To Secure Equal Future, Girls Need Equal Access to Digital Tools

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital platforms for learning, earning and connecting, while also highlighting girls' diverse digital realities. This year's International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated under the theme Digital Generation. Our Generation.

The United Nations and other organisations are calling for equal access to the internet and digital devices for girls' and targeted investments to facilitate opportunities for girls' to safely and meaningfully access, use, lead and design technology.

According to the United Nations Population Funds, adolescent girls are less likely to use the internet; in some countries, boys use the internet at quadruple the rate of girls. Girls are also less likely than boys to own mobile phones. The agency says steering girls away from digital tools only limits their access to essential information and services, and robs them of the ability to make informed decisions for themselves, their bodies and their futures.

Only an estimated 55% of girls and women are able to make their own decisions about sex, contraception and health care, according to recent data, and too few adolescents have access to comprehensive sexuality education.

The African Union and the World Bank Group have committed to connecting every African individual, business, and government to the internet by 2030.

"Often, and unsurprisingly, this pursuit for knowledge is centred around sex. This phenomenon has though had a less impressive impact on African girls and young women, who continue to be trapped by taboos and restrictive gender and social norms, unable to access accurate sexual and reproductive health and rights information online," writes International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region's Monica Mwai, a Youth Intern within the Communications Team and Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, the Regional Director of the IPPFAR.