Description: Digital gender gap remains relatively unchanged across the Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), according to GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023. Almost 900 million women still do not use mobile internet and two-third of such women live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. While there is a statistically proven fact that the internet has a positive impact on the lives of women who use it on daily basis, the world needs to bring 100 million women online every year to close the gender gap by 2030. There are commendable efforts being made on the international and national level to close the digital gender divide, however, there is a dire need to have gender-first policies and strategies, embedded into the governance systems. One such initiative is the Digital Gender Inclusion Strategy developed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with UNESCO. The strategy will be presented as a case study to set the context of panel discussion that will follow. In a nutshell, this session will discuss the current state and challenges of digital gender gap and how prioritizing the gender inclusion can bring socioeconomic benefits to the LMICs.
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