A/HRC/35/9 B. Gender disparities in access to and use of information and communications technologies 4. ICTs, including the Internet, are increasingly influential across all aspects of life. However, while in many instances ICTs have boosted growth and expanded opportunities, their impact is unevenly distributed.5 Today, despite widespread increases in basic Internet availability, only 47 per cent of the world’s population is connected. 6 The offline population is disproportionately poor, rural, older and female, and the gap between them and those who have access to the Internet is widening steadily. 5. Internet uptake has come about unequally and at differing speeds, exacerbating inequalities between many groups, notably between women and men. Worldwide it is estimated that approximately 250 million fewer women than men are online. 7 According to recent figures, the global Internet user gender gap expanded from 11 per cent in 2013 to 12 per cent in 2016. While Internet penetration rates are higher for men than women in all regions, the gender gap is lowest in developed countries (2.8 per cent in 2016), significantly higher in developing countries (16.8 per cent in 2016) and highest in least developed countries (30.9 per cent in 2016).8 It is most pronounced in Africa, the Arab States and the Asia-Pacific region.9 6. However, Internet penetration rates are only one component of the gender digital divide. While Internet connectivity continues to be an economic and infrastructural challenge, there are other inequalities in Internet usage patterns, skills and benefits. Research reveals that women are much less likely than men in the same age group and at similar education and income levels to use the Internet. 10 In one report, covering 10 countries, it was noted that once online, women are between 30 and 50 per cent less likely than men to use the Internet for economic and political empowerment. 11 7. Women are also left behind by the rapid growth in mobile telephone ownership, currently the most prevalent means of access to the Internet in developing countries. 12 Worldwide, women are, on average, 14 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile telephone.13 When they own mobile telephones, women are less likely than men to utilize mobile data, social media applications or SMS services.14 8. Information received reveals wide discrepancies among States in women’s access to and use of ICTs. However, the availability of sex- and gender-disaggregated data in this 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 According to a 2013 report, bringing an additional 600 million women and girls online would result in a global gross domestic product increase of up to $18 billion (see Broadband Commission, Doubling Digital Opportunities: Enhancing the Inclusion of Women & Girls in the Information Society (ITU and UNESCO, 2013)). Other studies call into question the productivity gains said to be brought by the Internet (see, for example, World Bank, World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends (2016), pp. xiii and 2). ITU Facts and Figures 2016, fourth page. Imme Philbeck “Connecting the unconnected: working together to achieve Connect 2020 Agenda targets”, background paper to the special session of the Broadband Commission and the World Economic Forum at the Davos Annual Meeting 2017, p. 7. ITU Facts and Figures 2016, third page. For national statistical data, see inputs received from States, available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WRGS/Pages/WaystoBridgetheGenderDigital.aspx. The Economist Intelligence Unit, “The inclusive Internet index: bridging digital divides” (2017), pp. 3 and 13. Philbeck, “Connecting the unconnected”, p. 7. See World Wide Web Foundation, http://webfoundation.org/about/research/womens-rights-online2015/. See further Women’s Rights Online: Translating Access Into Empowerment (2015), pp. 13 and 31. ITU, Measuring the Information Society Report 2016, pp. 167-175. See also International Committee of the Red Cross, The Engine Room and Block Party, Humanitarian Futures for Messaging Apps (2017), p. 26. GSMA, Connected Women 2015: Bridging the Gender Gap — Mobile Access and Usage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, p. 8. See also inputs from the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative on the gender divide in mobile telephone ownership among refugees in Greece. GSMA, Connected Women 2015, pp. 26-30. 3