submission by Accredited Organisations - Technology and Innovation

RECOMMENDATION

Utilise technology to promote and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality)

We urge Commonwealth member states to take all necessary steps to:

• Develop women and girls’ digital literacy and confidence by investing in education and digital skills initiatives and greater effort to encourage and enable girls to study STEAM subjects as agreed at UNESCO and mainstreaming digital (including mobile-based) skills into school curricula

• Strengthen interdepartmental coordination between ministries of Technology and Innovation, Trade, Education and Women’s Affairs to develop initiatives tackling the gender digital gap.

• Coordinate the collection and distribution of granular, reliable, gender-disaggregated data on the gender digital gap to better inform policies and strategies to drive digital inclusion for all. Such data helps in setting targets and budgets, as well as in tracking and evaluating progress.

1st Commonwealth Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit (CWES), 19-20 May 2021 convened by CBWN with the UK Government while Commonwealth Chair-in-Office (Innovate UK) with the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP)

1. We can only unleash and unlock the potential and power of areas that Cleantech/Climatetech, Edtech, Healthtech, Fintech, Agritech, Fashiontech, Createch offer to the G7 and beyond as we build back better if girls and women are considered as structures, systems, policies and processes from these areas take shape, not later when it may be more difficult and take longer given the risks of embedded patriarchy. 

2. Governments have a key role to play in helping to close the gender digital divide. However, governments need to leave behind the ‘siloed’ approached of the past and instead focus on holistic efforts to address these important issues.