WOMEN’S RIGHTS ONLINEREPORTCARD
COLOMBIA
Measuring Progress,
Driving Action

INTE’SENACCESS & W
ET OWERM OM
NENR MPTE

COLOMBIAOVERALL SCORE:
SCORE:

60%

SCORE:Y

7With 1GB mobile broadband costing 1.26% ofaverage monthly income, Colombia meets theAlliance for Affordable Internet’s affordability target.
The Vive Digital plan for 2015-2018 pledges toestablish more public Internet access centres andto implement subsidies with a focus on connecting
the poorest populations.

DIGITAO R DA BILIT

The gender gap is closing in Bogota, with 71% ofwomen and 76% men using the Internet. However,men continue to have greater access to computers,
and are more likely to access information about health,legal issues, and government services online. Lack oftime was cited as a major barrier for women.

SCORE:KILLS & EDU
SCLIONATFAF

6

6The Vive Digital plan includes a focus on teacher
training in ICT and education. 7 in 10 secondary
schools have Internet connectivity. Programmessuch as Mujeres TIC (‘ICT Women’), focus on ICTskills development for women. However, morecan still be done to advance women in technologyand engineering.

RELEVAICESRVSCORE:

LINE S AFETYNOCONTENT & SETN

4

Civil society organisations provide extensive sexualand reproductive health information online. Althoughjust 2% of women use digital financial services, thismay change with new initiatives such as mobile
wallets for government social transfers, and freehealth insurance linked to mobile savings accounts.

SCORE:

5

There are no institutional or legal mechanisms thatallow women to effectively report online violence.
Neither training nor clear guidelines are provided
to the police or judiciary. However, Colombia does
have relatively robust provisions for the protectionof personal data.

CLOSING THE GENDER GAP: A 5 POINT ACTION PLAN
1

MAINSTREAM GENDER IN THE GOVERNMENT’S VIVE DIGITAL INITIATIVE.
Review the national ICT plan, Vive Digital, to ensure that online gender equality is an explicit priority, withassociated targets.

2

DEVELOP A NATIONWIDE BASELINE STUDY ON WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY.
Develop quantitative and qualitative indicators that measure public ICT initiatives and their impact onwomen. Collect and analyse sex-disaggregated data.

3CREATE WOMEN’S DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES. Establish training
programmes focused on the needs of all Colombian women, aiming to foster access and use of the Internet
as a tool for the full enjoyment of women’s rights and empowerment.

4

SUPPORT WOMEN TO BECOME ICT LEADERS. Create a national strategy to promotescience, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers among women and girls. Establish
female-friendly spaces for technology development and innovation, and motivate women and girls tobecome leaders in technology.

5END ONLINE GENDER BASED VIOLENCE. Urgently develop a training and awareness strategy
on digital gender based violence for law enforcement and judicial authorities. This should include a largescale, ongoing national awareness campaign against all forms of violence against women, including online
violence, to build a culture of gender equality and tolerance.

PROJECT OVERVIEWThe United Nations recently
made gender-equitable access toinformation and communications
technologies (ICTs) central to the
Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), which set the global
development agenda until 2030.
Why? ICTs are powerful. They can help todeliver improved healthcare, quality education
for all, financial inclusion, more accountable
government, and much more. In adopting theSDGs, all countries have pledged to prioritise
universal Internet access, and to use ICTs toempower women.
But much hard work lies ahead if weare to translate this vision into reality. A
formidable gender gap in Internet access,digital skills and online rights exists - our
Women’s Rights Online research shows that inmany communities, women are 50% less likely
than men to be online and 30-50% less likely
to use the Internet for economic and politicalempowerment. Women face many barriers including high costs, lack of know-how, and ascarcity of relevant and empowering content as well as social and legal obstacles to speaking
freely and privately online.
The Web Foundation and partners have
prepared these gender audits to help countries
assess what they need to do to overcome
the gender digital divide. Fundación Karisma
has taken the lead, in consultation with othernational stakeholders, on identifying concrete
steps that government can take in the next
year to address the challenges and gaps
identified. We hope that this report card andaction plan will spark debate and galvanise
policy change.

A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY:
We based our scores on 14 simple indicators for which reliable empirical evidence exists,and grading was done in the second quarter of 2016. See the accompanying overview
for a description of the indicators and sources used. A full methodology is available onour website.

Produced in collaboration with:

With support from: