USAID-Gates fund targets gender digital divide

In an interconnected world, if you’re not online, you’re not going anywhere. As low- and middle-income countries scramble to keep up with the steady march of digital advances, women in these countries face a double hurdle: They’re less likely to have access to the internet and even when they do have access, they’re less likely to use it. The statistics bear this out. Nearly 1.5 billion women in LMICs can’t get online. Meanwhile, 259 million more men than women around the world used the internet through 2022, a gap that has cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion. Closing the gender digital divide would boost economic activity by an estimated $524 billion by 2025. That’s according to the Women in the Digital Economy Fund, or WiDEF, a new five-year, $60.5 million investment founded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that’s intended to tackle this stubborn digital divide. The fund was first announced by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Ghana in March 2023, and it launched with a first call for applications this week at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York. “We are looking for locally led solutions that will help women get affordable internet connections, technologies like smartphones that can access the internet, and training to take advantage of their new digital tools,” said USAID Administrator Samantha Power in recorded remarks at the launch. “These digital connections open up a world of possibility, like digital finance tools to help women manage the budget for their households or expand their businesses.” “We all know in this room that when you put money in the hands of a woman, good things happen,” said Ritu Sharma, vice president of U.S. programs and policy advocacy at CARE USA. “We want to put digital access in the hands of girls, and amazing things will happen.” CARE is one of the consortium partners that will manage the fund, along with the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, or GDIP, and the GSMA Foundation. “So what's different about this digital initiative? There's been many before,” Sharma said. “One is that the size of the investment is really remarkable. The second, and this is really important, is that a big part of the effort is to get these funds into the hands of local innovators who understand the barriers, who understand the context [of] what women and girls face every day as they try to access digital technology.” Support from WiDEF can include funding ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million — a game-changing amount for small local organizations. During the panel discussion at the launch, Shikoh Gitau, CEO of Qhala, which aims to lay the foundation of a digital-first economy in Africa, gave an impassioned plea for the kind of money that can make a transformative difference. “Let’s not do the 10K checks anymore. If you're going for scale, let's put our checks where our mouth is,” she said. “That's what we should be telling women: ‘I'm capable of being able to run half a million dollars to a million dollars worth of funding.’ And if they're not there, honestly, give them the capacity-building to be able to do that. “I'll continue chasing the 10K, 50K checks, but every time somebody comes in and evaluates my proposal, they will say, ‘Oh, you don't have capacity to absorb 100K or 200K’ — and I remain in that safe space [even though] my work is amazing and I can be able to scale fast. You need to be able to take the risks on women,” Gitau added. “So please, that is what I'm asking you, please just put a check where your mouth is.” .