GENERAL

Intensify STEM mechanisms for females to embrace for livelihoods enhancement-AWLA
The African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) has reiterated the need to intensify science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mechanisms to empower girls and women to use online technology to advance their livelihoods.

Date Created : 3/20/2023 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Jerry Azanduna/Ghanadistricts.com


The Association observed the need for driving stakeholders like government and its partners to embrace equity through decisions to promote fairness and inclusive laws to promote women and girls’ roles to reduce the gender gap in science, technology and digital space was paramount for their socio-economic advancement.

Ms. Edna Kuma, the Executive Director of AWLA made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency about the contribution of women to the socio-economic development of their communities and the nation.

Ms. Kuma explained digital innovation and technology for gender equity were challenging areas for women and girls but was a critical gap that needed to be closed for technological advancement and digital education of women and girls.

She added limited access to technology by females had widened the economic and social gap for women and girls, saying to achieve gender equity in those areas, there was the need to make technology easily accessible for them to use for skills enhancement to access opportunities.

“Let’s work towards de-marginalizing women in the digital and technological space,” Ms Kuma stressed and underscored the need to promote women and girls’ roles to reduce the gender gap in those areas.

That, according to her was the surest way to promote equity and fairness in contributing to the national developmental agenda.

To integrate the rural women into the digital space, Ms Kuma suggested government must go the Rwandan way by formulating and implementing policies that could promote and enhance rural women usage of mobile phones.


She cited the Rwandan government mobilized about 2,000 rural women to use mobile phones and within one to two years that had translated into training more than 40,000 women to use mobile phones which culminated to the transformation of the economy of Rwanda.

Ms Kuma estimated in Africa about 37 per cent of the people used internet but less than half of that number were women, indicating the gap was widening because of a challenge that greater number of women earned lower incomes and could thus not afford buying data to access internet services.

She further stated though digital inclusion was good for accelerated national economic growth, there were many factors that had contributed to leave women behind.

Ms. Kuma cited cultural limitations where some communities did not allow women access to mobile phones because of the fear that it would liberate and make them promiscuous.

In achieving the digital inclusion, she suggested the need for the telecommunications companies to provide affordable routers and cheaper bundles with cheap connectivity for usage of devices specifically for females.

Ms Kumah cited Senegal had been able to develop a program of such nature to support women in the digital space to grow and contribute meaningfully to the country’s economic growth.