How can the new technologies empower women in politics and political situations and help them be active participants in policy and decision-making processes that directly affect their lives?
Latest ITU data inform us that while global Internet penetration is close to 40% of the world’s population, mobile subscriptions are already reaching 100%. In turn, mobile broadband Internet access has grown to cover 2.3 billion people (or 77% of all Internet users), 55% of them located in developing countries. At the household level we note that 44% of the global total have Internet access, although only 31% are in developing countries.
These numbers are indeed impressive, in spite of glaring gaps in poor countries and in access data access disaggregated by gender. Forecasts for the next few years remain positive and suggest a continuation of these trends, albeit at slightly lower rates.
While the participation of women in politics continue to make important gains, we still have a long way to go. For example, IPU tell us that only 22% of all Parliamentarians in the world are women, with the Arab States reporting the smallest share with 16%. By the same token, out of the almost 200 UN member states, today we only have 9 Presidents and 14 Prime Ministers who are women, an even smaller share than the former. Certainly, the private sector is not immune of this challenge.
Although there is some evidence of larger women participation in key decision-making processes – some of which we highlighted in our 2014 Gender report, the general trend still seems to suggest lack of direct involvement, especially in governance processes that can effectively promote gender equality.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are thus evolving much faster than women’s empowerment, as well as than many other development areas. The gap in technology access is thus closing much faster than the gap in women’s participation in politics and decision-making processes. While we could certainly find positive correlation between the two, it seems ICT access alone does not guarantee larger political and policy participation by women. A series of additional ingredients are needed to accelerate this process.
The first one relates to policies that can offer women incentives to participate in politics and political process, while at the same time creating a leveled playing field and reducing entry barriers for women and all other disadvantaged groups. Several countries, including some developing nations, are already moving along these lines and can serve as beacons to others. Here, ICTs can furnish global knowledge and networking platforms to share and disseminate information on good practices and lessons learned in this area. This is in fact what the IKnowPolitics platform has been promoting in the last few years.5
We also need to move beyond the numbers game as it is not just a question of quantity but also of quality. While increasing the number of women in politics and policy-making is essential, so is the need for women in power to openly push for women’s empowerment and gender equity policy agendas where key issues faced by women in national or local contexts are explicitly addressed. Such agendas are cross-sectoral and do permeate a wide range of development policies ranging from education and health to ICTs and broadband, and thus demand adequate capacity and knowledge to be effectively promoted.
Women thus need to have access to ICTs platforms where agendas, experiences, know-how and how-to can be shared – including with men who can become fully aware not only of key gender issues but also of the way in which they can be addressed in practice. We are well aware for example that of the over 100 national broadband strategies in place today, less than 20% address gender equality issues – and those that do, tackle it on a mostly sectoral fashion.
Social media and social networks have been touted as the platforms par excellence for the participation of stakeholders in decision-making processes. The same can be said of Open Government and Open Data where one of they key target outcome is to ensure not-state actors have a voice in public governance processes.
While access to these platforms and initiatives is still far from universal, a critical factor here is the quality of participation. When it comes to women, they face a series of cultural, social, security and family issues that prevent them from openly participating in decision-making processes. So while providing the necessary platforms and networks, ICTs alone are not sufficient to break down these barriers.
We are indeed facing a multi-dimensional issues that demands a multi-sectoral approach. We need to ensure we take an integrated approach to the issue and work together to achieve our goals. In this light, building multi-stakeholder partnerships – which also include direct beneficiaries – that share common values and goals, and target the participation of women in politics and decision-making process is essential for achieving gender equality throughout. Empowering women in this regard is thus key to foster change across the board. And ICTs can be formidable allies in the process.