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advance gender equality in North Africa, for example, provided
that they are made more accessible and consciously applied
towards the achievement of these objectives. With a more positive
and conscious use of ICT, the impact of women on society could
become stronger and their role could become more important.
We have to point out that women’s expectations are great even
though they are faced with some pitfalls. Awareness raising is
important because some North African intellectuals and policy
makers question the potential of ICT and AI methods on a conti-
nent where many people can neither read nor write, and
consequently wary of the possible harmful effects.
Policy recommendations: specific recommendations
regarding women and girls
General recommendations:
• All initiatives to address access empowerment and governance
should be planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated
with a gender perspective
• The Global Knowledge Partnership should actively seek out
and facilitate the inclusion of women’s organizations and
networks in the partnership, and promote greater representa-
tion of women in existing partners
• Targets, indicators and benchmarks are needed to support
learning and assessment of progress on women and girls’ access
to the benefits of ICT and AI methods
• There is much to be learned from the good practices and lessons
learned about the innovative ways that women and girls are using
ICT. These should be identified and promoted for widespread use
• The public sector should create an enabling environment in
which market competition, private initiatives or NGO cooper-
atives cater to the needs of women.
Recommended actions related to empowerment:
• Capacity building to ensure gender equality and empowerment;
in particular ICT and AI should be integrated in the national
education curriculum
• Promotion of positive images of women using ICTs and AI
methods by developing capacities so that content on ICTs and
AI methods can be generated by women
• Content analysis assessment from a gender perspective using
computer software and Internet.
Recommended actions related to access:
• Mobile Internet services and kiosks should have a specific focus
on women and girls and can be used to promote self-employ-
ment for women
• Development of software should be gender sensitive
• Access to and sharing of women knowledge databases should
be available through ICT and AI methods.
Recommended actions related to governance:
• Enhancing democracy and women’s participation through elec-
tronic connectivity and with skills to develop websites that offer
services relevant to local and community groups
• Investment in public facilities should be encouraged and
designed for easy access by women and girls.
Towards more open societies
The overview given above shows how technological innovation,
ICT and AI methods combine to produce rapid rates of diffu-
sion, which in turn affects society. These results are not
standardized; they vary in direction and degree in different
locations.
Many individuals, academic institutions, NGOs, women’s
organizations and developed agencies in various regions, even
in North Africa (with the initiative of our Tunisie-21 NGO), have
used ICT and AI methods as tools for further sustainable human
development, contributed ideas on ICT and AI methods and
development and addressed practice within the ICT and AI
industry. However, these efforts are still at an early stage. They
need to be substantially strengthened by international develop-
ment organizations.
Our ultimate hope is that technological innovations lead to a
worldwide trend towards more open and more cooperative soci-
eties, in a world which is both globalized and fragmented into
separate communities, where the gap between those who have
access to digital information and those who do not yet, is in no
way fixed for all time.
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Preparatory school students using computers in their class