Executive Summary Thus, it is cause for concern that 3.9 billion people worldwide lack access to the internet, the keystone of the ICT ecosystem.6 This gap persists despite widespread increases in basic availability.7 And this gap, together with interrelated disparities in digital skills, usage patterns, and both real and perceived benefits of ICTs, is known as the digital divide. As ICTs increasingly mediate both participation in and benefits of development processes, those who lack ICT access, skills, and benefits—disproportionately those who are female, rural, low The internet promotes inclusion, efficiency and innovation. —Digital Dividends, World Bank 2016 income, illiterate, or elderly—risk increased marginalization.8 The global gender digital divide is the measurable gap between men and women in ICT access, skills, and benefits as both consumers and producers of digital information, products, and services. An estimated 250 million more women than men are offline worldwide.9 This divide is expanding globally,10 making it imperative to improve understanding of how ICTs are becoming yet another barrier, enforced through policies, practices, and norms, that limits women’s and girls’ agency and voice in arenas from civic participation and governance to education and economic opportunities. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: IREX analyzed 1) the extent to which evidence exists for gender-based differences in access, use, and perceived benefits; and 2) awareness among key stakeholders in Myanmar of how such differences deepen gaps in digital skills acquisition and real benefits derived from ICTs, such as improved health and educational outcomes. 1 Key Finding 1: Although manifestations of the gender digital divide in Myanmar are widely perceived to be normative and personal choices by women and girls, they are systemic and detrimental to women’s and girls’ full participation in or ability to benefit from development processes. 2 Key Finding 2: Among the three components analyzed (access, skills, and benefits), both (a) gender-based control over ICT devices and skills acquisition and (b) lack of real and perceived benefits of ICT use are more salient to the gender digital divide in Myanmar than issues of access, for which age/rural/urban lines are more strongly correlated. 3 Key Finding 3: The lack of a local focal point—whether a government agency or a high-capacity nonstate institution—to champion digital inclusion compounds low stakeholder awareness of how the gender digital divide functions as a brake on development. 4 Key Finding 4: There is more political will to accelerate integration of ICTs than for gender equality as a priority. “Women [in Myanmar] have the same potential as men, but there are barriers that women face that men do not. For example, online safety is a big challenge because of a popular perception that women are weaker than men— especially young women. Online harassment is more prevalent for women, particularly on Facebook.” —Female volunteer at urban CSO ITU, ICT Facts and Figures 2016 (Geneva: ITU, 2016). Ibid. McKinsey & Company, “Offline and Falling Behind: Barriers to Internet Adoption,” September 2014. 9 International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Connecting the Unconnected (Geneva: ITU, 2017) 10 The global gap grew from 11 percent in 2013 to 12 percent in 2016, with the greatest divide (31 percent) in least developed countries (ITU, ICT Facts and Figures 2016). 6 7 8 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 4