Closing the digital gender gap: lessons from the pandemic
Channel: IIED
Date: 2021-10-28

Technology and the internet can be a great enabler. But while easy and cheap access to digital tools and channels has opened opportunities for some during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people still face barriers and are being left behind.

This online event organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) considered how to make a digital world more inclusive and how we can apply gender mainstreaming strategies to digital technology to create equal and better opportunities for women and drive true progress in gender equality.

The speakers were:

*(4:09) Maryanne Ochola, head of partnerships and programmes at ShuJaaz Inc on whether gender or rural/urban is the real digital divide
*(8:09) Matt Wright, web planning and content manager at IIED on practical ways of online collaboration: if you don’t get the basics in place, you leave some people out
*(14:53) Grace Natabaalo, a Uganda-based communications specialist and research lead at Caribou Digital and Nasubo Ngoma, researcher at Qhala on real life stories of the pandemic – it’s hard but if we get it right, digital platforms can help
*(24:01) Barry Smith and Sam Greene, researcher and senior researcher respectively in IIED's Climate Change research group on using digital tools to engage citizens in building climate resilience

IIED's director of communications Liz Carlile was the moderator. The question-and-answer session starts at 33:13.

More information: https://www.iied.org/closing-digital-gender-gap-lessons-pandemic