UN Women have called for more avenues to create policies and initiatives that would increase women and girls’ digital literacy and encourage their active participation in technology.
Stakeholders at a showcase event organized by UN Women identified technology and innovation as critical to the advancement of gender equality and concrete change for women and girls worldwide.
The event seeks to use technological innovations and tools to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment and inclusion.
It aimed at giving visibility, exposure and the opportunity to network, receive feedback, mentorship and other supports to women and men.
The UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong, explained that the showcase was part of UN Women’s International Women’s Day activities, which aligned with the theme for this year’s celebration; DigitALL Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality;
“As today’s presentations demonstrate, young women and men in Nigeria are leading the way to create and provide digital and innovative solutions to a variety of issues across a number of sectors of society: gender-based violence, tailored education and training courses, health and medical issues, financial and banking services, access to markets, and environmentally conscious products and energy solutions, she explained.
The UN Resident Coordinator, Matthias Schmale, stressed the need for all to get involved in bridging the digital gender gap.
“Digital gender gap comes with massive costs. According to a report from UN Women, the exclusion of women from the digital world has shaved $1 trillion from the GDP of low- and middle-income countries including Nigeria over the past decade. Therefore, closing the digital gender gap requires significant investment by the Government of Nigeria in both innovations and services” he stressed.
Also speaking, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, noted that “from Nov 2022 to date, we have trained more than two hundred and twenty-two thousand young people. We believe that in Nigeria, we have the growing young population, we have vibrant entrepreneurial and expanding tech eco system which if we can leverage on can provide and create an opportunity for us to achieve gender equality and women empowerment. Together we can make Nigeria better”.
Mr. Inuwa, added that the agency was working on the Gender digital bridge strategy to close all the gap.
He further highlighted some actionable ideas that would help one become an innovative person.
“To be innovative, you need to move out of your comfort zone and try something new. You need to believe in yourself, whether you are a man or a woman, you need to identify your unique ability to do whatever you want to do, we need to promote and collaborate with others because innovation doesn’t happen in Isolation. And innovation is about bringing new things or taking an idea from inception to an impact. We need to agree that failure is part of the process when you try and fail. You need to think creatively,” he advised.
Through a call for submissions and nominations, UN Women selected ten young women and men to present their innovations to a variety of stakeholders, including relevant government MDAs, members of the private and tech sector, donor agencies from different countries and heads of UN agencies.
The ten young women and men displayed and pitched their innovations as part of the showcase event.
Present at showcase event were Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria; Finland to Nigeria; Ambassador of France to Nigeria and Ambassador of Norway to Nigeria.
UN WOMEN UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
