A Better World Volume 1

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] 35

Empowering women with information

and communications technology

Dr. Angela Langenkamp, Gender Officer of GIZ and Senior Programme Officer in the Governance

and Conflict Division; Christine Brendel, Manager, Regional Programme ‘Fighting violence against women

in Latin America’ – ComVoMujer; Sandra Doempke, Manager, Private Sector Development Project (PSDP),

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

erman Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all

of us not to be bystanders in her speech at the

Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and

Women’s Empowerment in September 2015. “We are

making a new commitment with Sustainable Development

Goal 5,” she concluded. “Commitments are good. Action

is better. Let us take action!”

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusmamenarbeit (GIZ)

GmbH acts and works on the principle that gender equality is a

human right, a goal in itself, a key to sustainable development

and a quality feature of its work. As a federally owned enterprise,

GIZ is determined and committed to uphold gender equality as

a guiding principle in its own company and in its work with

partners in more than 130 countries around the world, while

supporting the German Government as well as other public and

private actors in achieving their objectives in the field of interna-

tional cooperation for sustainable development.

Every two years the internal GIZ Gender Competition and

Award honours projects for their convincing and innovative

initiatives in the area of promoting gender equality and empow-

ering women. These initiatives provide proof of and stand for

innovation, excellence and competence development. The 87

project applications for the 2016 Gender Competition cover a

wide range of sectors and thematic issues such as governance,

financial inclusion, economic participation, climate change,

energy, biodiversity, agriculture and rural development, health

and education. They assist greatly in responding appropri-

ately to challenges and changes in the development landscape.

Looking for new and innovative ways to do this, one approach

is the use of enabling technology, in particular information and

communications technology (ICT) which represents one of the

sub-goals of Sustainable Development Goal 5.

ICT has changed the world: the way we communicate

with each other, the way we organize ourselves, the way we

do business and the way we access and spread information.

Experience has shown that ICT can be an enabling but also a

dividing factor. Already existing disparities can be enhanced

if women and girls lack or are denied access to ICT. But ICT

can also serve as a promoter of women’s economic, social and

legal empowerment, as a possibility for networking, participa-

tion and advocacy within society and as a means to disseminate

and provide access to good practices. The Pacific Gender and

Climate Change Toolkit, available online for practitioners and

developed in collaboration between GIZ and other international

and bilateral partners, is such a web-based source of informa-

tion that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

ICT is critical to social and economic development and as

such also for the promotion of gender equality and the achieve-

ment of Agenda 2030. The two following case studies, both

commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic

Cooperation and Development (BMZ), show successful exam-

ples of how the opportunities afforded by ICT have been

exploited to fight violence against women in Latin America and

empower women as entrepreneurs in war-torn Yemen.

Tackling violence against women in Ecuador

Gender-based violence against women (VAW) is still very

widespread in Latin America. The World Health Organization

estimated in 2010 that 30-50 per cent of women in Bolivia,

Ecuador and Peru are subjected to physical violence by their

partners. The Andean countries and Paraguay have commit-

ted themselves to preventing, combating and punishing VAW.

They have also ratified major international agreements and

put in place laws on protection from violence and action

Studies by ComVoMujer

and the Peruvian University

of San Martín de Porres

highlight the financial

consequences of VAW for

businesses

ender

quality

and

omen

’

mpowerment