Gender BPF: Gender and Access Best Practice Forum: A short survey to help refine the work programme for 2019

Gender and Access Best Practice Forum: A short survey to help refine the work programme for 2019, July 2019

Since its launch in 2015, the Best Practice Forum (BPF) on Gender and Access has focused on different aspects of women’s meaningful access to the Internet: online abuse and gender-based violence (2015); barriers to accessing the Internet (2016); identification of the needs and challenges of diverse women’s groups with respect to Internet access (2017); and the impact of supplementary models of connectivity on women’s Internet access (2018).

During the BPF session at the 2018 IGF, the community highlighted the need to move beyond the focus on access to consider “after access” issues. By “after access” we mean, what happens once women and LGBTIQ people have some form of access to the internet? Does it mean they are automatically able to benefit from this access? To participate online freely and with ease? To participate in the Digital Economy in ways that improves their lives?

In this context, in response to input from the broader community who have been part of this BPF, it was decided that the focus of work in 2019 will be the opportunities and challenges faced by women and LGBTIQ people who want to participate meaningfully in the digital economy.

To help us move to the next phase of our work please respond to the following questions:

1. Digital economy is a broad concept. What should be the operational scope of this concept for the purpose of the Gender and Access BPF’s work in 2019?

2. What gender issues are you aware of that relate to the digital economy? What elements we should look into in order to measure gender equality in the digital economy for the purpose of the BPF’s work?

3.1 What are the capacity, skill, resource or economic barriers affecting participation in the digital economy in the ‘after access’ context from a gendered perspective (specifically women and LGBTQI community)?

3.2 Which of these barriers are also faced by men? And which do you feel are faced specifically by women?

4. How does the quality and type of their internet connection impact on the type of economic activity that women and LGBTQI engage in? For example, if they do not have access to affordable high speed broadband connectivity, or if their access is primarily through social networking platforms?

5. What type of economic activity do you think the BPF should focus its work on for us to come up with useful policy recommendations?

6. What are the specific policies and regulation that impacts on women’s participation in the digital economy?

7. Is there any work (research, writings, capacity building, video, audio, financing initiatives etc.) done by yourself or others in this field that you feel will be valuable for the work of the BPF this year? Please share relevant links.

8. Are there any individuals or organisations focusing on women’s participation in the digital economy that you think the BPF should reach out to?