Women IGF Summit | IGF 2023

Baratang Miya

The analysis reveals a stark gender disparity in digital spaces, a phenomenon particularly prominent in Africa where a mere 15% of the population have proper access to the internet. Among those, a significant majority are men, indicating a deep-rooted gender gap in the digital landscape of the continent. The absence of women’s voices presents a prevalent issue in both political and digital discourse, undermining the premise of information democratisation. The lack of leadership opportunities for women in tech spaces further exacerbates this imbalance.

Progress has been observed in arenas such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), characterised by an emerging focus on women’s presence in leadership roles that help shape the digital platform. Despite such strides, challenges persist. A significant facet of these predicaments lies in the widespread digital illiteracy and limited understanding of technology’s benefits, reflecting slow technology adoption across Africa. Alarmingly, 85% of the African population remains unaware of their ‘rights’ outlined by the IGF, primarily due to their restricted access to the internet. In some countries, women’s access to the internet is extraordinarily low, at around 12% compared to their male counterparts. The need for comprehensive efforts to enhance digital infrastructure, elevate literacy levels, and implement capacity-building measures is crucial to usher more women into the digital domain.

However, not all is grim. The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a welcome increase in the number of women embracing the ICT sector. The persistent work-from-home requirement has allowed female participation on the internet substantially, letting a previously underrepresented section of society contribute to the digital conversation.

Initiatives emphasising women’s entrepreneurship are also noteworthy. They leverage digital technology to improve business operations. An exemplary programme is the ECA, which has successfully assisted numerous women; ambitions are set high to expand this programme to all African countries by 2025. Complementary to these efforts are strides to ensure female inclusivity and active participation in digital spaces, supported by the expected surge in Africa’s young demographic and various capacity-building endeavours.

Support for the Feminist Global Digital Compact principles is also significant. These principles encompass a myriad of provisions focused on digital rights, freedom from gender-based violence, universal digital rights, safe internet usage, safeguards against harmful surveillance and transparency in AI. This endorsement heralds a future of digital spaces that adhere to the principles of equality and safety.

Yet, significant hurdles persist. One crucial issue is that of inadequate and inconsistent electricity supply, as observed in South Africa, which directly influences consistent digital connectivity. This issue highlights the broader need for inclusivity in addressing the challenges faced by nations in the Global South in relation to digital economies. It is instrumental for global digital discourse to extensively acknowledge these challenges to develop a well-rounded global approach.

The argument for promoting women’s technological literacy carries considerable weight given their vital role in educating future generations. It is cautioned that the onset of an under-educated or technologically illiterate generation could severely compromise the future. The importance of empowerment is underscored as a fundamental element of progress. The insights gained call for an expansion of initiatives like Women in IGF beyond Africa to achieve truly global coverage. Ultimately, striving for gender equality remains pivotal in fostering a diversified, inclusive, and innovative digital future.

Mactar Seck

In Africa, despite substantial progress, wide disparities persist in the engagement of women in the tech sector and the equalisation of internet access. Women currently comprise less than 12% of the workforce in the tech field, significantly lower than the global average of 40%. The primary contributing factors involve limited internet access and the gender digital divide. To counter these issues, several African nations have initiated funding schemes to encourage and support women’s involvement in tech.

The positive increase in women joining the digital sector, spurred by changes to work dynamics during the COVID pandemic, has strengthened these efforts. This trend highlights the potential of African women to substantively contribute to the digital economy given suitable resources and opportunities.

Nonetheless, progress remains hindered, particularly for rural women who continue to face appreciable barriers to accessing the digital world. These obstructions include inadequate internet connectivity, with less than 10% of rural areas having access, and entrenched cultural practices that impede efforts to overcome the digital divide and restrict women from utilising digital technologies and gaining necessary skills.

The digital divide also extends to a significant proportion of Africa’s population, suffering from lack of access to electricity. This challenge, impacting over 50% of African inhabitants, substantially hinders digital access. However, solutions are being proposed, including efficient use of existing infrastructure and the deployment of innovative low-energy technologies, offering potential improvements to digital access.

Moreover, it’s important to recognise that not only access but safe navigation of the digital sphere remains a concern for African women. Reports indicate that 30-40% of women face online harassment, depending on the country, highlighting the need for robust protective measures such as raising awareness about cybersecurity. This will ensure women’s safety in the digital arena.

Adding to these complexities, many African women lack legal identity due to established cultural norms. This reality affects approximately 5 million people, predominantly women. This absence of official identification further marginalises these women, exacerbating the issues connected with digital exclusion and complicating the trajectory towards gender equality.

In conclusion, whilst strategic interventions and improvements in digital infrastructure have been implemented, achieving digital inclusion of women in Africa still necessitates comprehensive, concerted and context-specific actions. These initiatives should address the multifaceted challenges, from enhancing digital and electricity access to altering cultural attitudes and ensuring legal recognition. This comprehensive approach is a prerequisite to realising an inclusive digital future and, in doing so, fostering progress towards the broader Sustainable Development Goals.

Audience

This comprehensive examination primarily focusses on the intertwined issues of inadequate representation, digital disconnection, and gender disparities within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a pressing need for broader representation from the global majority and a more significant involvement of women in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and the Digital Economy.

Concerningly, reports and statistics on digital connectivity appear to overlook rural areas and regions suffering from disrupted electricity supply, pointing to a perceived urban bias. It’s necessary to understand that the question of consistent electricity supply is intrinsically linked to the progress of digital connectivity. Acknowledging this is a vital step towards ensuring digital inclusion for all.

The conversation also tackles the prevailing societal fear that the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will lead to an increase in unemployment, particularly hitting young Africans. This stereotype overshadows the potential positive effects of AI in the workforce.

However, there are also positive aspects within this argument. It recognises achievements made by women within the technology sector. Documenting and showcasing these successes and innovations will boost much-needed visibility and acknowledgement. For initiatives such as the Global Digital Compact, it’s argued that women and young individuals should be treated as stakeholders, rather than just beneficiaries. Their voices and contributions are vital in moulding the digital landscape.

A striking observation within the analysis is the substantial digital divide in Mexico, with stark disparities in internet access and usage. Women and the older generations are disproportionately affected by this issue, with almost 78.1% of Mexican women reported to have trouble using the internet, primarily due to age and lack of knowledge. There’s a positive mindset emerging that suggests these demographics should be empowered through an education about the internet.

In summary, this detailed analysis calls for concerted efforts to overcome representation gaps, disparities in digital connectivity, and gender inequality within the digital sphere. These measures are critical to effectuate the related SDGs to ensure that advancements in technology, AI included, promote inclusive growth and equality. Recognition of achievements, especially amongst women in technology, and the shift from mere beneficiaries to stakeholders in digital initiatives, are key steps on this journey.

Margret Nyambura

The sentiment across the analysed items suggests a strong emphasis on securing meaningful connectivity and representation for women in the digital realm, particularly in STEM careers. This assertion is supported by statements revealing a considerable ‘leaky pipeline’ effect globally, resulting in fewer women and reduced retention in STEM-related sectors. Worryingly, the data reveals that only 22% of primary schools in Africa offer reliable internet connectivity, and women are 19% less likely to utilise mobile internet compared to men.

There is a robust case for the urgent need to increase involvement and representation of women in the STEM field. It is posited that, whilst opportunities for both genders are ostensibly equal at an early age, cultural norms and deep-seated biases often guide women towards the arts.

The review also underlines the potential risk of women’s exclusion from forthcoming opportunities in emerging technologies. The sentiment expressed suggests that unless the integration and participation of women in this digital revolution are considered from early childhood, achieving meaningful gender equality in these areas could remain elusive.

Crucially, the importance of data reflecting women’s experiences in the digital economy is emphasised, supporting fair decision-making. In its absence, there is an elevated risk of biased outcomes and decisions, perpetuating systemic gender-based discrimination in resource allocation. Better representation within collected data could serve as an effective remedy to such bias.

Addressing digital inclusion in rural areas, there is suggestion of implementing innovative methods, such as art and drama. These creative outlets are proposed as means to expand digital space awareness, transcending connectivity issues to ensure vital information reaches rural populations. Moreover, the role of African youth, who constitute the majority of the continent’s population, could be instrumental in disseminating these technologies.

Additionally, there is a compelling argument for utilising innovative technological solutions to bridge the digital divide, particularly acute in rural areas. The belief is that all individuals can bring digital awareness to their local communities, thus facilitating potential technological progress. The digital space is envisioned as a pivotal tool in driving such advancement, reducing inequalities for sustainable development.

In conclusion, the arguments and evidence presented suggest a positive shift in attitudes towards gender equality, quality education, and reduced inequalities. However, substantial work needs to be done to ensure comprehensive digital inclusion and equal representation in STEM fields, particularly concerning women and rural communities.

Baratang Miya:
So, again, welcome, everyone. My name is Baratang Mia. I am from Gal Hype, Women Who Code, and we’re organizing women in IGF for the second year now. We had one in Addis. And following that up is this particular one. So I will start the session. We have three speakers, one presentation about what’s happening with women in the ecosystem. And then we’ll have Mr. Mark Tasek to tell us about what has he done in the past year about what we aimed for. Last year, the focus was on contributing towards the global digital compact. And we have done that very well. So I will touch on that. But in the interim, I just want to say that the reason we hold women in IGF is that even though women are a huge part of the IGF community and make up half of the population globally, women’s voices have been historically low and entirely absent in the political and digital spaces. So these imbalances ultimately deny leadership opportunities to women in spaces, especially in the spaces that they would have to impact the technology, build it, and create it in their local environments, especially women who face additional forms of discrimination. So IGF Women’s Summit focuses on leadership mindset and spotlight the women who can harness the power in this pivotal moment on the Internet and to shape the digital platform. We want to contribute a new way forward and come up with actionable solutions to drive meaningful progress in Internet governance. So, the final output of this particular summit would be a resource produced by a community of participants at the summit. One of the thing is making sure that the planning for next year, which we want to take this and hopefully turn it into an NRI where women’s issues and gender issues could be discussed in a formal setting. At the moment, it’s been driven by one organization and few of us that were there last year, but I think now we want to make it bigger and try to approach the Internet Governance Secretariat and say, please give us an opportunity to become an NRI at global level that women across the world, across the globe, can contribute towards the IGF and contribute at the leadership level and make sure that the impact of what women and gender issues should be covered at that level. So, based on that, whatever we come up with, Margaret will do a presentation and what the presentation she will do will publish it as part of the final outcome of this and take some of the points on what do we do with what came out of that presentation. So it’s more of an open forum. Everyone who is here is allowed to contribute to how can we make gender be taken as an entity that could contribute towards IGF, because at the moment there isn’t one entity that is really focusing on gender issues and we take Women’s Summit as part of that. With that in mind, I will give an opportunity to Mr. Maktasek who will talk to us, but I just want to say that gender disparity is very huge. In Africa, I know that Women are working very hard. I’m looking at Lily here who’s driving so much about internet governance from the basic and on the ground, but at the same time, because of the literacy level and because of the misunderstanding of where AI is going and what technology is bringing to the communities, the uptake is very slow. The people are still not understanding what is technology doing for them and why is it beneficial? And if you come and you talk about the rights and digital rights and human rights of people in the technology space to people who do not have technology, it’s as if you are taking away something from them. So we have to find the balance of making sure that even if we’re talking about the rights of women online and we talk about cybersecurity and we talk about gender and we talk about all these issues that comes up at IGF, we also have to talk about how do we make sure that the same people that we’re talking about on the ground have access to internet? Because at the moment, I think it’s only 15% of Africans who have proper internet access. That means when we talk about the rights that we’re talking about at IGF, 85% of Africans don’t know what the hell we’re talking about because it’s not implemented yet. So how do we talk about something they don’t have? So that balance, it’s something that I think we would have to address, especially women, because they are the ones who are literally not online. And with that said, I’ll hand over to Mr. Mactar.

Mactar Seck:
Thank you very much, Mrs. Baratang, and good morning, everyone. To attend this important event to discuss women in IGF. As you know, women is playing an important role in the Africa ecosystem. But we have a lot of concern about their participation. When we look at the African culture, the women are the ones who educated children. They wake up early, very early, to go to try to get some things done, some work, to give food to their kids. Women also leave their country, their rural area, to come in the urban city. Try to get some work to support their family inside their respective country. Women also suffer a lot in Africa due to the lack of health hospitals. When you look at the number of women who died due to lack of hospitals, there are too many in Africa. At school also, a lot of women don’t have a chance to go to school for several reasons. Sometimes it’s cultural. In some cultures, women are not allowed to go to school. In other cultures, they put priority for women to work at home to support their mother. Another problem also, in several African countries, women don’t have any legal form of identity. Because, for the culture… in global networks, you are here, in the middle of internet, in the middle of internet, it’s available to you or want to purchase Arey Very welcome and I like to And the digital technology, we have a lot of progress, in the several in the activities of women. now, in this e-commerce, they are applications on e-commerce, in the food system, have developed a lot of application focus on their activity. And with the development of this technology, the role of women become more, more important. And we have seen, since the COVID, an increased number of women in the digital sector. And I think now, everybody agree, women is part of this digital ecosystem. When you look at the room, I think we have more women than men. It is a case also in the population. We have more women than men. But we have several challenge for that, to access to this digital technology. Still, we have more men connected. We have more than 1,000 women in Africa. We have 45 men connected compared to 34 women. Access also on the tech work is very low for women. Generally, it’s around 12% compared to the world average 40%. They are not doing their work here. It’s already point that this is women harassment online. In a lot of countries numbers are very high. This number goes to 30 to 40% of women on the Internet have been high racists. There are many countries where there is an increase in quantity, one less control concrete affects 5 million people in the continent without any legal identity. And most of them are women. Why it is important to have a woman in the digital ecosystem is because we have to understand what is the future we want for women, what role we want for women in this digital ecosystem. And we can link this to this global digital compact, the role of women in this digital compact. Now, first, let’s start by key model that defenders can try to develop in the next 30 years. Thank you very much. to women and youth to this digital technology. How we can do? We have 24% access to Internet, less than 10% in the rural area. We have to put the right infrastructure in the city, in the urban city, as well as in the rural area. It is something very important. The government should put in place the right infrastructure to provide equitable and affordable access to the women. This can be done through several ways. We can provide a lot of facilities for women to access to this service. Also we can develop public infrastructure to provide more access to women to this digital technology. Also, we need to build the capacity of women. It is very important. When we look at the COVID period in Africa, we identify around 5,000 innovation, application focused on linkage to the COVID. More of these applications have been developed by women. We have a ground in the continent. We need to build their capacity. We should have a lot of programs to build the capacity of women, not at the university or high school, but as a primary school, like what Kenya already started last year. third, we provide access, we look at the capacity of the women, but we need also to involve the women in the tech sector. It is very important, when you have the capacity, the government should promote access to the women, for women to this sector. And through access to the market, through also support, funding support to this women entrepreneur to access to this market is something very important. It is something some country did very successfully, like Tunisia and Morocco. They have an incentive fund to support women tech in the sector. Another one, it is we need awareness about this cyber security child online, it’s not only child, but I think all women are concerned by this cyber crime issue. We need to secure the cyber space for women. By organizing several information working group, awareness campaign to explain to the women the opportunity and the risk to be online. I think it is something very important we have to highlight for all women, such as those in Africa. And in the Global Digital Compact also, we have highlighted the important role of women as gender crosscutting issue in all the ten key priority area. How to involve this women? to be part on this global digital compact, one, on the digital public infrastructure, how this woman can access to the digital public infrastructure like e-commerce platform, e-government service, digital ID platform, and we have a lot of, we have some recommendation for government, how government can have affordable access to this digital technology, this goes through building infrastructure and also an appropriate regulation to make sure everybody have access to this digital technology. Of course capacity building is very important through the global digital compact and focus more on the emerging technology, how we build the capacity of women in the emerging technology to make sure women are part on this revolution. As you know, by 2030, 90% of the new job will be on digital or need a digital component. We need also to build the capacity on this artificial intelligence because artificial intelligence is very easy, it’s not required a lot of infrastructure, just if you are smart, we need some application, some infrastructure to develop application and we have seen also this development during this COVID period. What is important also for women in this global digital compact, it is the issue of public good. We need to put in place infrastructure policy to provide opportunity of women to access to this. you select, raise money, and make there a connection to financing,ười doesn’t get money for public good, this is very important for the continent. Internet fragmentation, so employed because when you talk about internet fragmentation, we can talk about on one Internet, but you go, you have Africa, several Internet to you have it. People who don’t have access, they don’t have access to the Internet. So we have to make it open and access to everybody. Everybody should be have equal right access to Internet. Women and men should have equal right to access to Internet. Something very important we have to take into consideration. And also, we have to consider access to Internet. We have to consider access to Internet. We have to consider access to Internet. If we consider access to Internet is a human right, I think we can sort out the issue of access for women in the continent. And it is something we discussed last year. Several progress have been made. We organized a lot of forum to discuss this principles, but it is not enough. It is important to do this, to gather these ideas and programs in the country order to improve access for women to this technology to harness also their produce through digital technology and I can highlight some initiative with the ECA level. Thank you very much. This is a training program for women in the age between 12 and 25 years old. This program provides skills to these women, to these people, during a training for two weeks. The objective is to show without any skills on digital technology, within two-week formation, within two-week formation, to be part of this digital era. And the women are trained in several areas, like artificial intelligence, web gaming, we have also the statuses, we have also several applications on climate change, 3D printing, and other areas. And since we launched this program, now we have been problem-solving our dream of developing gender discriminatory program in seven countries. And we have 35,000 girl trainees and they have developed around 300 projects. It is very amazing to have a look at the project developed by this young girl just now in Africa. It is something we have in Africa, people who get a husband very early and they are faced with a lot of problems and they developed a website to show the problem faced by this young girl. We have also other applications related to the girl living in the city, coming from the rural area. And they teach here in Kenya. And they get a lot of problems. There staying in this city. It is a people you meet to work at home in several family and they develop a lot of application on that also On health sector. We have also several application developed by this girl Another project important we call it take African woman focus on the woman entrepreneurship and we support a woman to Improve their capacity to access to the market. It is a ECA program and we already organized this We last year we organized this in four country and several woman has been have been selected and they get price and to improve their business through digital and technology and the objective is by 2025 to have this program in all African country Another important project for for woman it is a capacity building on FinTech When we look at Kenya, Kenya is a good example where the FinTech sector Is leading by woman and we have a design a program with Alibaba to Build the capacity or to improve the capacity of women in the FinTech sector. It is something very important I think we can Say as example in several other country to see how we can duplicate What’s happened in Kenya in other African country this show the importance of? this session and I would like to congratulate Barata and her team to have this session in the second edition of the woman in IGF and To reassure the support of ECA of this on this activity Because, it is very important to support women, why? We are all coming from women. Without women, you don’t have anyone in this world. And we need to support them, to make them happy, to make them involved in all sectors, and they become leading this for industrial revolution. And I’m sure with the capacity we have now for the young generation, when you discuss with them, when you look at the project they develop, we are confident that African is on the right way to be part, such as a woman community, in this for industrial revolution. I’m going to stop there, and thank you very much for listening to me, bye.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much, Magda. I would like to ask everyone to join us on the table, because it looks very empty, but on the other side, if we can all just join up here, to make the room a little bit warmer. Thank you very much, Magda. I just want to thank you very much. When you started, you said that women are the ones who educate children. Maybe I am lost. Can we just join on the table as we walk in? As you mentioned, women are the ones who educate children, and one other thing that you mentioned is that since COVID, there has been an increased number of women in the ICT sector. And I think it’s one of the reality that COVID has really given women an opportunity to work from home, participate on the internet in manner that we wouldn’t before. You mentioned that access is around 12% to women compared to men. Africa has 500 million people in the continent, and in the next coming five years, 70% of those would be youth. but more women also. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategization for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we not necessarily need women to participate, we need to empower women to do that work on the country at largeμαι so that’s what we’re trying to do. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we not necessarily need women to participate, we need to empower women to do that work on the country at large. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience so that don’t basically have the intellectual experience, you know, we need women to do that work on the country at large. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience. So I’m trying to think of the concrete strategies for the membership experience. And so that is a contrary and it’s not an obvious and it’s not a confounding fact that we all see different possibilities and different ways how we can benefit from that coming unmillion dollar system. And as Dr. Chris was mentioned in terms of kind the conferences in France and Brazil people are increasingly prioritizing the digital transparency welfare by expanding Polish support but expanding the contribution to bilateral collaboration in this talk, so we want to make sure that in this If what is there meets our needs.

Margret Nyambura:
And probably to go deeper on these digital ecosystem that is much informed or driven by the STEM area. That existing data reveals that globally there is a leaky pipeline leading to few women and lack of retention in STEM careers. That as we start at an early age, we probably have the same opportunities, men and women. But as we continue as young children, do we get the same opportunities? Are there cultural issues? Are there biases? Are there issues at the household level that keeps on pushing women to more arts and men to more STEM subjects? What can we do to ensure that from that particular age, from young age, we are having women focused on STEM subjects so that when we come to their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, we are not saying that we do not have women in the STEM area or in artificial intelligence or emerging technologies. And yet, and I think statistics have been given that in the African context, most people are in the rural areas. And statistics have shown that 22% of primary schools in Africa have only 22% have reliable internet connectivity and we are talking about e-learning. We are talking about e-health. How do we ensure that our children that are in rural areas, they have the same opportunities as those who are in other places? So if connectivity is a start, then research shows that we are not where we need to be. We need to connect people in the rural areas. Majority of us in Africa, we are in rural areas and that’s where we don’t have connectivity. Again, statistics show that meaningful connectivity is still a wild dream for most of the women in the global majority. And as GDIP, we are looking deeper and learning how we can address the inequality. And the research we are doing. of female yearling differently coil with the flexible technology and a dimension for continued success and longevity of the global university and the educationarf the guide points is our mis送g ng ing ex z act el for women in this space. And what we mean by meaningful connectivity. You can be a consumer of content but you can also create. Again we are talking of appropriate devices. If you have a smart phone then you are probably able to do more than a basic phone. Again we are talking of unlimited broadband connectivity. That you can always get that connectivity whenever you want it and wherever you want it. And not only do you have that connectivity but then you are able to use it on a daily basis. And it is due to that, then you can keep on being innovative, keep on seeing how best to have a productive life in the digital space and with that you are able to improve your livelihood. So I know statistics have been given but using data of the 2023, we are saying that women are 19% less likely than men to use mobile internet. And again across the continent, all of us, we are using mobile internet. So you see again there’s that gap. And in Africa you know, there are a lot of youth in the space that have soft records and phones and they are not easily able to use those data. And for it is extended and out is still far away. So we are sending away our data so they are not necessarily easily able to access the data that they require. That’s something that we have to see. So a must save alf life So, we need to do an analysis of that, so that even as we are talking about inequalities in the digital space, then we are able to quantify that. So, meaningful connectivity of women in the global majority is a prerequisite for them to assume a central role in the digital space. So, we need to do an analysis of that, so that even as we are talking about inequalities in the digital space, then we are able to quantify that. So, meaningful connectivity of women in the global majority is a prerequisite for them to assume a central role as citizens and participants in the digital economy, that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are the engines of the future economies. And we must be in that space as creators, not as consumers and our social and economic lives depend on these technologies. In the digital economy, the development outcome of digital execution can only be addressed if we can quantify the opportunity cost of digital inclusion, that every time try to see what are women losing if they’re not connected. And not just in terms of monetary value, in terms of shaping our future generation so that we contextualize that. And the aim is to contextualize the digital exclusion narrative and link it to livelihoods and social economic development, that in the digital ecosystem, there is something for everybody. Everybody can make a niche of themselves, but you need to be aware, you need to have the skills for you to be able to do that. And data on women’s experiences of digital economy and cost of inclusion is vital to reflect women’s world views in artificial intelligence decision-making based on gender data in public domain. That we are going to the world of artificial intelligence. Do we have enough data about women and then presenting that data, has it been collected? And if we don’t do that, then we end up with biased decisions, outcomes, which can lead to a negative outcome. Thank you. will lead to development outcomes. Actual intelligence replicates biases and discrimination in decision making algorithms due to lack of data on women and global health. So inequalities perpetuate when artificial intelligence are used to make decisions on allocation of resources. So again, this is an area that we need women to actively participate. So, contextualization of the opportunities for women in the digital space, once meaningfully connected and digitally skilled, will lead to digitally innovative livelihoods. And we have seen that, that as long as you give people the tools they need to navigate, then they are able to make their own livelihoods. And the ripple effect of empowering women through digital inclusion, skills development, and cyber hygiene, which again, we must emphasize to ensure that, again, we are bringing holy human beings, the young generation, we should not let them be influenced by these new technologies. They must use it to develop their socioeconomic, to shape their lives, and again, still not forget our culture, so that we are moving with our culture in a safely environment, a digital environment. And ultimately, giving meaning to artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies in the eyes of the women in the global majority. That as long as these technologies are making sense to us, as long as they can make us change our livelihoods, as long as we can see a change, a positive change, after the usage of these technologies, then we can move forward, and we can actively participate in shaping the future of the emerging technologies. If you’re not thinking about holistic inclusion, that is from early childhood, from what they can do with these technologies, from the very beginning, meaningful integration and active participation of women in emerging technologies will remain a mirage, and we risk excluding them from the many opportunities in the digital space. So again, we need to start from early childhood, try to see what are the opportunities. So, I think it’s important for us to understand what is the role of the digital ecosystem and how can we be safe in the digital space and as we move that way, then everybody have a space in the digital ecosystem. Thank you, and back to you, Baratang. Thank you.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you, Margaret, that was a brilliant presentation, in fact. Thanks for covering all the elements from the digital platforms that are implemented in the digital environment and I think within the ecosystem, if 70% of Africa is going to be youth in the next coming five years, I think it’s just fair that a youth member of Africa speak on behalf of African issues, and I would like to give the opportunity to Lilly to speak. Two years ago, there was no definition of inclusionity or women participation when it comes to Duальных and the Youtube phrases and you basically Stereo can equal woman participation, how do we describe it? We get up and feed each other but we know what they say, now that the social media space gives us say yeah, we can go to one corner and one similar corner and we can see that they’re not included, that is huge. I’ve always been saying we add more to it, that is more inclusiveness, more inclusibility and the essence of bringing to the forefront issues that affect women the most to the IGF. I’m seeing that there’s actually a glaring evidence of things that don’t happen when women aren’t present. Who can speak as women do, who can talk about things that women have to share, in terms of the sexual violence issue we haven’t really hunted down yet is the pacific issue, how rich are our rights as women? What do we actually consider to be the most inclusive discourse we ever had? So, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I’m seeing that, and also as an African, for people who are essentially growing to become next leaders in this space, I see that, for us, this is really the platform for us to also make sure that we have a place where we can be present. So, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I’m seeing that, and also as an African, for people who are growing to become next leaders in this space, I see that, for me, that sets the cup as both a youth and as a woman, I see that, for me, this is really the platform for us to also amplify the voices of work we’ve been doing as young people, and just like we’ve said about the Global Digital Compact, especially with the focus on capacity building on the African continent, I just want to highlight some of the things you’re doing for the African-American community. So, for me, it’s about sharing in local languages, also expertise where we bring people from areas where there are issues that are happening, they can give grassroots ideas to the platforms to contribute, and to say what is the demand. All of those are things that, looking at the future, projecting will be important for us to make sure that we are building solutions that do not just assume that we’re going to be able to do it, but also to be able to communicate and to be able to say, hey, we’re going to be able to do it. So, for me, as also a youth, it is the reason why some of the work we’ve done on the African continent is very important, that we get to the grassroots, know what the issues are, and able to bring it to the forefront for authorities to see what it is that we feel and to demand it. So, it’s what I’ll add to the session. partnership and to also add this conversation, because this is time not to talk about et cetera, because also also in Europe, various spectrums have have been made one in five differentufence for theircategories, feminist principles for including gender in the global digital compact. I think that’s a very, the copies here that are focusing on gender equality came yesterday together and to endorse these principles. Those who want to still participate, there’s a sign in support. If you Google it, you can go in and support these principles. In fact, there’s 10 of them. And I think these are principles that organizations that work with participation of women online and safety in a global to be space to be included in the global digital compact. They were called the feminist global digital compact principles. So if you want to look at them, please go look at them. I’ll just browse through them. The first one is ensure concrete commitments to protect the digital rights of women and girls and marginalized groups. The second one guarantee freedom from technology, facilitate facilitated gender based violence. The third one promote universal rights to freedom of expression, privacy, peaceful assembly, and participation of women and girls in their diversity in all aspects of life. Ensure universal affordability accessible and safe internet access for all. Fifth, demand strict action against harmful surveillance application and high risk AI system. Six, expand women’s participation and leadership in the technology sector and digital policymaking. The seventh one is prioritize strategies that reduce the environmental impact of new technologies. Eight, implement measures for states. and transnational cooperation to ensure data privacy governance and consent. Nine, adopt equality by design principles and a human right-based approach throughout all phases of digital technology development. As a software engineer and a coder in my life, this was one of the principles I thought it’s critical to be included at the moment because 90% of the time women are consumers. If we don’t include them in the design phase, if we don’t get them to speak when the product is still at the initial stage, we’re going to miss their voice from the onset. So I felt this was one of the highlights for me to make sure that a human right-based approach and equality by design principle is included. Transparency and human rights and gender rights impact assessments and incorporated into their development of any algorithmic decision-making systems or digital technologies prior to deployment and are not tested without these principles to prevent discrimination and harmful biases being amplified and perpetuated. The last one is set AI safeguard and standards to prevent discriminatory biases. In closing of this session, I would like to ask if there’s anyone who has comments or questions for the speakers. Okay, thank

Audience:
you so much for this amazing discussion but also looking at the contribution that have been shared in the room in regards to women in IGF. I have two reflections as far as the participation of women and girls is concerned on the matters of digital economy and I’ll speak on the context of Africa but also I was also actually wondering why we do not have a representation from the global majority. Does it mean that the women in global majority are more advanced when it comes to issues of technology? or do we think there is need for us to have a shared equilibrium so that we’re also able to learn? This is just a reflection from the panel presentation. This is what I want to say that I think for me, looking at the contribution, but also the progress of women in tech, of course, there is a lot of biases, challenges, and barriers that women face. But when it comes to documentation of statistics and reports, we majorly focus on the women and girls in the urban areas when you’re looking at the content of connectivity, the content of access, affordability, and issues of safety. And for me, part of the learning from yesterday’s presentation on the feminist principles included in the GDC is how can we be able to also reach those who have not been reached when it comes to issues of digital connectivity? How can we be able to look at getting access to the rural communities, working with women and young people in the informal settlement so that we do not assume that the fact that there is a discussion on internet connectivity and digital governance, we also ensure that we are reaching them as early as now so that we do not wait when we’ve made a lot of progress for us to remember that there is someone we’ve not reached. That is one. Two, we cannot speak about digital connectivity without the question of electricity. What happens to the region that for them, electricity, it’s like a prophecy yet to be fulfilled? What are we doing about that as we push for the global digital compact? and we have to make sure that we are working with the countries and the member states to ensure that electricity does not become a question that we are still seeking answers to. Another thing is, I think we have had change and stories of progress for women in tech and specifically for Africa. But where are the success stories that we are able to document and showcase? I’ve heard about the innovations that have been made. How are we able to document the milestones we have made so far to inform the learning and inspiration to those young women who may want to get into the tech space, but also to be motivated that there is something that we can do and we can progress with. There is the fear that AI is going to take away the jobs of young people and young women in Africa. How can we be able to remove the stereotype around artificial intelligency and the connection of employment opportunities for the very many young Africans who are struggling with the struggle of employment? I think those are some of the discussions we need to start having as early as now. And my last reflection is, from the presentation we’ve had, is how is internet governance, how is global digital combat going to benefit women and young people? And this is a mistake that probably some legal frameworks at the global level have done, that we may not want to repeat looking at women as beneficiaries of frameworks being developed at the global level, and not as stakeholders, influencers, and key decision makers. The moment we take women as beneficiaries to this process, that is the beginning of failure because we’ll miss their input, we’ll miss their shaping of ideas, and we’ll also miss the ideology that they will have to contribute to this process. Thank you so much.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much. The issue of electricity is a very big one. I’m from South Africa. Every two hours, electricity is shut down. Like, what is that? It’s just such disempowering exercise. For me, electricity and internet are like this. Any other comment? There is a concern in the room that we haven’t had any Global South voice. North, if we can have one comment, is it? Yeah.

Audience:
Good morning. I’m going to try to speak in English. My name is Marta Lucia Meacher Camarena from Mexico. I’m senator in Mexico from Guanajuato, our states. Well, I’m very glad to be here. I will try to say, to talk about our country in America Latina, Latin American. Well, we have the, see, we only, I only, well, I’m very glad to be here and to hear the problems you have as the same as we have in Mexico. In Mexico, we are about 120 millions in Mexico, and we have the same gap that you have. We have discrimination. We are not. the first population that can talk about internet. We have very deep problems with the access at this kind of services. I want to tell you that in Mexico, 78, one percent of the total of women in our country and we have the problems to use internet. And to access to the text that you mentioned, we have the problem and the problem is the age you have. If you have my age, you have problems with the internet. But I see that our youth is, they have no problems to take this, to use this kind of services. But my worry is that we are very behind men in these issues. We have to empowerment women, we have to make them to use this kind of of herramientas, tools, to access not only at internet, to access to the right, to be informed, and to the right to be in the text and to the right to be in the development because we have this problem. Now, we have to know about this, but our countries are not interested in this kind of issue. So I’m glad that you are discussing this issue because in Mexico, we are worried about this because only the youth people and women are in this issues. But I don’t know, about 50 years. They don’t know this kind of tools. Thank you.

Baratang Miya:
Thank you very much. If we can just get one minute, half a minute, 30 seconds, closing from all the speakers.

Margret Nyambura:
Thank you, Baratang. I probably just to comment on her comment that I think you have to be innovative in this space so that we can include even those who are in the rural areas. And for me, I look at the use of art, drama, so that they use, that you have said, they make a majority of the African population, and we can use them to go back to their villages. They have access to the technologies, but every person must have their roots. And if we do that, then we are able to create awareness, we are able to educate women and the other young people in the village using various innovative technologies so that they use digital space as a tool to move to where they need to be. And if we do that, then we are able, even as we solve the issues of connectivity in the rural areas, then we are using other ways to ensure that these people are getting the right information. Thank you.

Mactar Seck:
Thank you. Let me focus on the issue of electricity. If you look at the statistics, there is no way for African people to get access to oil. We have around the world 733 million people without access to electricity in the world. In Africa, you have 600 million. It means 53 per cent of the population doesn’t have access to electricity. And there is a lot of disparity in this country. Look at South Sudan, 7.7 per cent only of the population has access to electricity. With that, how we can expand this digital access to all? We need to use it as a source of technology, we have it, we can use some technology, this technology doesn’t cost a lot of energy. Also we have the infrastructure, we don’t use efficiencies of infrastructure in the continent. We have to live. Thank you. But we can discuss bilateral on the issue of that.

Baratang Miya:
I just want to thank everyone for coming here. And in closing I would like to quote what Dr. Segg had said, which is, women are the ones who educate children. The meaning of that is women are the ones who educate the future. Because children are the future. And if the future is educated by people who don’t have opportunities and are illiterate in terms of technology, then we are building a wrong future. Hence we need to – Lily said what are the costs of not having women empowered? The cost is we will be talking about the same thing in the next coming 50 years if we do not give women opportunity, if we don’t change this dynamic of understanding that women are educating the future. We won’t change. So for me it’s – this is not an African issue, this is not a Mexican issue, this is a global issue. If Africa is not empowered, if Mexico is not empowered, if – Okay, Japan is a different story. If we’re not empowered, then nobody’s empowered because future, technology and AI doesn’t care about where you live. You can do anything you want on the internet. You can harass anyone from anywhere, any woman from anywhere, and we need to get that stopped. Now, there are two things that I wanted to highlight. One was that education. The second one that came from you as a speaker is to say, how do we take women in IGF and make it a global issue? Not just an African issue. Now, it was formed, I started this in the African IGF and focusing on women in Africa. So, obviously, the legacy came to the IGF in Japan. The speakers are also from Africa, and now we need to grow it. And I hope that next year we’ll get speakers from across the world, and it will be about global issues and not just issues that are reflective of Africa. And I would like to encourage everyone to really look at the feminist principles for including gender in the GDC. This was discussed yesterday by all organizations that are focusing on gender issues, and we’ve endorsed it. I’m hoping that people are going to join. There’s a sign-in on support of this principle online, so you should just Google feminist principles for including gender in the GDC. So, personally, as Gale Hype and as Baratang, I have signed on that document to say I support these principles, and these are reflective of so many organizations coming together and putting this, thanks to Equality Now, APC, World Wide Web, UN Women, and all those who played part, and UNFPA for literally bringing us all together to come up with this document. So, I’m endorsing this document. As part of Women in IGF, we are saying this is something that we really endorse to take to the GDC. Thank you very much to everyone for coming. Bye. Thank you.