Closing Albania’s gender gap in digital innovation and AI

Bridging the digital gender divide remains essential for ensuring an inclusive digital future, and a recent United Nations training session in Albania brought the country’s efforts to help close this gender gap into the spotlight.

The southeastern European country has been “proactive in embracing digital transformation,” in line with its European Union accession aspirations, according to U.N. Resident Coordinator in Albania Fiona McCluney, moving many routine municipal and government services online, automating visa application processes and entry into Albania, against the backdrop of the growing popularity of online banking and shopping.

“However, privacy, especially of personal data, and ensuring access for those with less resources, such as women and girls — especially in rural areas — and threats to the government institutions via cyber-attacks, are constant issues and concerns,” said McCluney, speaking to Devex on the heels of the first-ever training of its kind dedicated to gender in innovation, information communications technology, and artificial intelligence in Tirana, Albania.

In October, the U.N. Gender Thematic Results Group led by UN Women, with the U.N. Resident Coordinator’s Office and other U.N. agency representatives came together to organize the training at the intersection of digital technology and gender equality. There was a specific emphasis on the context in Albania, with participants introduced to AI tools and discussions centering on both the risks and opportunities AI presents in advancing gender equality. It aimed to offer a practical approach, including hands-on workshops and exercises — such as the creation of a custom, gender-sensitive GPT to assist with reporting and communication, and an interactive activity to prepare a joint initiative on gender, digitalization, and AI.

Michele Ribotta, the country representative for UN Women in Albania, noted that UN Women built on its coordination mandate and technical expertise to lead the organization of this inclusive pilot training “to understand the gendered risks and opportunities associated with the use of AI, reflect on how the UN system can navigate and leverage AI tools.” He added that it aimed to help identify entry points for the new U.N. Cooperation Framework and upcoming common country analysis.

“We also hope to strengthen partnerships with government institutions, CSO and Private Sector to ensure that gender perspective is mainstreamed in AI governance, and that advancements in digital technology are equitable for all women and girls in the country,” said Ribotta.

Devex sat down with McCluney to glean key takeaways from the training and hear her reflections on the experience.

The text has been edited for length and clarity.

Albania, like many countries, has to navigate opportunities and challenges posed by digital transformation. How do you see the role of the U.N. system in supporting member states in this transition, and what kind of skills do U.N. staff need to be equipped with to adequately support member states in this journey?

I believe the U.N., through the office of the secretary-general and his team, has shown tremendous leadership, in bringing member states together to discuss and agree on a Pact for the Future in September 2024 and UN 2.0. The pact and its commitments are most relevant in this context, especially the agreements reached across the world on the Global Digital Compact, the first comprehensive global framework for digital cooperation.

U.N. agencies, really without exception, have embraced digitalization in their programming and we are lucky in Albania to now be funded through the Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund … implemented with the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization, and International Telecommunications Union. The Digital Agriculture and Rural Transformation, or DART, program was launched in early November. It will seek to leverage co-financing from the European Union, World Bank, and national government for targeted investment in the digital skills of rural farmers, innovative technology and aggregated information systems, and service through a farmers’ portal.

In the design and rollout of new processes and systems, it is essential that women and girls are not left behind in the digital transition and transformation. It is necessary to ensure that all upcoming policies regulating the digital space have a strong gender component that addresses the key challenges faced by women and girls in safely using digital spaces. We need to ensure that they are part of and represented in the development of digital tools and digital policies, and that the common stereotypes about women in STEM are addressed and don’t prevent women and girls from pursuing these subjects either at school or university, or in their careers.

As a U.N. system, we are well positioned to provide technical support on digitalization to the government in Albania through our upcoming U.N. Cooperation Framework, which will be developed in 2026 and launched in 2027. In terms of internal capacities, all of us, including U.N. staff, need to strengthen our understanding of the detailed nuances of digital policies and their implications for the lives of all women and men in Albania to ensure no one is left behind. We need to be capable of leveraging the best from technology and digitalization for us as individual professionals but also for the most effective design and implementation of our programs.

This is the first time several agencies were brought together to learn about and discuss gender and AI. Why were these topics so important?

The U.N. gender group in Albania prepared a gender capacity and learning needs assessment in 2022 and selected the subject. Different learning needs emerged from the assessment, and we have been implementing capacity development initiatives to address them since.

One of the growth areas identified was to build the capacity of U.N. staff in “innovative” areas of work around gender equality, and gender and digitalization was a popular topic selected. I am delighted that the U.N., under the leadership of UN Women, were able to deliver this session and to expand it to include the topic of AI, which has been a growing area of focus and concern for us and potential impact on our lives.

As a participant in this training, could you tell us what stood out to you as the most important takeaway? How can UN Women continue to support other country teams based on this pilot?

The training was excellent, it generated a positive attitude to this fast-moving space of technological change, and explored possible applications such as in areas of health and education, encouraging us to experiment, in a managed way, with AI tools. There was also good discussion on the key international frameworks and documents that now exist to govern digitalization with a focus on gender equality. The trainers were up to date and shared their knowledge of this area of work in a participatory way.

It is impressive how much has already been done to develop a strong normative framework. We were encouraged to experiment, keep ethics in mind, and be wary of machine-generated data and its validity. There was a discussion about “deepfakes” and disinformation and how important it is not to contribute to their broader circulation.  

It was a very useful initial session, and I would encourage UN Women to expand this training to other partners beyond the U.N. system and to consider increasing its duration, to ensure that there is sufficient time to address all aspects of the topic in more depth and increase engagement and interaction.

This training was developed using material inspired by the work of the Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality. To learn more about the Generation Equality Action Coalitions, click here.

Visit Ctrl Shift Equality — a series produced by Devex in partnership with UN Women and the Generation Equality Action Coalitions on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality, and Gender-Based Violence.