Bridging the digital gender divide to stimulate growth in African digital economies

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This project focuses on the Digital Rights theme and specifically, on "the use of digital technology to enhance participation and access for women and minority groups". It seeks to achieve, but is not limited to, Sustainable Development Goals 5 (gender equality and empowering all women and girls) and 8 (sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth). The project addresses the digital gender divide in Africa, which is highest globally (International Telecommunication Union, 2016) and in particular, African women's continued under-representation that threatens to further economically dis-empower and entrench their gender-inequality. Cultivating female digital talent and enterprise will potentially address skills supply and demand gaps, increase productivity and innovation, and help firms to tailor their tech offerings to meet women's needs (UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, 2017).Likewise, Small and Medium sized Businesses/SMBs-the growth engine of African economies-often lack the knowhow and capacity to effectively unlock digital opportunities. Specifically, SMBs struggle to provide accessible and appropriate digital solutions to a largely underserved African female market (Intel Corporation, 2013). Intermediaries e.g. innovation hubs and digital skills initiatives are attempting to bridge the gap through digital skills and entrepreneurship support, but are equally resource constrained. The formation of cross-sector partnerships therefore becomes critical between academia and digital ecosystem stakeholders if digital opportunities for women are to be leveraged.The project team includes a PI Onyas, Co-I Dawa, Co-I Acheampong, Consultants Ball and Giugni and Partner Bar-Shany who will lead in the formation of a Network including 5 partners in Uganda and 6 in Ghana, of which 5 are part of Ball's network.The project will catalyse cross-sector collaborations and co-create solutions for bridging the digital gender divide in Africa. It will involve consultations with partners and digital ecosystem stakeholders and the co-creation of market-led solutions to drive women's inclusion and impact; and address women's digital participation and investment/ market gaps. The project will further seek to strengthen the digital support ecosystems in Uganda and Ghana, and enhance knowledge exchange with UK academic institutions, businesses, investors and digital industry experts.Guided by systems thinking, this project will catalyse cross-sectoral collaborations to stimulate digital growth in Uganda and Ghana, which represent two rapidly emerging digital economies in Africa. Consultations with partners and diverse stakeholders will therefore become pertinent in the cultivation of synergies to drive system-wide growth across the African digital sectors. We propose to bridge the digital gender divide by harnessing opportunities and synergies between: women and the digital ecosystem, SMBs and innovation hubs, SMBs and digital skills initiatives, digital skills initiatives and innovation hubs, and impact investors and policymakers.To realise the economic and social sustainable development of local capacity and solutions, we plan to collaboratively identify local/international investment and finance opportunities and recommend inclusive measures to enhance female digital entrepreneurship and access to capital. We also propose to develop partnerships and knowledge exchange between African and UK digital actors, aimed at scaling African SMBs, enabling female entrepreneurs to access capital, and UK firms to access localised solutions in Africa (Digital Economy Report 2019).The 8-month networking phase will involve 4 work packages: 1. Partner/stakeholder consultations. 2. Co-creation workshops in Uganda and Ghana. 3. University-hosted co-development and implementation workshops in Uganda, Ghana and Leicester. 4. Network building entailing Uganda-Ghana knowledge exchange visits and a livestreamed event in London.