The United Nations theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023 is “DigitALL – Innovation and technology for gender equality”. It aims to leverage the transformative power of inclusive digitalization and innovation for rural women and girls.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day to commemorate and uphold women’s achievements and raise awareness on a reconfirming commitment to gender equality. It also marks a call to action for accelerating gender balance. The 2023 theme aligns with the UN Women’s priority theme, ‘Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender inclusivity and empowering all women and girls’.
This year’s IWD theme recognizes and celebrates the women and girls championing the advancement of technology and digital education. It also explores the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities while acknowledging the role that bold, transformative actions, inclusive technologies, and accessible education can play in accelerating gender equality and creating new opportunities to benefit women and men equally.
Digital transformation is evolving at an exponential pace and is impacting entire systems of agrifood production, management and governance. As a result, digital agriculture has the potential to play a significant role in achieving global food security and nutrition, reducing poverty, and improving livelihoods, especially in rural areas.
Digital technology could also support gender equality in agrifood systems by addressing the constraints undermining women’s participation in agrifood value chains and providing new means and channels for women’s socio-economic empowerment. Examples of specific areas where digital tools could be leveraged to create gains for rural women and girls include digitally enabled extension and advisory services (EAS), farm management and farm operations, digital financial services, and e-digital platforms for e-commerce.
Here are links to some articles celebrating women in agriculture.
- Gender on YenKasa Africa
- Are your radio programmes gender inclusive?
- Rural women: Radio stories (an initiative by UN Women and AMARC) – YenKasa Africa and UN Women
- Radio Communautaire Salama: Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 Liz Hughes Award
- Media Gender code of conduct
- Gender and ICTs mainstreaming gender in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for agriculture and rural development
- Nyinabwenge show: Amplifying the voices of women for action
- Rural Women on Family Farming Knowledge Platform
- C4D: Radio dramas convey knowledge for the emancipation of women
- Guidelines for the production of gender-responsive radio broadcasts
- Gender-responsive digitalization
- Talking Books provide an innovative solution to reach rural communities in Uganda
- Tips for engaging women in your radio program