Digital innovation and gender equality in Africa

The Gender-Just Digital Innovation in Africa (GeDIA), funded by the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), aims to ensure women’s equal participation in Africa’s digital future. As digital innovation globally, and particularly in Africa, is taking place in unequal societies, there is a greater risk that the shift to digitisation will amplify inequalities. Greater gender equality is connected to other positive effects when it comes to development goals. It is important to think and invest on time in equal gender education in areas such as digital training, the use of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), and digital-related design. This project will gather women leaders and male allies to develop an agenda where African women will be the central actors in Africa’s digital future. Peer-to-peer mentoring systems for female academics will also be in place and supported by the University of Sheffield’s Digital, Data and Innovation research theme within the Sheffield Institute for International Development (SIID), the University of Cape Town’s School of IT, and the Makerere University’s College of Computing and IT.