Crowdsourced Solutions to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide - Flash Session

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  • Organization
    World Pulse
  • Open Forum Title
    Crowdsourced Solutions to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide
  • Description
    According to the 2013 “Women and the Web” report, on average across the developing world approximately 25 percent fewer women than men have access to the Internet. To address the gender digital divide, World Pulse is conducting “WWW: Women Weave the Web,” a campaign to crowdsource solutions, models, and best practices on digital inclusion and empowerment directly from grassroots women leaders from across the developing world.
  • Through World Pulse’s growing web-based platform, women are speaking out and connecting to create solutions from the front lines of today’s most pressing issues. With a focus on grassroots women, our programs nurture community, provide media and empowerment training, and channel rising voices to influential forums. Previous World Pulse campaigns have generated powerful changes, from influencing the appointment of a US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes to delivering testimonies on gender-based violence to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
  • Our proposed IGF session will present an analysis of the hundreds of testimonies we have received from across the globe. We will share recommendations on how key stakeholders should focus their efforts to support women’s full engagement in the information society. The session will generate a discussion and reflection with key ICT actors such as technology companies, international organizations, and governments on how grassroots women leaders’ recommendations can be made actionable within the Internet Governance framework. 
  • Speakers
    Leana Mayzlina Civil Society World Pulse 
  • Iffat Rose Gill Civil Society ChunriChoupaal 
  • Tiffany Coulson (remote) Academia/Civil Society University of Washington 
  • Description of how the proposer plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants
  • The World Pulse community thrives on the engagement of voices from a multitude of communities, regions, and individuals. We are committed to multi-stakeholder participation, and believe that it will lead to more open, participatory processes where participants have a vested interest in transforming ideas into action plans.
  • Upon presenting the recommendations of our community, we will seek out ideas and suggestions from audience members and remote participants on next steps: How do we put these recommendations into action? The privilege of having key stakeholders on Internet governance in the same room will allow us to move forward in thinking through how best practices can be applied, who should be involved, what spaces should be prioritized, and why it is of utmost importance to include grassroots women’s voices in developing Internet governance policy. The purpose of the session is not only to present the findings of our campaign, but more importantly, to engage stakeholders in a discussion around the implications of the recommendations.
  • The essence of World Pulse is intrinsically digital as we work to connect grassroots women leaders around the world via our Internet platform. We have extensive experience in organizing events where panelists, moderators, and audience members are connected remotely and empowered to participate in workshops and speaking engagements. We will work with the IGF organizers to assure that remote participants can participate fully in the session.
  • Background Paper
  • Available Here