For every module, we offer the following types of learner exercises and activities. These are designed to help participants develop the capabilities to concretely apply their learnings and insights in their interventions – whether it be the design/ improvement of e-service delivery systems, strengthening women’s participation in e-government, or monitoring and evaluation of gender-based outcomes of e-government programmes.

1. Open-ended questions: These questions are intended to trigger critical reflection and help participants apply the insights from the particular module. They should be used in classroom sessions as a strategy for enhancing class participation. They are intended as pedagogic tools to support learners in making the leap from theoretical understanding to contextual application. The trainer may use these questions as probes for open discussion, or as homework exercises. The trainer should contextualise/adapt these questions as appropriate, building on specific examples from the local context.
2. Group exercises: This includes suggestions for group discussion and other activities that can help participants move beyond the module text, to explore other dimensions of the issues raised in the trainings. These exercises can be used either in the middle of a module, or at the end of a session. Should participants come from different ministries and backgrounds, the group composition and design of group activities should allow for discussion and sharing of their different perspectives.
3. Case study suggestions: Case studies are intended to hone participants’ capabilities to bring in a gender and e-government perspective into problem-solving in real situations.

Module 1. Gender, governance and e-government

Open-ended questions

1. What is the strategic vision underpinning the national e-government policy framework? To what extent does it integrate a gender perspective that is intersectional?
2. Analyse the extent to which the e-government programmes of your ministry incorporate a gender perspective. Use the institutional framework explained in Unit 1.2, by focusing on norms, rules and practices in your analysis.
3. What are the changes that you would like to introduce to e-government evaluations at the national level, in order to capture gender-based outcomes more effectively?
4. Do you think a digital citizenship index is a useful tool for e-government monitoring? Why/Why not?
5. Evaluate national technology governance frameworks from the standpoint of gender inclusiveness.

Group exercise

1. Discuss the factors leading to exclusion from the national e-government system (particularly for women). Which groups are at the highest risk of exclusion? What specific institutional measures are needed to reach the benefits of e-government to marginalised women? In cases where the group contains members from different countries, the trainer has to clearly communicate that each individual has to offer insights about his/her national e-government system. (Format: small group discussion, followed by an open debrief where trainer sums up key points).

Case study suggestions

1. Please provide a copy of a resource such as the national digital strategy action plan and ask participants to evaluate the extent to which gender inclusiveness is effectively integrated in the vision and strategic directions for programming, set forth in the document.

   To illustrate: If the resource being utilised is the Philippine Digital Strategy (2011-15) http://dict.gov.ph/wp-content/ uploads/2014/06/philippine-digital-strategy-2011-2015.pdf, the trainer could sub-divide the class into small groups and ask them to focus on particular sections of the document – overall vision of Philippines’ Digital Future, Efficient Service Delivery, Internet for All, Digital Literacy for All – and ask them to address the following questions through a group reading and collective brainstorming:

   1. What are the key outcomes and strategic directions in this area?
   2. To what extent is gender inclusiveness effectively integrated into the document?
   3. How can gender perspectives be strengthened? How can their articulation in the strategic vision be strengthened?

   (The case study should be based on a group reading exercise where different participants read different sections of the document and then participate in a collective brainstorming).

2. Divide the class into groups, and ask each group to answer the following questions based on a detailed examination of the national gender mainstreaming strategy/plan document:

   1. What is the extent to which this plan document incorporates digital/ ICT strategies to achieve its stated objectives?
   2. Does it contain any suggestions on strengthening coordination mechanisms between national women’s machinery and e-government ministry/agency? What are the ways in which this can be strengthened?
3. Ask participants to compare the national women’s empowerment policy and national e-government plan/ strategic vision document, and reflect on whether the documents speak to each other, and produce a coherent imaginary of e-government for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Module 2. Gender-responsive e-service delivery

Open-ended questions

1. Do you think that existing e-services of the national government adequately address women’s needs and priorities across their life cycle?
2. What insights do you take away from the guidelines for designing women-directed e-services, with respect to improving the existing design of e-services in your national context?
3. Evaluate the ‘user facing’ and ‘government facing’ aspects of the design of e-services in your ministry, for their gender inclusiveness.
4. What can be done to improve the mainstreaming of gender concerns in the national open data programme?

Group exercises

1. What kind of technological design features can support a robust back-end data architecture for gender-inclusive e-services? (This can be an introductory exercise that you carry out before taking up the discussion on data governance that is part of Ingredient 2. Technical Design in Unit 2.2.).

2. Discuss in groups, the service delivery areas in which new forms of collaboration may be useful, such as with private and civil society involvement, to fill expertise gaps in governance systems. When such arrangements are taken, what accountability safeguards would be useful to keep in mind? (This can be a group exercise/ activity that is taken up at the end of Module 2)

Case Study suggestions

1. How would you apply the principles of a document such as the Netherlands e-Citizen Charter to the national e-service delivery system? What are the areas in which specific attention is required? Refer to http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/ ceci/documents/KBD_Newsletter/Issue_4/Poelmans.pdf for a brief description and background to the Netherlands e-Citizen Charter.

2. Examine the technical and data governance protocols in the national context, for their adequacy in furthering genderresponsive e-government design, building on the insights from Unit 2.2. The trainer should prepare a summary of the discussion of these protocols in Unit 2.2, and provide this handout to participants which can then form the basis for the case study exercise. In particular, the following issues should be touched upon:

• Technical interoperability – interconnection, data integration, information access, content management
• Data security standards
• Data protection regulation
• Open data frameworks
• Management of Private-Public-Partnership arrangements in data governance

Module 3. Gender-responsive e-participation

Open-ended questions

1. What are some ways through which we can effectively check gender-based violence on e-consultation platforms?
2. Is it possible to effectively balance the need for citizen privacy with user authentication requirements in e-participation initiatives? Why/Why not?
3. Identify some areas in which co-design of services would be useful, in your view. What methodologies for co-design would you prefer to deploy in the context that you work in?
4. Analyse a women-directed e-service that has been successful in your context, for its approach to uptake and active engagement. What techno-design and social aspects were instrumental for positive uptake by women?

Group exercises

1. Outline national guidelines for the use of online social media by public servants. Are there any sticky issues with regard to gender? How would you overcome these issues to ensure the guidelines are more gender-sensitive and respond to the interests and needs of men and women? (This exercise is best taken up at the end of Module 3)
2. Examine the existing national digital literacy programme for the extent to which it adequately incorporates information, media, and data literacy dimensions in its curriculum and includes women and girls. On the basis of this analysis, discuss the ways by which design and implementation of the programme can be strengthened, using the insights provided in Unit 3.2. (This exercise is best taken up at the end of Unit 3.2)
3. What design guidelines should we adopt in order to build safe and gender-inclusive online consultation spaces? (This exercise should be taken up as part of implementing Unit 3.1)

Case study suggestions

1. Request the participants to share any flagship initiative in the domain of digitally-mediated citizen engagement in which they have direct experience. The initiative may involve public information outreach, citizen dialogue and policy consultation, participatory monitoring of service delivery, grievance redress, and/or co-design/ co-production of governance solutions. The participants should then reflect in groups, on specific strategies they could use to make the design and roll-out of these interventions more gender-inclusive. As noted in the module, this is a fledgling area and it will be critical for participants to bring in their experiences.

Module 4. Gender-responsive connectivity architecture

Open-ended questions

1. Reflect on how the connectivity experiences of women and girls are shaped by multiple gender divides, bringing in insights from your experience.
2. Given the key role for technology for empowerment of women and girls in the SDGs (SDG 5b), how should access to the Internet be envisioned by policies? What may be the salient arguments in favour of a rights-based approach to Internet access?
3. What are the ways through which national level connectivity policies and programmes may be able to integrate a gender perspective more effectively? Build your answers drawing upon design guidelines provided in Unit 4.2.

Group exercises

1. When designing differential pricing frameworks, how can governments ensure that the public interest goal of universal access is effectively balanced with net neutrality obligations? (To open-up discussion, the trainer could refer to a resource that highlights the fault lines of the differential pricing debate in India, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Free-Basicsnow- through-the-backdoor/article14471120.ece).
2. Draw up design guidelines for a gender-inclusive public access programme, building upon insights from Unit 4.2.

Case study suggestions

1. Identify critical policy gaps in national connectivity frameworks using the five-pronged approach adopted by the World Wide Web Foundation’s Digital Gender Gap audit. See http:// webfoundation.org/docs/2016/09/WRO-Gender-Report-Card_ Overview.pdf

Module 5. Assessing gender responsiveness of e-government ecosystems

Open-ended questions

1. In your view, what critical gender data gaps in national statistical systems should be addressed to enable the monitoring and evaluation of e-government systems from a gender perspective?
2. Briefly explain the key elements of the capabilities-based approach to evaluating the gender-based outcomes of e-government interventions.

Group exercises

1. How would you adapt the four-dimensional checklist for a whole of e-government assessment on gender inclusion to your context?
2. Select an e-government intervention (such as e-health information service, digitally-enabled conditional cash transfer scheme, online platform for GBV support) which in your view has produced successful gender-based outcomes, and evaluate the institutional factors that contributed to this.

Case study suggestions

1. From this case study synopsis http://egov4women.unescapsdd. org/report/annex-ii-case-study-synopsis, select an intervention where an explicit vision for women’s empowerment and gender equality has been articulated and effectively pursued in design and implementation, and ask participants to address the following questions:

   1. What structure-end and agency-end factors contributed to effective gender-based outcomes?
   2. Comment on the specific areas where design improvements are needed.

   The participants should be instructed to adopt the capabilitiesbased approach to e-government evaluation, when addressing these questions.