7. Recommendations

As gender equality cannot be achieved through gender neutral policies the strategic vision in e-government should be to leverage ICT policies to address issues of gender inequality and discrimination. In designing e-government programmes and services, existing laws, rules and regulations that discriminate against women should be amended. The national machinery should be proactive in engendering the ICT policy of the new government. While some e-transformation programmes and e-services are useful to women, the national machinery should be directly involved in identifying and planning services that directly benefit women.

Ensuring universal access to the Internet is the vision of the government, keeping in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on enhancing access to enabling technology, especially ICTs, for the empowerment of women, by 2020. The number of mobile phones in the country has increased dramatically. They have become a tool not only for accessing the Internet but also for reinforcing social capital, especially for women. While strategies should be adopted to use mobile broadband, it is also necessary to ensure that barriers to affordability of smart phones are addressed along with pursuing the expansion of fixed-line connectivity. Public access points should be affordable and safe, and venues should be opened across the country, possibly using existing networks such as public libraries, to enable women to access government e-services and government information.

Computer literacy is an area in which Sri Lanka can be deemed a success story in terms of empowering marginalized sectors of the community. All educational institutes should identify barriers to entry, and motivate women and girls to pursue high-income-yielding career options in the ICT sector in order to reach policy and decision-making levels. Digital literacy should be introduced into the school curriculum from year one or two, thus opening up digital opportunities for all. A forgotten demographic that should be included in digital literacy training programmes is older women.

Digital literacy programmes should be accompanied with programmes for enhancing information literacy, a crucial skill to identify the most appropriate source(s) for the information they require.

Although most of the existing e-services are useful to women, women-focused information is minimal. Development of content targeting women’s critical needs, one of which is the prevention of, and effective redress against, violence should be undertaken.

Women’s political representation is one of the lowest in the region. ICT solutions should be used to enable them to organise and find alternatives to have their ‘voices’ heard.

ICT champions at the local level can serve as role models, content creators and supporters for women’s empowerment.

Women are not a homogeneous group. Research is required to assess the information needs and uptake of ICTs by girls, young women, disabled women, women with different sexual orientations, the elderly, and women living in different geographical locations.

One critical gap to be addressed is in making women aware about safe use of the Internet and safeguards for privacy. The boundary-less nature of digital technologies also gives rise to potential risks for violation of privacy and human rights. In Sri Lanka, there is an immediate need for laws on data privacy and the right to information to safeguard citizen rights in the digital age. State-led partnerships should be developed with mobile operators to provide free information services to women, for example on laws dealing with gender-based violence and services for victim-survivors.

The government should develop a programme to ensure that those who do not have the capacity to use e-services are not excluded from digital services. These could include the assignment of special staff at government institutions, public access venues or setting up kiosks in areas where other public access venues are not available. Women could act as information intermediaries and run these kiosks.

As statistical data is important to improve any service, it is essential that the collection of sex-disaggregated data is built into all ICT programmes and projects. National data collection institutes should review definitions relating to technological developments and online violence against women.

As the implementation of ICT programmes takes place at departmental levels, different departments need to coordinate and collaborate for the success of system-wide programmes. Government-wide awareness programmes should be conducted on the significance of adopting e-governance practices and their inherent advantages to the functioning of a department and government as a whole. At the same time, programmes to bring about attitudinal changes towards women should be undertaken at all levels of government.

The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs and the National Committee on Women should be proactive and become part of stakeholder groups in policy making and programme development. This would enable them to ensure that gender budgeting is introduced into all major programmes, time-bound targets set, and regular monitoring undertaken against targets. They should also allocate resources from their budget to develop services that include training and content development. These two agencies should monitor the e-government activities of the ministries/departments responsible for women’s affairs at provincial, district and local government levels, especially in installing safe and secure access points such as public libraries for which local governments are responsible.