By Muhammad Bashir

The Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, last Wednesday decried the marginalization of women in digital policymaking.

The Centre’s Executive Director, Comrade Yunusa Zakariya while unveiling a book titled “Moving from the Fringes: Perspectives on Gender Digital Marginality in Nigeria,” and a policy brief on “Promoting Women Participation In Digital Policy Making In Nigeria,” said women were poorly represented in digital policy-making space.

Comrade Zakariya represented by the Centre Gender Technical Officer, Zainab Aminu said a finding carried out by the Centre on eight national ICT agencies shows that less than 15 per cent is far short of the 31 per cent threshold suggested by the National Gender Policy.

He, however, advocated for the inclusion and presence of more women in the digital leadership and policy making instruments and structures.

According to him, “The gender digital divide in Nigeria has persisted despite efforts by both state and non-state actors to bridge it. There are two reasons for this. One is that efforts tend to target improving access to and providing more opportunities for skills acquisition by women and girls.

While these are important, in themselves, they do not address systemic factors that hinder the effective utilization of digital technology by women and girls in the country. This leads credence to the fact that the digital divide is not just about differential in access to and skill to use digital technology. The second reason is that the policies and initiatives are inappropriate because they do not mainstream gender sensitivity in their articulation and design.

“The implementation of the policies and initiatives is the result of the specificity of the policy-making machinery. Policies are the outcomes of deliberation at the policy decision-making tables. When that table is inclusive, it takes on board the various interests and aggregates them into a policy response that looks at the given problem from a multi-dimensional perspective.

The result would be an outcome that transcends the different interests represented at the decision-making table.

“One of the key challenges with addressing the gender divide is that it has not acknowledged a peculiar dimension of the gender digital divide which is the unequal access of women to digital policy decision-making in the country which makes the policy processes and structures to be dominated by men and to be driven by patriarchal values. In spite of their benevolence, the fact that men do not experience digital marginalization, they lack the insights to respond to it appropriately and effectively.

On one hand, because women are distanced from the structure of policymaking, their voices and influence are feeble and their capacity to influence them is low. In addition, because women suffer digital exclusion, they have limited experience with what is to be on the positive side of the divide and hence they are at a loss as to what precisely they should advocate for.

“This policy briefing is the result of the engagement that CITAD undertook with the view to developing digital policy analysis capacity among young women with the hope that they provide a seeding for them to be engaged in the area, while at the same time, they have the capacity to speak clearly and competently on digital issues such that their advocacy voice can create traction both within and outside government.

 “The project starts with the observation that women are poorly represented in the digital policy making space in the country. During the period, we assessed the presence of women in the eight national ICT agencies. The findings were sobering. For example, out of 19 board members of NITDA, only two were females, and out of 21 management heads, only four were females.

Similarly, for Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), out of 42 management members, only eight were women. The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) has a Board of 11 members with only one female member while for the management, the number is similarly 10, where only one is a woman.

The sector regulator, Nigerian Communication Commission does not do better as out of its 17 board members, only one is a female.

“The full result shows that, although the percentage varies, overall, the presence of women is less than 15 per cent, far short of the 31 per cent threshold suggested by the National Gender Policy.

“We however recommended that the government should come up with a gender digital inclusion agenda. It should take proactive steps to increase women’s participation at both board and management levels of digital agencies and authorities in the country.

“The National Assembly should quickly pass the Digital Rights Bill for the President to assent it. Government should integrate gender sensitive digital literacy programs in formal education, starting from primary schools to higher education institutions,” he said.

Earlier, the Director, Centre for Gender Studies, Bayero University Kano, Suwaiba Saidu Ahmad stressed the need for investment and empowerment of the women giving their percentage of about 50 percent in the country in order to ensure sustainable development.

On her part, a champion, Amb. Maryam Ibrahim Sani and a contributor in the book compilation lamented over the discrimination between the women and their male counterparts in fields like engineering among others whereas the women folks have a lot to offer.