Description: This workshop focuses on understanding diversity and inclusion from a gender perspective in relation to use of technology for social and economic rights. The workshop will draw from high-level findings from an ICT demand-side study undertaken in 2017 and 2018 across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru), nine African countries (Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal and Mozambique) and six Asian countries (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, India and Pakistan). The digital economy has experienced rapid growth in recent years, with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) becoming a central part of the everyday lives of people, firms and governments. Through the great diversity of digital devices present at home, workplace and even public spaces, the use of ICT has transformed traditional ways of engaging in activities related to commerce, labor, transportation, education, health, social interactions, among others. However, this has not been a socially and economic inclusive process: as more people become connected and able to enjoy the benefits of using ICT, more rifts emerge –from the unconnected, to the unequal access to rights and gendered digital divide. This problem is not solved through connectivity-focused policy alone: disparities evidenced in the intensity of use and in the unequal capabilities to reap ICT benefits should be considered. The session will take 60 minutes and it will be structured as follows: 10 minutes for mobile apps use issue discussion, 10 minutes for microwork issue discussion, 10 minutes for cybersecurity issues discussion, and 30 minutes for interaction with participants of the session (including questions, comments, recommendations, etc.). Finally, it is important to mention that we would have one presenter for each region, the presentation will be integrated into a comparative analysis, enabling an active conversation to emphasize trends, challenges, similarities among Global South countries and an engagement with the audience. At the same time, a feminist, humanist and technologist speaker will provide deep insights on the discussed topics.
Expected Outcomes: Post the conference, a blog will be published drawing from the queries and recommendations raised in the conference on the impact of technology and gendered economic participation. The discussions will also feed into our engagement with other partners such as the ITU Equals initiative in understanding the gendered digital divides. The findings of our research focus on providing critical evidence on the new ICT challenges, that we believe enable the identification of the exact points of policy intervention rather than generalized responses to gender digital inequality. These include: (1) mobile phone uses (gender differences in mobile applications use, frequency of mobile applications uses, digital skills related to mobile applications uses, reasons for not using smartphones); (2) microwork (microwork participation, types of microwork tasks, main determinants for doing microwork); and (3) cybersecurity (type of information shared in Internet, comfortability in online discussion by topics, online violence victims, online problems such as phishing or spam). Therefore, we aim to draw thoughts from different stakeholders reflecting on our findings and proposed best fit practices.
