The Gender Desk Officer at the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region, Madam Juliana Kwara, has highlighted the impact of digital transformation to gender equality and women empowerment.
According to her, the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day Celebration: “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” is an important reminder of the immense potential that digital transformation holds for accelerating gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She stated that the 2022 UN Women’s Gender Snapshot shows a loss of $1 trillion for economies of developing countries in the last decade as a result women’s exclusion from the digital world and the figure is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2025 if nothing is done in this regard.
Madam Juliana said women’s participation in the digital sphere is therefore not just a matter of gender equality – it is a prerequisite for sustainable development.
“Besides economic benefits, enhancing women’s safe and equal access to digital technologies offers immense opportunities to address development and humanitarian challenges and spark innovative and creative solutions that meet women’s needs and promote their empowerment” she argues.
The Sagnarigu Gender Desk Officer made these remarks in an interview with THE CUSTODIAN Northern Regional Correspondent as the world commemorate the International Women’s Day celebration today Wednesday, March 8, 2023.
Madam Juliana Kwara has argued for women participation in the creation and decision-making around digital technology.
“We must ensure that today’s emerging data-driven solutions do not perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes and patterns of discrimination. Online content and technology need to be developed with and for women and girls in a way that responds to their specific needs and priorities within a regulatory framework that prioritises, protects, and promotes the human rights of women and girls” she emphasized.
She added, “As the world is evolving to become more digital, we must ensure we can keep up the pace and unleash the potential of women and girls to become active agents of change in this transformation. Digital technologies need to be used to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and gender equality, not to set us further back.”
