Digital Skills & Economic Empowerment for Women in East Africa

Overview

The digital economy presents transformative opportunities for women's economic participation — yet the gender digital divide persists. This dialogue explored the intersecting barriers of access, affordability, literacy, and safety that limit women's full participation in digital markets. Participants examined successful digital skills programmes, platform economy protections, and the role of policy in creating an enabling environment for women in the digital economy.

Key Outcomes

• Shared framework adopted for measuring digital literacy outcomes disaggregated by gender and age.
• Government representatives committed to reviewing national ICT curricula to include gender-responsive digital skills.
• Call for platforms operating in the gig economy to publish gender pay gap data annually.
• Pledge by two telecoms providers to expand zero-rated access to digital skills training platforms for women.
• Recommendation that digital safety and online harassment protections be embedded in all women's digital skills programmes.

Speakers

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