International Women's Day 2023
Photo: Haley Ahlers/Kansas State University.
“DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” is the theme for International Women’s Day, March 8, 2023, as set by UN Women.
There is a global digital gender gap: Worldwide, roughly 327 million fewer women than men have a smartphone and can access mobile internet, and in low- and middle-income countries, the gap is not only greater, but is widening. The gap is widest in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
To close the digital gender gap, it is necessary to increase women’s access to phones and internet. Just as important is improving their capacities and opportunities to use these technologies—and making sure they are co-designed with and for women in the first place. Tackling restrictive norms—such as prejudices against women using or owning phones—can also help close the gap.
The need to listen to women, taking their needs and preferences into account, is equally important when it comes to the development of more tangible agricultural technologies, such as new seeds, crop varieties, livestock breeds and machinery.
Opinion: Forget ChatGPT – the greatest tech breakthrough would be getting cell phones to rural women
While 100 million people worldwide are using the AI chatbot ChatGPT to get ahead on homework and try out for top jobs at Google, more than 370 million women in developing countries lack the services of a simple cell phone.
This opinion piece by CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform Director Nicoline de Haan was published by IPS News.
Insights from CGIAR gender researchers
GENDER at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women
The theme for the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which takes place in New York City on March 6-17, is “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
The CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform is collaborating with partners to host several sessions on the sidelines of this event to share research, evidence and recommendations on how to make ICT innovations and agricultural technologies work for gender equality.
GENDER events for IWD2023
Twitter Chat: Innovations and technologies for an inclusive, equitable food system
CSW67: GENDER special breakfast - Agricultural innovations for rural women for resilient food systems
CSW67: Gender-responsive agricultural innovations: Getting rural women ahead
CSW67: Closing the gender gap – investing in gender-responsive innovations and digitization of land
CSW67: Unlocking the potential of gender-responsive policies to foster equitable innovation-driven development
News on ICT and agricultural technologies for gender equality
Publications on ICT and agricultural technologies for gender equality
Gender-responsive digital extension in Tunisia during the COVID-19 pandemic
Gender Perspectives of ICT Utilization in Agriculture and Climate Response in West Africa: A Review
Strategies for achieving gender-responsive climate services
ICT for food security in a changing climate: A path to women’s empowerment
Factors influencing the intensity of use of ICT tools by youth along agricultural value chains: Evidence from Busia County, Kenya.
“Dear brother farmer”: Gender, agriculture and digital extension in rural Tunisia during the COVID-19 pandemic
Gender in agriculture and food systems
Gender accommodative versus transformative approaches: a comparative assessment within a post-harvest fish loss reduction intervention
(2020) Gender accommodative versus transformative approaches: a comparative assessment within a post-harvest fish loss reduction intervention, Gender, Technology and Development, 24:1, 48-65, DOI: 10.1080/09718524.2020.1729480
