New Alliance to Strengthen Women’s Digital Skills and Changemaking Globally at the UN Generation Equality Forum

Her Digital Leadership Alliance will connect 20,000 emerging leaders across 50 countries with gender-transformative digital skills to benefit millions more in local efforts to bridge the gender digital divide.

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#GenerationEquality–World Pulse—an independent, women-led global social network—joins with international business, civil society, and government partners this week to announce the Her Digital Leadership Alliance, a commitment of the Generation Equality Forum, one of the world’s largest gatherings to secure ambitious commitments for gender equality, co-hosted by UN Women and the governments of Mexico and France.

The commitment responds to the urgency for equal digital access and use especially during and following the pandemic era, while half of women and girls globally remain offline and cut off from the benefits of the internet. According to numerous international studies, even those women who are able to access the internet face a gendered digital skills divide and are often exposed to traumatic online harassment.

The Alliance is based on findings from the newly released report #SheTransformsTech, produced by World Pulse alongside 27 women’s and digital rights partners, which crowdsourced recommendations, insights, and solutions from 60 countries for a gender-equal technology future.

The Her Digital Leadership Alliance is a five-year commitment with business, government, and civil society to build a global network of 20,000 grassroots women, girls, and gender-expansive leaders in 50+ countries and equip them with digital leadership, advocacy, and trainer skills. With these skills, these leaders will improve the lives of millions more in their communities; lead local efforts to bridge the gender digital divide; and deliver innovative methods to bring previously marginalized voices online to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

The Her Digital Leadership Alliance includes:

Online digital training and online peer community hosted by World Pulse
Career pathway for certified grassroots digital trainers
Extensive global partnerships and recruitment
Real-time member impact tracking of initiatives and movements via an online impact dashboard
Crowdsourcing and amplifying voices to international decision-makers

Inaugural Alliance partners include technology companies, such as Vodafone Americas Foundation, Equinix, with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), programmatic collaboration with the EQUALS Global Partnership to Bridge the Gender Divide, and a wide network of international and community-based organizations.

Participants in Her Digital Leadership Alliance are calling for a fundamental transformation of technology access and use, led by those most historically excluded by it. World Pulse Founder and CEO Jensine Larsen says, “Through this commitment, we will activate and strengthen the vast leadership potential of women and gender-expansive individuals coming online globally to close the gender digital divide and build a more inclusive technology future for us all.”

The Alliance will give a platform to community leaders globally like Veronica Ngum Ndi, a Cameroonian disability activist who states, “Technology has transformed me into a role model. I train women, girls, and communities on the importance of digital empowerment. I hope that by helping women and girls, especially those with disabilities, fully take advantage of digital tools, they will also be empowered to bring about a new world powered by women.”

The Her Digital Leadership Alliance is growing and welcomes more programmatic and funding partners. Interested individuals can reach out to [email protected] to receive more information.

About World Pulse:

World Pulse is an independent, women-led social network that brings a decade of experience providing supportive global online community, digital storytelling, and change-making training to tens of thousands of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals and their organizations across 190 countries, today impacting 17.6 million with their expanded movements, business, and social change efforts.