When is Women's Day

News and Press Release in English on World about Agriculture, Food and Nutrition and more; published on 8 Mar 2023 by FAO, IFAD and 2count other ...

[FAO Digital Portfolio](https://www.fao.org/digital-agriculture/digital-portfolio/en/), [E-Agriculture Community of Practice](https://aims.fao.org/news/e-agriculture-community-practice), the [1000 Digital Villages](https://www.fao.org/platforms/digital-village-initiative/en) . By assisting women with digital and financial literacy trainings and working with community champions, WFP helps them to open their own banking, mobile money or other digital accounts, bringing economic benefits including food security to these women and, in turn, to their families and entire societies. Discussions also highlighted the achievements of rural women related to digital literacy, digital skills and agripreneurship. The [FAO Office of Innovation](https://www.fao.org/office-of-innovation/en) established the [Global Network on Digital Agriculture and Innovation Hubs](https://www.fao.org/flexible-multipartner-mechanism/projects/project-detail/en/c/1473596/), to support its members to foster innovation within their digital agriculture ecosystem, with a special focus on women and young agripreneurs, among other programmes. “Putting resources in the hands of women is a no-brainer and with this comes the transfer of knowledge and skills including digital literacy to help these women realize their full potential. “Food security for households and communities is in the hands of the women. Women in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are 16 percent less likely to use mobile internet than men, and progress in reducing the mobile internet gender gap has stalled. For example, through its cash-based transfer programmes across the globe, WFP seeks to directly address the barriers to digital and financial services borne out of socio-cultural norms and gender-based stereotypes. IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency. “Admittedly, it is discouraging to celebrate International Women’s Day in a time when we are going backwards on gender equality and are seeing widening gender gaps in science, technology and innovation,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol. “Gender inequality and the urban-rural divide will only worsen unless we create a more inclusive and prosperous society for everyone.” [“DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality: Leveraging the transformative power of inclusive digitalization and innovation for rural women and girls](https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day)

National Gender and Equality Commission chairperson Dr. Joyce Mutinda is calling for the eradication of technology-driven gender biases that have placed ...

This year’s Priority theme highlights the critical role that technology and innovation play in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment. The campaign theme for this year’s celebrations is #EmbraceEquity while the United Nations (UN) theme is, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’. In a statement to commemorate the international women’s day, Mutinda said there remain persistent gender gaps between women’s and men's access to digital technology.

Under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, UN Women, the United Nations, and its partners and allies around the world will ...

The annual event will also address the existing gaps for women and girls in accessing digital spaces and skills, as well as the dangers they face from online violence. She added: “Our vision of equality, of what our world could be, for all of us, can and will include the equal enjoyment of the fruits of technology and innovation without fear of violence or abuse of any sort. The disparity between women and men and girls and boys in relation to digital adoption and their relative opportunities to access, use, and benefit from digital technology remain a major barrier to equal participation in tech design and governance. Women and girls remain underrepresented across the creation, use, and regulation of technology. Their creativity, knowledge and perspectives can shape a future where technology contributes to transforming social norms, amplifying women’s voices, pushing forward against online harassment, preventing the perpetuation of algorithmic biases, and distributing the benefits of digitalization as the great equalizer to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.” And when women are under-represented in developing new technologies, discrimination may be baked in from the start”.

This year, we focus attention on the need for technology and innovation to advance gender equality. There is no question that technology is reshaping life as we ...

Today, women make up less than one third of the workforce across science, technology, engineering, and maths. But today, because of incomplete data and poorly-designed algorithms, they may make bias worse. The good news is that women are leading the charge to make technology safer, more accessible, more inclusive, and better regulated. We need action to create a safe digital environment and hold harassers, abusers and the digital platforms that enable them to account. And third, we must make the online world safe for women and girls. Today, three billion people are still unconnected to the internet – the majority of them women and girls in developing countries.