The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> Welcome to the Internet Governance Forum. They find a woman to come to the session. They made sure I get all the support we need to get speakers so get people to sit on board. And the youth, some of the women have now -- the youth have now moved up and now speakers are on the panel which is very good too. Your support is a testament to your commitment, and I remember when I discussed this issue with you earlier on that. You said I am committed to helping you. And it's really been three years of doing that.
I checked with you last minute. You made it here to sit here, and that shows a commitment to the ecosystem that people want to change and women can be on the leadership. I'm not going to take long. Because I want more speaking. But for me it's your kindness is always appreciated who are here. But I always think of what he once said he said one child, one teacher. One book. One plan can change the world. It is a very simple statement but if you think about it, for us as women, that's what we live with daily.
It might be a seat on table but we need more women.
And other thing that I take is what the secretary general said.
>> Today as we are sitting here we have those connections of one woman, one connection. One idea that can change the Internet Governance landscape and make sure we are creating a brighter future that is inclusive for women. I don't know where to take it, and I will give it over to Sara.
>> SARAH ARMSTRONG: My name Sarah Armstrong, and I am speaking on behalf of the Internet Society as well as the Internet Society Foundation. We are two different organizations.
The Internet Society Foundation or the ISAW Foundation. I'm here with Sally Wentworth. She got delayed as it happens. There are times your planes decide they won't get you when you want to go there. Under those circumstances she asked me if I would join the panel, and I am happy to do so.
So I would like to speak a little bit also on more statistics to build on that, but also talk about the solutions. And I would like to speak specifically in addition to the solutions of the Internet Society and the Internet Society Foundation to addressing this issue to speak about the direction forward.
So I want to start by sharing our Vision Statement. The Vision Statement for the Internet Society and the Internet Society Foundation is where we want to go.
It's an issue for women. I don't have to tell you there are so many more men than women who are involved in the internet in all kinds of ways and we are really trying to change. That it's really holding back society to not have the women as involved as they could or should be.
As we have heard, there are more men than women on the internet and this is particularly prominent in low income countries. So that's a target for a lot of the work that we do. According to the women in the digital economy which some may know as WIDEF, ensuring women can fully participate in the global digital economy, entire economies will benefit in terms of a higher GDP, stronger workforce and higher levels of innovation. So there's a real reason why this is about not just empowering the women, but helping to really add to the value of the community and the thing that they all can contribute together. So we also have a report that says gender digital divide has a direct and negative effect on global development and inhibits global goals for creating inclusive societies and economies. So we need to make changes and close this gender digital divide. So we are doing. That.
In many case Wes are focused on training. Because that's so important where we can get women into environments where they can learn skills. We had an example where the Internet Society did a training in Mali and these women had no opportunities for the skills work of how to use the internet, configure network, all of that type of thing, so we are addressing that through training. And we also have aloft other programs to do. That and we are making a real effort to make programs more inclusive of women and more targeted at women because of what we are talking about here and the impact they can make on overall communities and overall economies. In addition the foundation which is an organization that funds other organizations to do this type of work we have many grants in many countries where our organizations are partner organizations are really out there doing a lot of training and encouraging women to be involved and providing opportunities that otherwise may not be available. So I encourage to you look at the Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation websites. And the applications we are seeing more people who want to use their programme funding to target women. So this is all really encouraging to see the light -- in light of the end we are working in and the environment we are describing with some of these statistics.
And we also are making one of our 2030 goals to bring an affordable resilient, reliable internet. And we want to make sure that we do this with women in mind because we know that women are important for the reasons that I've stated to be involved in helping to really augment countries. So we are really focusing on women for the next five-year strategy that we developed and this is a strategy for the Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation we are working specifically on focusing on social areas. That is an area where we feel is important for a real sustainable anchor for the community. And according to the 2024 Global Social Enterprises Report, Social Enterprises created in 2024, 200 million jobs. So this is an important place for us to focus. So those are some of the areas that the internet society and the Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation are focused and where we are looking at our focus.
And then I want to focus on looking at policies. Since we are talking a lot about policy recommendations so again they are recommending to close the gender digital divide that we focus on five different areas, first improved access to affordable devices in online experiences, second increased availability of relevant products and tools. So this goes to all the thing we just heard about. Elevating digital literacy and skills, an area I have just spoken more about. Enhancing safety and security, and the fifth is generating data and insights. And I think we can all agree that these are important places for us to focus. Not just so women have more opportunities but that the communities can benefit from the women in their communities and all that they have to offer.
So in closing, thank you for your attention. I want to say that still over one-third of the world's population is not connected, which translates to about 2.6 billion people. And women and girls are the most affected by this situation. So we need to acknowledge this, work together, and meaningfully empower women not Internet Governance and to push for change and make this change happen. So there's a lot of work to do.
We have started and we are working very hard and diligently to continue to do this. The organizations to which we provide funds are also doing this. We know that many of you out there are doing this. And we know that we can work together and make a difference. So, again, on behalf of Sally Wentworth and myself, Sarah Armstrong. Thank you so much for your attention. I look forward to a discussion.
>> Thank you so much for a great speech. I'm used to hearing the mic speaking back. So my brain is looking for that. So I should take this off. I'm going to read a speak. Apparently the people online cannot hear it clearly. I will read Thoko's speech. Thoko is the CEO -- I found that 23 years ago she closed the digital gap for women and girls. When I found her, she was 11, and she's been with the organization since then and now she's a big women and gripping it as the CEO.
I'm busy living life. I will read her speech. This is how she wrote it.
As we get in this room we realize the digital transforms for lives and innovate economies but we also acknowledge the disparity particularly for women in Africa and across the global south. Programs related to digital trance Toronto formation. And number one access to infrastructure. And this is a big one for women in Africa who apparently people online with hear now. I'm not sure if she can talk. Can you talk? Respond -- sorry --
>> THOKOZILE MIYA: I don't think you will hear me in the room.
>> I'm sorry. The people online can hear now. She is not responding. So number one limited access to digital infrastructure. This is the bigger thing. Once you saw the structure that's women's problems.
That's my belief. You sort out one issue which is digital infrastructure, women -- women can move mountains, let's say. That women have access to resources they will make the best of it. They will move a mountain and make one big thing. That's why in Africa there's a saying that empower a woman, you are empowering a village. It doesn't say you empower a man.
It was written generations ago that you empower one woman it's generations I truly believe in this. Now I'm collaborating am I will read it as she wrote it.
In many parts of Africa women face significant barriers to access the internet and digital tools. The areas -- can she talk? She can't talk. In many places in Africa women face significant barriers to access in digital tools. By poor activity and lack of infrastructure. Women with disabilities connected and unable to leverage digital opportunity for education or partnership. Digital literacy and skill set. The digital divide is merely about access but also about skills.
It's not really about access but it's about skills to use technology effectively. Women often led their training and confidence to navigate detailed platforms, which stem as their participation in e-commerce and remote work and digitally driven economies this is the way we really need to hone on and -- I must say -- I'm proud to say it's been supporting us. We have been getting small grants to run programs for digital literacy for women. And that's something that really now we should be focusing on. It's a big thing or else we are leaving them behind.
Number three is gender bias. Women in digital markets face systemic challenges including limited access to finding discriminatory practices and lack of gender responsive policies.
This prevents women-owned businesses from scaling and thriving the fourth one is security online and harassments and gender based violence curtail women from participating in markets and governments. The absence of protections and support exacerbates these challenges. Number five underrepresented in policy making spaces where digital transformation spaces are there. This leads to perpetuation of structural barriers that effects women with digital opportunities. And the key barriers of access in Africa for women's economic participations is that the integration of these challenges mentioned about form significant barriers to women's economic participation.
So if women have no access to the internet, which we now know that the internet is not just the internet. It's information data access, change of life. If women do not have access to those things we are talking about, they lack thible. It's caused also by affordability and the cost of data remains prohibitive for many women. It causes constraints for them to participate. And it discourages the outright participation.
She wrote this. But I understand what this means. The outright participating is very easy. We work with boys and girls. If you put a laptop in front of a boy. There's nothing wrong with. That 90% of the boys -- if it breaks, they call other boys and say it broke down. We put it in front of girls. If it breaks, they are afraid of coming to me and saying I broke it. They come to me and say I broke it. And this is a simple thing that girls want perfection ands societal northerlies while as boys are not afraid of breaking it and saying it's broken, fix it.
And those a little minor things, because as girls we do teach the boys. Those boys will excel super fast because they are used to playing games. They have the association from childhood to you about them in a tech space is so strong. Yes, have.
It but not African girls. We shouldn't just look at girls from first world countries and assume we are still on the internet.
That's the reality of Africa. Reality of Africa if your house has a computer, what an achievement in the house. My whole mission was to get parents to buy one computer for the home. Please just buy one computer. Because there's a difference between working on this and working on a computer and I think that's one of the thing I need us to hold on when you open discussion. Because I see her story is very long so I'm skipping some of the thing ask I will go to what we are doing.
We are not just challenging these norms in societal challenges that women are facing we are bridging the detailed divide and we are elevating women to come into the tech space and making sure we support them as they grow along. So we have a project in Himalaya. When we entered this space we implemented the class in the school. This is 2023. In 2023, South Africa is one of the elude countries that I know.
But in 2023 a school had an internet pod, going straight to the principal's office and he was the one with internet access. And then there was another pod going straight to the computer lab which was giving 30 students access to your computer lab. Now those students could only access the internet for one hour.
And when you upload a PDF it doesn't upload because the data is with running at 2 something megabytes. It was horrible. Because I'm not used to. That I walked in and I said I can't work like this. So I went and said we need to change this.
And thanks to the company that was sponsoring us, they came -- we had to rebuild a new computer. We had to call the internet service provider and leave what the government had put there. Because it doesn't work. Build a new computer in the school and get the new internet service provider to come. Fortunately they agreed to sponsor us for three years. Put in the line. When they came they discovered the whole community has no access to proper internet.
In fact they have access to something. It's not internet. So they can't put what is needed to put the broadband. So they had to put new layering.
It was such -- like it took us six months to implement a programme of two weeks. Just building the infrastructure. And that for she was an eye opener to say we also underestimated how the rural areas are because we work in Capetown and it's one of the -- all schools have proper internet. All teachers have access to everything and we couldn't implement a two-week programme.
It took us six months to lay the proper infrastructure and those are the realities. We work with Zetna and thanks to them they have really bill on cybersecurity skills and they are helping us to make sure that girls understand the cybersecurity online and they understand what are the challenges and how to prepare themselves.
For the future and they were to apply for jobs.
What does it mean to pose today. They participate on -- UN IGF. We advocate for gender responsive policies and making sure that we create mentorship as we enter spaces. Ladies and gentlemen as we call today it demands we work together across sectors and disciplines for the barriers that hold women back. I invite to you join hands with organizations to create a future with no women is left behind in the digital transformation.Ing to we can build a world where women's potential is fully realized and their contribution drives innovation and progress for all. Thank you, and I look forward to engaging in this inspiring summit ahead.
On behalf of Thoko, thank you. 3 minutes for comments. Anyone with a comment towards the speakers? Or comments? The floor is open.
I will close this session and say thank you very much -- (speaking non-English language). Every year, peace. I think at this point you passed the face of being the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum to the champion in women in IGF summit. I really appreciate. That you accepted this programme wholeheartedly. And I think it's beyond what IGF and the Secretariat is saying. It's from you as a person in believing that this platform will change for women participation. And you can see with your commitment in making sure that funding and this speaking and everything --
Even you sitting here. I know you have other sessions to be at. You were supposed to be here for 15 minutes and you made sure this session was accessible. That doesn't go unnoticed. I'm even getting emotional. Thank you.
>> SECRETARIAT: Can I also thank you, sincerely. I think this all started with you. Championing girls. Raising a girl I even know. That I am supposed to go to another session, and it's challenging for the Secretariat to go to any sessions because of the statistics. And I believe when have you dialogues which gives birth to corporations then we can make a change.
It's really coincidental that I'm going, and I want to invite to you that session. After this one to a session which will be focused on women and girls that don't have basic human rights.
There is a session starting just now where we will be hearing from colleagues speaking about the situation in Afghanistan, closing of the schools where digital is the only window to those girls and women to continue with their education and with -- to an extend, I wouldn't even call it a normal life according to our standards but at least a way to communicate with others and to continue learning. And perhaps we will not close this session. We can maybe move the workshop to room 4 and continue discussing -- I think our global voice is really needed for women and girls. In that country hi a great pleasure to work with them a couple of years back. It's been really a wonderful experience that will always stay with me.
And I think now is the time that we respond to them with what we can do within our capacity the way they were responding to us within their capacity helping us to build this really strong ecosystem. So thank you so much, once again. Thank you so much, Baratang. I know it's challenging to be first, but I think you broke the ice, and it's been a wonderful dialogue. Thank you.