Session
Digital Divides & Inclusion
Gender Digital Divide
EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age
Primary organizers: KAIST, Georgia Tech, and ITU
Stakeholders:
- Moon Choi, KAIST
- Michael Best, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Atsuko Okuda, ITU
- Carla Licciardello, ITU
- Tamara Dancheva, GSMA
- Dasom Lee, KAIST
- Taylor De Rosa, KAIST
- Ern Chern Khor, KAIST
- So Young Kim, KAIST
- Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania
- Maria Garrido, University of Washington
- Allison Gillwald, Research ICT Africa
- Lilian Volcan, University of Oxford
- Tavishi Ahluwalia, National Law University Delhi
- Sisa Ngabaza, University of the Western Cape
- Gloria Bonder, Latin American Postgraduate Institute of Social Sciences (FLACSO)
- Ayanna Samuels, Oslo Met
- Michelle F. Settecase, EY
- Naima Hassan, Government of Somalia
- Ayesha Zainudeen, LIRNEAsia
- Helani Galpaya, LIRNEAsia
- Javiera Macaya, CETIC
- Molly Lesher, OECD
- Leon Gwaka, University of Pennsylvania
- Sindhura KS, University of Pennsylvania
- Leslie Dwolatzky, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Moon Choi, KAIST
- Michael Best, Georgia Tech
- Carla Liccicardello, ITU
Gathering, presentations, and discussions
The EQUALS Global Partnership Research Coalition is a group of experts in information gathering and analysis who are dedicated to generating knowledge about the existence, causes, and remedies for gender digital inequalities. The coalition is composed of researchers from a variety of regions and contexts, and it convenes annually to network, share knowledge, and develop research priorities.
During this year's meeting, the coalition will focus on the following:
- Identifying innovative and novel research techniques to address the gender digital divide
- Developing critical priorities for the EQUALS Research Coalition
- Determining the direction of the forthcoming EQUALS Annual Report
The coalition's work is essential to closing the gender digital divide and ensuring that all people have the opportunity to benefit from the digital revolution. By bringing together experts from around the world, the coalition is able to generate new knowledge, develop innovative solutions, and advocate for policies that promote gender equality in the digital age.
Report
Meeting Minutes and Report: 2023 EQUALS Research Coalition Annual Meeting
The EQUALS Research Coalition convened its annual meeting on October 8, 2023 with participation from 14 members. The primary agenda revolved around the upcoming 2024 EQUALS Research Report, which will be segmented into three key areas: Access, Skills, and Leadership. To facilitate meaningful contributions, members engaged in breakout groups aligned with these focus areas, exploring potential research topics and identifying potential contributors. Finally, the meeting featured a comprehensive large group discussion to strategize the timeline and execution of the research project.
Key Takeaways
- The next iteration of the EQUALS Research Coalition Annual Report on the gender digital divide will be published in the fall/winter of 2024, with three focuses: Skills, Leadership, and Access.
- As a next step, the co-chairs will recruit authors and circulate a statement of interest form that will be due on December 1, 2023.
- As a long-term goal, the EQUALS Research Coalition will consider developing a signature scale for assessing gender digital equity.
Meeting Minutes
Access group
Members: Christopher Yoo, Maria Garrido, Matias Centeno
Topics discussed:
- Many partners to reach out to APC, Georgia Tech, etc. Can give them a platform to talk about the great work they are already doing.
- Will devote part of the section to forward-looking, more speculative work. For example, thinking about alternative measures of access, like network-based data that we can make inferences from.
Leadership group
Members: Moon Choi, Dasom Lee, Pranav Tiwari, Audrey Plonk
Discussion points:
- There are different types of leadership (fellowship based and training and e-learning based), as well as various existing statistics used to measure leadership.
- It would be interesting if we could distill it down to one signature indicator, and then try to go into as much depth as possible.
- Interested in looking at different types of corporations and geographies.
Skills group
Members: So Young Kim, Gayani Hurulle
Discussion points:
- There are difficulties in finding commonalities in how digital skills are defined across contexts, especially when we consider more sophisticated technological skill sets related to AI.
- Possible partners to reach out to include APC-ICT, World Bank, etc.
Online cluster
Members: Taylor De Rosa, Ern Chern Khor, Ayanna Samuels, Prossy Kawala
Discussion points:
- Discussed the research interests of the two members. Ayanna’s research is focused on digital innovation ecosystems and could contribute to any section. Prossy’s organization, the Center for Media Literacy and Community Development could contribute a case study on training for youth and women in media and information literacy in Uganda.
Discussion on timeline
- Would be good to transition the bi-monthly call to separate calls for each cluster, led by the section leader. For timeline, perhaps we can get the statement of interest, including title, short abstract, and author by November.
- It would be nice to have an end to end timeline or road map of the process that we can show to possible authors.
- We should be mindful about giving a generous timeline during the editing process because it can take a long time.