Gaps in the Code Part 2: How National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security are Leaving Out Critical Gendered Considerations of Technology

Participation

In Europe, Finland’s NAP had dedicated commitments to advancing women’s inclusion in “the services, technology and innovations of the information society and to participate in the planning of and decision-making on them.. as means to advance gender equality.” The Netherlands has worked to highlight “how the use and reach of new technologies have triggered a need for new approaches to conflict resolution,” and the United Kingdom has highlighted the opportunity to “pilot the use of technology to improve the accountability in emergencies, including for women and girls in conflict-affected states, to make their voices heard quickly and effectively.” Rwanda has also “committed to supporting women’s initiatives and… financially appropriate technologies which are likely to facilitate women involved in peace and security missions. Ghana is seeking to leverage the opportunity to “train female security sector personnel on strategic issues such as forensic skills, computer training, leadership, driving, etc.” Jordan and Bougaineville both shared commitments to women’s empowerment via the use of media and information and communications technology.  Tajikistan highlighted strategic objectives to enhance “women's access to vocational training, education in science and technology, and to continuing education” in addition to enhancing “women's opportunities and access to expression and decision-making in the media and technologically new means of communication, as well as through these tools.”

Protection

Denmark is taking the cyber domain seriously as a space where “women, girls, boys and men are affected differently…in the form of harassment and abuse of both a digital and physical nature,” and is working to bridge the tech inclusion gaps by strengthening “incentive structures for women’s involvement in cyber-related activities and in IT security.” South Africa has placed a heavy focus on the importance of cyber safety and the opportunities of technology to provide protection and emergency response with gendered considerations. Tunisia worked to highlight the security implications of online radicalization, and the need to address this risk in the internet domain. El Salvador shared concerns and commitments to fighting sex-crimes in the cyber and electronic domains. Namibia and Kenya have also recognized the need to increasingly combat cyber-based crimes, including GBV, and Namibia has accurately highlighted the need to assess the impact on women of cyber-security threats.

Prevention

Cameroon has worked to use technology to prevent gender-based violence via media, raise awareness about Resolution 1325 and WPS, and identify technology as a means to improve development outcomes for female entrepreneurs.

Perspectives

Spain has set out to “mainstream gender into Spanish international cooperation in the fields of science, technology, and innovation.” Gabon is a stellar example of broad sweeping technological considerations being incorporated into WPS strategy, as its NAP includes clauses on how to facilitate technological transfer, the gendered effects of digital culture, addressing cybercrime and the cyber application of threats, technology as a tool for marketing, and electronic communicational means in the context of WPS. The United States also provided some of the most comprehensive discussion of the risks and opportunities of the digital ecosystem, noting the gendered digital access gap and that “the use of information and communication technologies tools have intrinsic and instrumental value for women and adolescent girl’s rights, participation, access to knowledge and services, increased voice, and empowerment.” The United States also provided many examples of how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has sought to leverage digital infrastructure to the benefit of the security and economic needs of women and girls.

These countries are excellent examples of the possibilities that can exist to advance WPS by accurately taking stock of the risks and opportunities posed by the ever-evolving digital ecosystem. The time to fill these gaps in WPS’s strategic code is now, before the evolution of technology widens the gaps even further, increasing the time and resources that will prove necessary to address these critical dimensions of WPS in the future.  Technology isn’t gender blind, and our response to its evolving place in our world should not be either.

Interested in learning more about the intersections of WPS and tech? Check out our Project Delphi for more publications on WPS and the digital ecosystem. Follow our WPS and Tech twitter campaign for more information throughout the month here.

Below is the full research on tech-related keywords in NAPs.

Table 3: Digital

Table 4: Cyber

Table 5: Internet

Table 6: Online

Table 7: Electronic

Table 8: Computer

No table was included for AI as no mentions were found.

Table 9: Media

Table 10: Data