Today October 11, marks a day adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as International Day of the Girl Child to recognize girls’ rights and unique challenges girls face around the world.
This year’ the day is commemorated on the General Equality Forum’s launching of a 5-year commitment for bolder solutions to gender inequality even as the world has entered the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the pandemic has accelerated digital platforms for learning, earning and connecting, there are still some 2.2 billion people below the age of 25 who do not have internet access at home thus detached from the realities of the digital world.
The gender gap for global internet users of 11 per cent in 2013 grew wider to 17 per cent in 2019. In the world’s least developed countries, it hovers around 43 per cent and girls are more likely to be cut off from the diverse digital realities. But the gender digital divide is about more than connectivity.
Girls are also less likely than boys to use and own devices, and gain access to tech-related skills and jobs.
Addressing the problem of inequality and exclusion across the geographies and generations is the sure way to make digital revolution for all, by all possible.
Girls know their digital realities and the solutions they need to excel on their diverse pathways as technologists for freedom of expression, joy, and boundless potential. Let’s amplify the diversity of these tech trailblazers while simultaneously widening the pathways so that every girl, this generation of girls- regardless of race, gender, language, ability, economic status and geographic origin – lives their full.
By Belinda Worwornyo|3news.com|Ghana