GSMA’s input into the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Minister Meeting

In Commonwealth countries, more women are benefitting from digital connectivity than ever before, with mobile being the primary – and often only – way people go online. However, GSMA’s latest data highlights that there is a persistent digital gender divide, which negatively impacts women empowerment opportunities and socio-economic development objectives. Women in low- and middle-income countries are 19% less likely than men to use mobile internet. ¹ This mobile internet gender gap varies by region and country (e.g. 40% in India and 26% in Ghana).² Unconnected women are more likely to be poorer, less educated, older, residing in rural areas, or living with a disability.³

Targeted intervention from Commonwealth governments is needed to better measure, understand and address the challenges that perpetuate the digital gender divide. As such, please find enclosed a copy of GSMA’s high-level policy recommendations to reduce the mobile internet gender gap in Commonwealth countries.

As the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers set out to establish a robust framework of reporting on gender equality, it is critical that digital gender equality considerations are included and prioritized in the framework for the following reasons:

1. Digital is a crosscutting issue affecting the achievement of all the UN SDGs and is paramount to the empowerment of women.

2. Digital inclusion is a priority of the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda⁴ while reporting on digital gender equality has been committed to at the 67th edition of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women⁵ as well as by the W20.⁶

3. There is a lack of information, monitoring and evaluation related to women’s access and use of the internet. Gender-disaggregated data is currently limited, despite such data being critical to understanding and measuring the digital gender gap, setting targets, tracking progress and informing policies and strategies to bridge it. Furthermore, there is limited evaluation of the effectiveness of strategies, policies, programmes that aim to improve digital inclusion for women.

The following elements should be considered in the development of the new reporting structure.

1. Collection of gender disaggregated data on digital inclusion. For example, data on handset ownership, mobile internet use and barriers to such use should be collected and tracked. The GSMA Consumer survey collects this data for a limited number of Commonwealth countries but wider national data collection efforts are needed to scale such efforts.

2. Setting of clear and time-bound targets to reduce the digital gender divide.

3. Reporting on whether policies are in place that address the digital gender divide and if existing ICT policies have gender considerations mainstreamed. It should also be tracked if the main barriers women face to coming online are included in such policies, which are related to affordability of handsets and data; a lack of literacy and digital skills; and safety and security concerns among others.

The GSMA looks forward to supporting the Commonwealth on advancing digital gender equality to ensure that women are empowered in the digital age.

1 GSMA (2023) The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023

2 GSMA (2023) The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023

3 GSMA (2023) The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023

4 The Commonwealth Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda Action Plan

5 The Agreed Conclusions of CSW67 reaffirms that Governments have the responsibility to report on and review progress of the 2030 Agenda, and contains recommendations to (d.) prioritize the closure of the gender digital divide, and mainstream gender perspectives in digital policies, programmes and budges.

6 The W20 India Communique 2023 contains a recommendation for G20 member states to (x.3) ‘Create an annual G20 reporting & review mechanism’ and (3.1) to ‘publish an annual national G20 Digital Gender Equality Report to demonstrate progress’.