WOMEN’S RIGHTS ONLINEREPORT
CARD
NA M IBIA
Measuring Progress,
Driving Action

RELEVAINTE

CONTENT & SE
NTON

ICESRV’SENACCESS & W
ET OWERM OM
NENR MPTE

LINE S AFETY

NAMIBIAOVERALL SCORE:

SCORE:SCORE:

29%

4

Only 47% of Namibian women have access to the internet.
No national policy, including the Gender Policy, recognizes
ICTs as a tool for fighting gender inequalities. There are noclear set targets for using ICTs to empower women. Overall,no ICT sex-disaggregated data is collected regularly to informpolicy or gender interventions at all levels.

3.5

SCORE:

Government and a few civil society organisations andprivate providers do provide information on legal rights,
sexual and reproductive health rights and services throughinternet/ICT platforms but to a very little extent. Where
information is available, it is largely about program reporting,not updated regularly nor easily accessible. About 15% ofwomen personally use mobile financial services.

2The Namibia Police and its Women and Child Protection
Units have not received any training on ICT based violenceagainst women. There is no law criminalizing online cyberviolence. Usage of existing laws to curb cyber violence
has surfaced in the past, bringing little to no justice tovictims. There is no data protection law in place to enable
women to seek recourse when faced with instances ofnon-consensual image sharing, better known as ‘revenge
porn’ and sexualized hate speech.

CLOSING THE GENDER GAP: A 5 POINT ACTION PLAN
Y

DIGI
TA

O R DA BILITKILLS & EDU
SCLIONATFAF1 	IMPROVE DIGITAL SKILLS INTERVENTIONS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS. To digitally empower women, structured
programs including adult ICT literacy, should be established to grow women enterprises, increase ICT use and avail opportunities. Regarding
ICT in education, consider these 4 key steps for policy implementation. a) ensure access to a functioning and web connected ICT equipmentin schools b) implement ICT skills and education for learners nationwide c) monitor and evaluate teacher training programs on digitalskills and literacy d) monitor and evaluate programs that encourage women and girls to enter technology/ICTs, science, engineering andmathematics.

2 	IMPROVE ICT ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY. Set policy targets aimed at subsidizing rural internet access, including
operationalizing the Universal Access Service Fund as a long term mechanism to drive digital inclusion and access to web services
especially for rural women. Targets should also offer support to women-led ICT initiatives such as community networks and prioritizing
public access programs. Improve internet affordability to support women’s access and use in order to advance their empowerment.

SCORE:

4

1GB of data in Namibia costs over 8% of average monthlyincome. National development plans promise 80% population
coverage by broadband services by 2020 and universal
access to ICT by 2022. Government has establishedmulti-purpose community centers, but many are not fully
functioning, equipment breakdowns and lack of connectivity
are an ongoing concern. Public libraries are increasingly
providing ICT access.

SCORE:

470% of Namibian schools have no access to the internet.
This inequality makes digital education uptake a challenge.
The Harambee Prosperity Plan has targeted 80% broadband
connection and usage in all schools to allow e-learningby 2020. A 2005 ICT Policy in Education previously faced
implementation challenges. Additionally, data on women intechnology, engineering, research and development (R&D)
fields is not collected.

3 	PRIORITISE RELEVANT ONLINE CONTENT FOR WOMEN PARTICIPATION. Create programs that train andsupport women’s groups to create online content and use the internet to amplify women’s voices. In order to increase digital financialinclusion, government needs to review its social grants distribution means to allow payments via digital platforms, to increase percentageof women partaking in digital skills.

4 	ESTABLISH SPECIFIC TARGETS TO CLOSE ICT GENDER GAP. The proposed National ICT Policy should set targets
for women and girls’ ICT and internet access to bridge the digital gender gap. The national Broadband Policy and Plan should be revised
to set gender-specific targets seeking to close the gender-digital gap. Data on women’s internet access and use should be collectedannually at all levels as evidence in meeting SDG targets.

5 	ENSURE A SAFE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT THAT PROTECTS WOMEN’S DIGITAL RIGHTS Namibia must
pass a law protecting private data and information online. The police and the judiciary’s ability to address online gender-based violenceneeds to be strengthened through training and capacity building. Existing policies should be revised to address online violence against
women (OVAW) and harness ICTs to fight GBV offline and online. Awareness campaigns should be prioritized to publicize legal processes
available for seeking redress. There is an urgent need to uphold women’s digital rights while also securing online freedoms.

PROJECT OVERVIEWThe United Nations recently
made gender-equitable access toinformation and communications
technologies (ICTs) central to theSustainable 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 - ourWomen’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 a scarcity of relevant and empoweringcontent - 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 thegender digital divide. Internet Society Namibia
Chapter has taken the lead, in consultationwith other national stakeholders, on identifying
concrete steps that government can take inthe next year to address the challenges andgaps identified. We hope that this report card
and action 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 first quarter of 2020. See the accompanying overview fora description of the indicators and sources used. A full methodology is available on ourwebsite.

Produced with support from: