Bridging the gender digital divide, in partnership with mobile telecom service providers, is a focus area of work for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
At USAID, “we have long supported programmes (deploying technology for women empowerment) and about to launch a couple of more that look at what we call combating the gender digital divide,” USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator Michelle Bekkering said on Wednesday.
In the city for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, she said mobile phones are a great equaliser, providing women access to resources such as money, helping them open a bank account and have their wages directly deposited.
Women specific
They “actually give them a modicum of control which they otherwise wouldn’t have,” she said, pointing to how mobile phones opens up the world to women. It serves different purposes, from being a device helping improve their safety to reaching out customers in different geographies for women entrepreneurs.
USAID had undertaken a mWomen project with GSMA, a body of mobile telecom network operators globally, to make mobile phones more affordable, Ms.Bekkering said. The emphasis was offering lower rates for women for the mobile airtime as well as promote development of women-friendly apps to block unwanted attention from “someone who is calling you or harassing you.”
Just having a large number of mobile phone connections does not mean that the women actually has access to them, she said to a query on whether such projects with telecom service providers are also planned for India. The USAID is also keen on improving access to the internet for women, she added.
Women empowerment
Besides being the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and Environment, Ms.Bekkering also concurrently serve as the agency’s senior general coordinator leading efforts aimed at women’s empowerment and equality.
Water, sanitation and hygiene are areas in which the US through the USAID supported programmes in India. Healthcare is one of the big projects the agency is coordinating with the government of India, she said, adding USAID programmes were not only supported treatment of tuberculosis but also looked at the stigma women survivors face.
