Digital engagement (through mobile or other platforms) can significantly impact women and girls in humanitarian settings through freedom of expression and communication, better financial inclusion, more informed decision -making, and improved self-esteem. Yet, the existing gender gap in low- and middle -income countries is worsened in humanitarian settings where gender inequalities are heightened. Owing to systems of patriarchy that have practical consequences on women and girls' mobile or other technological solutions' access and use, women are falling behind. To correct this disparity, programmers must understand the state of access in their setting, real and perceived safety risks to women and girls' engagement, and choose meaningful woman- and girl -centered design. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to call attention to the digital disparity between men and women in terms of digital engagement in humanitarian settings and offer recommendations to narrow the gender gap through meaningful woman- and girl centered design of technological solutions.

Chapter Contents:

• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Know the starting point for women and girls
• 2.3 Systemic barriers to inclusive access
• 2.4 Sample studies on inclusion: Lebanon and Uganda
• 2.4.1 Ownership and possession
• 2.4.2 Barriers to use
• 2.4.3 Affordability/prohibitive cost
• 2.4.4 Disapproval: restrictive social norms/security and safety
• 2.4.5 Relevance and literacy
• 2.4.6 Access matters
• 2.5 Recommendations: design for inclusivity
• 2.5.1 Build an inter-disciplinary team
• 2.5.2 Woman-and girl-centered design
• 2.5.3 Consider guiding principles
• 2.5.4 Mind the gap (assess locally)
• 2.5.5 Address the barriers (do not treat male culture over women's as the accepted norm)
• 2.5.6 Focus on women and girls' participation
• 2.6 Conclusion
• References

Inspec keywords: human factors; gender issues

Other keywords: digital engagement; information and communication technology; perceived safety risk; humanitarian settings; woman-centered design; girl-centered design

Subjects: Ergonomic aspects of computing; Economic, social and political aspects of computing