In today’s rapidly advancing digital age, ensuring safe and meaningful participation for women and girls is essential to bridging the digital gender divide.
On Friday, November 29th, 2024, WOUGNET convened diverse female stakeholders, including civil society, media, students, and digital security activists, for a virtual digital security training and X-Chat with the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) support.
The two conversations aimed to share knowledge and experiences, foster safer and more meaningful participation in online spaces, and enhance the role of civil society in Uganda in empowering women and girls in digital spaces.
The virtual digital security training taught women and girls how to navigate the digital space safely and confidently. The facilitator taught the participants practical skills, such as setting strong passwords and using antiviruses.
During a session exploring Digital Security and Safety, Esther Nyapendi highlighted, “Cyber threats are on the rise, and this has caused loss of personal and organisational data, thus compromising privacy.” Esther encouraged participants to be vigilant with their passwords, run regular malware scans, and limit the sharing of personal data online. She provided various tools, such as end-to-end encryption, strong passwords, anti-virus installation, two-factor authentication, and regular software updates, that can be used to ensure that women and girls navigate digital spaces safely.
The facilitators also assessed the available cyber laws and reporting mechanisms. This session aimed at critically analysing national and international cyber laws governing Uganda’s digital spaces, exploring the existing gaps and recommendations on using these laws when faced with cyber threats effectively.
This session highlighted that most of the laws, including the Computer Misuse Act(2011) and the Data Protection and Privacy Act(2019), are broad and do not explicitly address gender-specific challenges such as Online Gender-Based Violence that disproportionately affect women and girls. Thus, these laws are subjected to misinterpretation and selective application to apprehend the perpetrators.
“There is a need for the Uganda Law Reform Commission to revise old and archaic laws and ensure that gender-specific laws are drafted and implemented to close the existing gaps in various legal frameworks that address challenges faced by women and girls in digital spaces,” David Iribagiza noted during the session.
In addition to the training, WOUGNET hosted an X-chat on “Digital Security and Safety Practices” to expand the conversation to broader communities. Using the hashtag #SafeNet4Women, the chat explored digital safety and security risks, the importance of digital safety for individuals and communities, and steps that can be taken to support victims and promote safer digital spaces.
Follow the chat here.
WOUGET remains committed to supporting girls and women in navigating online spaces safely and freely by organising initiatives to promote digital literacy and close the gender digital divide.
Compiled by,
Irene Marunga