By Francis Ameyibor
Tema, March 13, GNA – Ms. Sima Bahous, United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women has said women and girls have just as much right to access the digital world and prosper in it as men and boys.
She said their creativity, knowledge, and perspectives could shape a future where technology contributed to transforming social norms, amplifying women’s voices, pushing forward against online harassment, preventing the perpetuation of algorithmic biases, and distributing the benefits of digitalization as the great equalizer to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Ms. Bahous in a statement to mark the 2023 International Women’s Day obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Tema noted that all over the world, movements of women and girls were defiant and steadfast in the face of regressive gender norms and pushback against their rights.
The 2023 IWD is being celebrated on the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.
She said activists were raising their powerful voices for inclusion, an end to violence, and to discrimination in education, at the workplace, and in legislation.
“On International Women’s Day we honour and celebrate them,” adding “our committed support to their energy and drive,” she said.
Focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 5 which is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda, UN Women Executive Director noted that it was the powerful multiplier, the smart investment, and the prerequisite to get the Sustainable Development Goals as a whole back on track.
The UN Under-Secretary-General admitted that technology and innovation were game changers in this, stressing that the advantages brought by meaningful connectivity and equal access to digital skills and services were particularly important for low- and middle-income countries.
“It is important, where most of the world’s population growth will be and for the women and girls in those countries, most of all older women, migrants, women living in rural areas and those with disabilities.
“These are the same women for whom the gaps in access and illiteracy in digital skills are the most acute. We must not let them face a new kind of discrimination and enter a new kind of poverty,” Ms. Bahous stated.
She stated that by current estimates, just over half 53.6 percent of the global population is online, but the share of that access and its benefits is unequal.
“Last year there were 259 million more men than women using the Internet—and it was not a safe space.
“We have both to end the gaps and detoxify the online world for those entering it. With the right decisions by government and industry and the collaborative efforts of civil society, closing the gender digital divide could become the fast lane to progress as technology accelerates,” The UN Women Executive Director stated.
She said, “this will also take a sharp rise in accountability for technology outcomes and a strong and effective approach to online violence, including safeguards, and expanded legal frameworks to address unregulated behaviours and standards in ICTs”.
And it will take determined measures to provide the necessary skills and learning, especially in the STEM subjects, that will pave the way to the leadership of women and girls as technology creators, promoters, and decision-makers.
“Our vision of equality, of what our world could be, for all of us, can and will include the equal enjoyment of the fruits of technology and innovation without fear of violence or abuse of any sort.
“Women and girls must be able to engage, create, learn and work, safely and productively either online or offline, making the most of all the opportunities in every sphere of life and at every stage of it, in education, in the economy, in society and in politics,” Ms. Bahous stated.
GNA