Kathmandu, March 8
To celebrate International Women's Day 2023, the World Bank Country Teams for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka hosted a virtual talk; 'Accelerating Gender Equality: Towards a #DigitAll Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal', to discuss how improved digital capabilities can accelerate gender equality in the region.
The event was organised by the World Bank Group's Global Practices for Social Sustainability Inclusion (SSI) and Digital Development today which saw Mansi Kedia, senior fellow for Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, as the moderator alongside panellists Ayesha Zainudeen, senior research manager for LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka; Nhasala Joshi, co-founder of Women Leaders in Technology, Nepal; and Niuma Faiz, advisory member for Women in Tech, Maldives.
Faris Hadad-Zervos, country director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, remarked that the event was organised to discuss how improved digital capabilities can accelerate gender equality in the South Asia region. Stating that a one per cent increase in mobile phone penetration leads to a 0.12 per cent increase in the human development index in South Asia as per data, he said that technologies are expanding national and digital economies in creating jobs, opening access to markets, information, and service, while allowing businesses and the governments to deliver innovative service to more people in the region.
"Also, a 10 per cent increase in mobile broadband networks causes a 0.14 per cent increase in GDP for non- OECD countries. In the South Asia region, most of the inhabitants live in areas covered by 4G mobile broadband networks, forming a large consumer base with access to information, services, and markets. However, the potential of digitisation across South Asia remains untapped and unequal, especially between men and women with the digital divide remaining an ongoing challenge," he said.
Hadad-Zervos also shared that women in the region are 36 per cent less likely to use a mobile phone compared to men. "In Nepal, figures show that only three per cent of women have used the internet to access bank accounts while only 15 per cent of women as opposed to 23 per cent of men have received or made digital payments. For women entrepreneurs, evidence from other regions demonstrates that social and emotional training and mobile savings can improve their performance. Stating that incorporating guidelines in tackling gender gaps across various aspects of the digital economy is indispensable for building back better digitally across South Asia, he shared that digital technologies can pave the way to economic opportunities as more women transition to the labour market."
Responding to queries on the types of challenges faced by women in Nepal in accessing as well as utilising the internet and the available opportunities in the sector during the panel discussion, Joshi remarked that it is important to realise how people and societies understand technology.
She further highlighted the barriers faced by women in terms of social challenges related to digital literacy, digital design, and the divide in ownership in the sector.
She also pointed out that there is a great opportunity in terms of trade and business marketing through digital platforms and added that there needs to be an ecosystem approach to policymaking and focusing on strengthening data collection.
Similarly, Faiz also pointed at the social and gender issues among other problems related to online safety and hate speech, and the lack of proper regulation of the digital front as other challenges for women in the sector.
Furthermore, Zainudeen shared that although research shows some improvement in the online penetration of women in India, significant gender gaps continue to remain.
"Access and meaningful access are two different things. There are big gaps in terms of skills. In Sri Lanka, we saw that 80 per cent of women and 78 per cent of online men could not at the time complete a payment or transaction online. In India, 59 per cent of women were not able to fill up the login details and passwords for online services or platforms. Those are key skills that one needs to play in the digital economy in the capacity of a consumer or a producer. In terms of work, the digital economy as we all know presents a lot of opportunities for women to work and to be empowered socially and economically. However, there are a whole series of challenges including the skills gap and education level."
Lada Strelkova, World Bank operations manager for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, informed that data from 2018 shows that only 27 per cent of women use the internet compared to 41 per cent of men in Nepal, she pointed that the gender-specific divide is due to digital literacy gaps, prevailing social norms and practices, the tendency to prioritise boy's education over girls among others.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
