Include women when creating, designing and implementing digital public infrastructures (DPI). DPI promise to boost public service delivery at scale and help countries achieve development priorities but design and implementation must consciously address and bridge gender digital gaps, two UNICEF specialists write in a blog post for World Economic Forum a couple of days prior to the International Women’s Day.

“Including women and girls of all abilities in DPI shaping enhances usability and accessibility. Incorporating female personas in user experience design, testing with female users, and establishing accessible feedback channels for all users are crucial for informed, iterative DPI improvements”, write senior adviser Gerda Binder and technology specialist Carolin Frankenhauser.

“Infrastructure design across all sectors, including energy, transport, water and sanitation, has historically failed to consider the specific needs and realities of women and girls.”

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“Women and girls too often bear the brunt of infrastructure gaps.” 

They write that DPI provides a golden opportunity to transform or eliminate stubborn gender inequalities. For example, well-designed financial services and inclusive digital payment systems can facilitate economic opportunities for women and lead to the inclusion of the remaining unbanked female population.

“None of this will happen by chance. DPI needs to be intentionally designed to remove gender barriers and discrimination. It should be supplemented with relevant social and behavioural change interventions that transform harmful gender norms and bring gatekeepers and policymakers on board.”

The UNESCO specialists suggest five steps:

• Learn from the lessons of designing inclusive physical infrastructure: How to design and implement infrastructure projects to benefit women and girls is well-studied in the transport, energy and sanitation sectors. 
• Avoid replicating “analogue” inequalities in the digital world: Digitizing the current state of public service structures and processes will not address existing gender-related barriers to access and use. 
• Prioritize DPI interventions that benefit women and girls: DPI should enhance women and girls’ access to services and benefits. In some countries, national IDs are seen as more crucial for men so for women to access and use them, digital IDs must provide tangible advantages like aiding in securing formal jobs, increasing safety, and promoting financial autonomy. 
• Include women in DPI creation, design and implementation: Avoid DPI development by homogenous teams for a generic male user. Diversity deficits hinder innovation and limit perspectives.
• Leverage DPI to tackle the gender digital divide: Investments in DPI must bridge gender digital gaps by enhancing meaningful connectivity and digital literacy, including for women’s digital ID access through gender-responsive training and tried best practice.