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Project

The Future of Work: Digital Safety for Women in the Workplace

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Our previous research findings have highlighted the growing need for addressing the problem of online violence against women that continuously halts gender equality. In 2021 alone, we found numerous incidents and reports indicating we are far from achieving a safe internet. In fact, our Amplified Abuse Report for the 2021 General Elections in Uganda showed that women leaders continue to be targeted and silenced on the political stage, evidence of a continuum of physical and online violence on the campaign trail. Our "Future of work" campaign seeks to create an understanding of digital safety and digital resilience among women. Find details on this campaign/project below 👇

Resources

Harnessing Multimedia to Promote Digital Resilience for Women

Background

While the internet is lauded as a valuable resource for accessing information and exercising freedoms of expression, it has however been proliferated by significant harms such as online violence, misinformation, and hate speech. Gender-discriminatory practices, influenced by social, economic, cultural, and political structures in the physical realm, are also being replicated online across digital platforms. This assertion is supported by our recent research on FemTech, Amplified abuse research in Uganda and Kenya, as well as Alternate Realities and Alternate Internets.

 

Project Overview

Pollicy acknowledges the need for increased inventive interventions to empower women to bridge the digital divide. Through the Future of Work Program, Pollicy and partners shall work with women including journalists, creatives, activists, leaders, technologists, educators, and community organisers across Africa, in their different capacities to influence good ICT policies and regulation, shape narratives and hold perpetrators of online violence accountable, raise awareness, equip fellow women with skills and knowledge, design and build platforms that prioritise safety and privacy, ultimately changing women’s experiences in the digital realm and ultimately bridging the digital divide.

 

Collaboration and Engagement: 

Over the last two years, Pollicy has partnered with the Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA) and The Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) Kenya to implement this work in Uganda and Kenya.

"Globally and countrywide we have been sowing seeds of humiliation. This is because we have a market that trades in shame. Monetising on shame as a product at the expense of the lives of women and girls"

Bina Maseno (Former Local Government Aspirant in Kenya)
PROJECT EXPANSION

With the program expanding Pollicy seeks to collaborate with more women-led media coalitions and women-focused civil society organisations towards in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Cameroon, Senegal, and Mozambique to rally and build a critical mass of African women to advance and promote a feminist internet that addresses gender power dynamics and inequalities.

COLLABORATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT

We collaborated with women-led and women-focused civil society organisations towards International Women’s Day through holding conversations with actors from both traditional and digital media in East Africa. These workshops also brought journalists and media experts together to discuss and reflect on the future of digital safety, inclusion, and rights in both Uganda and Tanzania.

The Ideal Future of Work
Future of Work: Digital Safety for Women in the Workplace - Kampala Workshop
The Future of Work: Digital Safety for Women in the Workplace - Tanzania
The Future of Work: Twitter Space Discussion
Art and Covid Misinformation Project
Digital Ambassador Program