Rome-based Agencies’ International Women’s Day 2023

Background

International Women's Day (IWD) is a global day to commemorate and uphold women's achievements, raise awareness on the challenges and reconfirm commitment to gender equality. It also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. The United Nations theme for IWD 2023 is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” and it is aligned with the United Nations 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women priority theme ‘Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’.

This year’s IWD theme recognizes and celebrates the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education. It also explores the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities, while acknowledging the role that bold, transformative actions, inclusive technologies, and accessible education can play in accelerating gender equality and creating new opportunities to benefit women and men equally.

Every year the Rome-based agencies (RBAs) join forces to commemorate the International Women’s Day to reiterate their commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women, and to discuss practical approaches and policy recommendations for addressing the current and ongoing challenges. This year’s high-level event will be one of the RBA’s joint efforts that will demonstrate their long-standing commitment to women’s empowerment and gender equality. The event will provide an opportunity for the RBAs to present key findings about the current status of rural women in agrifood systems, highlight how innovation and digitization can and are advancing gender equality, and offer policy recommendations to accelerate progress.

On this occasion, the RBAs will welcome member states, policy makers and colleagues to recognize and celebrate women’s achievements, particularly those that capitalize on the transformative power of inclusive innovation for achieving food security and nutrition, which are critical to foster gender equality and rural women’s empowerment for current and future generations.

2023 Theme

Digitalization in the agri-food system has the potential to play a significant role in achieving global food security and improving livelihoods especially in rural areas, by offering various value propositions. It has a positive impact on activities, processes and stakeholders at different levels.

Digital technology could support gender equality in agrifood systems in many ways by addressing the key constraints facing women’s participation in agri-food value chains and by providing new means and channels for women to participate in the chain. Examples of specific areas in which digital tools could be leveraged to create gains for rural women and girls include digitally enabled extension and advisory services (EAS), digital financial services, and e-digital platforms for e-commerce. 

However, the rapid proliferation of digital tools and services stands in stark contrast to the many systemic and structural barriers to technology access and adoption that many women still face. Furthermore, the digital gap is persisting, as recent statistics show that rural usage is particularly lagging and the share of Internet users in urban areas is twice as high as in rural areas.   

Moreover, the gender gap is evident globally, as 69 per cent of men are using the Internet compared with 63 per cent of women. Women in LMICs are 16% less likely to use mobile internet than men and progress in reducing the mobile internet gender gap has stalled. Rural women are particularly disadvantaged in terms of ICT access and less likely to engage with ICT solutions, due to a number of systematic barriers including affordability, Illiteracy, user capabilities, and constrained social norms.  

Given the perceived benefits that digital transformation can bring to the rural sector, ensuring inclusive access to digital technology and education that benefit men and women equally is crucial in reducing gender inequalities and unleashing rural women’s potential. Under this promise and premise, governments and development organizations are now calling for greater digital inclusion for all. While digitalization on its own cannot solve all the gender-related disadvantages women face in value chain development, if implemented properly inclusive digitalization and innovation can improve women’s ability to act effectively and productively in agri-food systems.

This year's theme leverages on the idea that by embracing new technologies and advancing women’s and girls’ skills and knowledge can accelerate progress towards gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. Thus, the event will bring together thought leaders, policy practitioners and change makers who are redefining innovation – creating new social, economic and cultural codes for a gender equal future in the rural sector and beyond.  The event will serve also as an opportunity to share some insights from the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood systems report which cover the gender gap in digitalization.

Objectives of the event

1. Raise awareness of the importance of promoting inclusive and equitable access to digital technologies for rural women and girls and discuss policy solutions that tackle the constraints to women’s technology adoption.
2. Highlight the achievements of rural women, in particular those related to capacities, digital skills and agripreneurship.
3. Discuss how innovation, digitalization and inclusion have the power to disrupt “business as usual” and accelerate gender equality in rural areas.
4. Reaffirm the RBAs’ commitment to inclusive digitalization, by building the digital skills and of rural women and youth, enhancing their uptake of digital technologies and innovations, and stimulating policies and programmes to tackle the barriers to women’s technology adoption.

 Key Messages

• Gender gaps in access to internet and mobile phones have narrowed in recent years. However, the digitally excluded are disproportionately women, and women living in rural areas.
• Comprehensive policies that take gender and other socioeconomic determinants into consideration are key to bridging the gap between rural women and men, and their ability to benefit in an inclusive manner from ICTs.
• To tackle the digital gender gap effectively, ICT sectoral strategies, policies, plans and budgets need to explicitly address rural women’s needs and priorities, circumstances, capabilities and preferences.

Draft Agenda

 Potential speakers in the panel

• Su Stephanou, Tech Founder of iCow, to target small scale farmers and assist them in increasing sustainable productivity and income.
• Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India. To speak about “WomenWill - The commitment to support the economic empowerment of women in rural India
• CEO of Precision Development, Owen Barder (https://precisiondev.org/)
• Catherine Adeya, Senior ICT4D & Governance Specialist
• Katie Kennedy Freeman, Senior Agriculture Economist. The World Bank.
• Sonia Jorge, Founder and Executive Director, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP)