Bridging the Gender Digital Divide: Reactions and Insights from the UN Summit of the Future.

The United Nations Summit of the Future (SoTF) marked a pivotal moment in the ongoing digital equity dialogue, culminating in the adoption of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and the Pact of the Future. The Compact aims to foster inclusive and equitable digital cooperation globally. While the document sets a hopeful framework, it also underscores the stark realities of the Gender Digital Divide (GDD) that persists, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). With reports from the World Economic Forum of more than a billion dollars in pledges to advance digital inclusion announced during the Summit, how do we ensure this commitment produces meaningful action to bridge the gender digital divide?

This was the central theme at WiDEF’s event on the sideline of the SoTF, where experts and changemakers from governments, global organizations, NGOs, and the private sector gathered to launch WiDEF’s inaugural policy impact report, The Time is Now: Policy Actions to Close the Gender Digital Divide. In attendance, Jamille Bigio, Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment in the Office of the Administrator, USAID, stressed that “the actions we take now will determine whether this next age of technological advances will bring more inequality or will connect more people across the world to essential services, to economic opportunities, and to each other.”

With the sobering realities of the gender digital divide permeating events and reports around the summit, questions were raised as to whether the GDC can deliver on its promises. The GDC also provided the centerpiece of conversation during WiDEF’s side event, where reflections on the compact and how it could be utilized going forward were discussed.

Two months on, we’ve had time to reflect on insights shared during the summit and WiDEF side event and assess whether “the GDC, with all its imperfections,” can indeed propel progress towards better global digital governance and digital inclusion for all. Here are WiDEF’s key takeaways on why we must apply a gender lens and targeted action in the implementation of the GDC’s 5 objectives.

Objective One: Close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals

While the next age of technological advances could potentially transform women’s livelihoods in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is an urgent need to ‘close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals’ (Global Digital Compact). 

As reaffirmed in WiDEF’s inaugural report, increased and targeted funding is essential to making closing digital divides a reality. New funding commitments announced at the event by the Reliance Foundation and the UPS Foundation, increasing WiDEF’s overall funding to over $80 million, are a testament to the importance and shared vision to accelerate progress and address the gender digital divide. These new commitments represent a great first step to taking bold and concrete action on this issue. The unique focus the additional funding brings on supporting locally led organizations and key actors, including providing funds to accelerate women’s digital inclusion in India specifically, will be particularly transformative. This is especially critical following India’s 2023 presidency of the G20, which committed to halving the gender digital divide by 2030. (G20-2023New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration). 

Objective Two: Expand inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all

The GDC’s second objective calls for efforts to ‘expand inclusion in and benefit from the digital economy for all.’ Failing to tackle the exclusion of women from the digital economy continues to slow efforts to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs). This was reiterated in the recently published WiDEF report, which explores the challenges that make it harder for women to use digital tools to improve their livelihoods, perform tasks more efficiently, and reduce time poverty (WiDEF 2024 – Effective Practices for Closing the Gender Digital Divide). WAYE Founder, Sinead Bovell, further highlighted the impact exclusion has on ‘time’ stating that, “when we think about the time empowerment phenomenon and the time that we save from having access to opportunities at our fingertips…” women’s access to information and technologies, particularly in LMICs, offers clear benefits and pathways to economic and social mobility. The inherent economic benefits were further articulated by GSMA’s findings, whereby closing the gender gap in mobile internet adoption across LMICs is estimated to add just over $1.3 trillion in total additional GDP during 2023–2030. (GSMA | The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2024 – Mobile for Development).

Objective Three: Foster an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space that respects, protects, and promotes human rights

Bringing women into the digital economy goes beyond connectivity. Efforts must be made to ensure we bring women into a safe, inclusive, open, and secure digital space that respects, protects, and promotes human rights. This remains one of the most crucial objectives of the GDC and can only be achieved through collective action from government, civil society, and the private sector. This sentiment was highlighted by the Chief Digital Officer at UNAP, Meng Liu, “Policy can never run faster than technology; there is a real need to bring that balance and the GDC into reality by doing a lot of co-creations on the ground” to ensure that users rights and security are considered in all facets of digital inclusion. WiDEF’s mission and strategic partnerships will be pivotal in helping us understand and address exclusionary practices that impact women’s meaningful participation in the digital world.

Objective Four: Advance responsible, equitable, and interoperable data governance approaches

Policy and governance structures will be crucial in meeting the GDC’s third objective on advancing responsible, equitable, and interoperable data governance approaches. During the WiDEF side event, Sinead called out that, “if we don’t fix the data or fix the access gaps, where women were excluded in studies directly targeting them, we run the risk of codifying inequality into the future.” For responsible, equitable, and interoperable data governance to become a reality, women need to be in leadership roles and design rooms to secure the foundations of how women should be represented and to confront who has been excluded or misrepresented in data sets. However, we can only do this by “tackling the governance structures that keep marginalized communities on the fringes; otherwise, the Global Digital Compact and Pact of the Future will remain just another promise on paper,” said digital rights activist Luisa Franco Machado.

Objective Five: Enhance international governance of artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity

Artificial intelligence’s rapid emergence into everyday life exacerbates the need for inclusive and accurate data. The risk of ‘codifying inequality’ should be regarded as one of the most pressing issues within the global digital governance space. Inaccurate data and poor policy and regulatory environments that fail to center the protection of women and girls could contribute to facilitating gender-based violence online. Yet the adopted compact sees the perilous removal of ‘gender equality’ and ‘gender-based violence’ under the artificial intelligence objective despite it being in an earlier draft as highlighted by Paloma Lara Castro, Director, Derechos Digitales, APC and GDC Coalition, during the WiDFE side event in New York. 

“The time is now,’ and we should be assured that ‘even if you don’t work for the government, the government works for you” (Sonia Jorge, Co-Executive, GDIP). WiDEFs mission remains crucial in pushing for concrete and concerted action from governments and policymakers to support efforts to move the GDC beyond mere rhetoric and yet another document shelved in history. As we look toward the implementation of GDC, there is an urgency to do it now, but there is a need to ensure a gender lens is applied across the board. As the above reflections highlight, there is a gender dimension to every objective of the GDC; failure to address it in its entirety from a gender perspective risks ineffective solutions, limited impact, and the continued exclusion of millions of women from the digital world. WiDEF remains steadfast and committed to supporting the inclusion of women in the digital economy through funding, technical assistance, and the creation of enabling policy environments and there is no better time to act than now.