IGF 2023 Open Forum #59 Whose Internet? Towards a Feminist Digital Future for Africa

With the AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS) and Continental Data Policy Framework (DPF) enabling countries to harness the potential of data as a strategic asset, realising women’s interests, demands, and roles in these processes is crucial. Yet a persistent digital gender gap is preventing African women from meaningfully participating in and benefiting from the rapidly digitising global economy and putting them at risk of being left further behind. The opportunities that datafication might introduce for the continent are therefore vastly unequal, and might exacerbate rather than alleviate gender inequality if not addressed. To counter these inequalities, harmonised and gender-transformative efforts need to address the unique challenges that women, girls and gendered communities face in digital spaces, while also ensuring a better understanding of women’s respective roles and needs in leading Africa’s digital transformation journey. By shaping a feminist approach to the importance of facilitating gender-sensitive implementation of digital strategies for equal participation, including by addressing the paucity of disaggregated data to indicate women’s lived experiences in data environments, this session hopes to contribute to the discussion of how to promote a more equitable approach to Africa’s digital future, for all Africans. This interactive multistakeholder session brings together leading female experts from the public and private sector, civil society, academia and the international development community to discuss pathways towards shifting power imbalances and adapting gender-transformative strategies that ensure the inclusion of women’s perspectives for driving smarter and more equitable policies while promoting Africa’s journey towards a more inclusive digital transformation agenda. The session will engage with diverse stakeholders, who are all women of influence in their various sectors, to deliberate on the opportunity that processes of datafication and digitalisation present for gender mainstreaming and gender transformation on the African continent. They will achieve this by: - Showcasing the role that they are playing (as women) leading Africa’s digital transformation journey. - Examining the opportunities for gender mainstreaming in the implementation of the AU Data Policy Framework as well as its Digital Transformation Strategy. - Exploring and sharing opportunities to increase the participation of women in digital policymaking. - Reflecting on the benefits of and need for disaggregated data to improve the lived experiences of women in Africa as well as the relevance of gendered data to decision-making. - Highlighting interventions which would strengthen the gender transformative promise of data and datafication.

To facilitate suitable alignment between hybrid attendance and onsite participation, the moderators will be reminded before the session of the importance of providing sufficient space for online participants to participate, to make comments and/or ask questions, before opening the floor to onsite participants, who have an advantage by being in the room. Panelists will participate both online and onsite in order to set the scene for hybrid participation. The online moderator will also make use of the chat function to engage with participants. Before starting the session, all participants will be reminded of the rules of engagement - of the need to have respect for other participants’ views while adhering to the IGF’s code of conduct.