The Initiative builds on the Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF), a joint effort between USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced by Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2023. WiDEF is a pooled partnership that identifies, directly funds, and accelerates evidence-based, proven solutions to close the gender digital divide by addressing the barriers that prevent equal participation in the digital economy.  

The Initiative has a focus on five pillars: 

• Access and Affordability. Increase women's access to the internet and internet-enabled devices, and ensure that devices, digitally enabled services, including digital finance, and data are affordable, reliable, secure, and accessible, including for users with disabilities.
• Relevant Products and Tools. Design, develop, and provide access to relevant products and tools (interfaces, voice technologies, applications, digitally enabled services) that meet women's needs and facilitate women's demand for and use of mobile devices and applications, particularly smartphones, internet, and other technologies, especially for income-generation purposes.
• Literacy and Skills. Strengthen women's digital skills and literacy, including media literacy, so that they can fully and safely access digital services, and participate and lead in digital spaces, including the digital economy.
• Safety and Security. Address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including gender-based online harassment and abuse, and strengthen safeguards for digital user protection, including on consumer financial protection, data protection, cybersecurity, fraud, and risk mitigation.
• Data and Insights. Expand collection and responsible use of required sex-disaggregated data, research, and gender analysis (a) to better understand and address social norms and systems that influence gender disparities in technology adoption; (b) as a precursor to inform gender-equitable design of and activities related to digital policies, protocols, platforms, products, and services; and (c) to track and benchmark change.

Across these priorities, the Initiative will support, wherever possible, local, women-led, feminist and gender-transformational solutions, products, and tools.

The Initiative launched a Community of Practice (CoP) during the 68th Commission on the Status of Women. Implemented by EQUALS, the CoP brings together WiDEF funders, members of the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative, and key stakeholders from across the globe who are engaged in work to close the gender digital divide. The CoP aims to support and grow partnerships to foster knowledge-sharing as well as greater collaboration and coordination among stakeholders working to close the gender digital divide.

Benefits of Joining

By joining the Initiative, organizations have the opportunity to: 

• Drive the agenda for advancing a gender-equitable digital economy and help accelerate progress to close the gender digital divide.
• Gain access to partners, potential funders, funding opportunities, and/or organizations which they can fund or invest in as members of the Community of Practice.
• Directly fund or co-fund proven, gender-transformative, evidence-based solutions vetted by WiDEF.
• Raise public awareness of their investments to close the gender digital divide.

How to Join the Initiative

No one government or organization can close the gender digital divide alone. The U.S. Government invites other governments, the private sector, foundations, civil society, and multilateral organizations to collaborate and commit financial, knowledge, human, and other resources toward WiDEF and the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative. 

Initiative partners will:

• Make a commitment and/or dedicated investment(s) toward halving the gender digital divide by 2030 in at least one of the five WiDEF key pillars.
• Share data and learnings on their progress towards achieving the key results of the Initiative, in order to demonstrate evidence of success and proven solutions, if available.
• Commit to collecting and sharing sex-disaggregated data, wherever possible (i.e. number of total and active users, if organizations have direct users, and/or program participants, percentage of women).
• Actively participate in the Women in the Digital Economy Community of Practice.

For further information on the Initiative, reach out to genderdigital@usaid.gov.

Frequently Asked Questions