If we don’t design for inclusion, we will perpetuate inequality.
Important (but costly) systems our sector and Western society have created to keep people safe and ensure best practices are inadvertently acting as barriers to access. NetHope’s focus on digital inclusion seeks to ensure those who have been historically excluded from access to digital skills and leadership, and the accelerating impacts of digital innovation, get to be included.
The negative impacts of digital exclusion can and are also being embedded into technology itself. “If you look at AI, for example, it's developed mostly by men living in the Global North, and so it ends up perpetuating the stereotypes and ingraining the exclusion that we have in our society into tech as well,” says Morgane Bradley, NetHope’s Head of Data and Digital Solutions and Project Lead of Women of NetHope. “If the people who are making the tech are not looking at it from an inclusive lens, then you are going to perpetuate and ingrain that exclusion into the technology.”
For true digital equity to be realized, digital inclusion cannot be limited to emergency situations or treated as charity. We must understand that digital inclusion, from foundational digital access to reliable information and freedom from exploitation, is increasingly a basic necessity, and therefore a universal right.
NetHope and the NetHope Global Community is leading the sector in fighting bias, exclusion, non-representation, and barriers to access, seeking permanent solutions to build resilience, prioritize localization, act as digital first responders and improve post-disaster restoration, and nurture long-term digital access and services.
Women of NetHope – raising women in tech.
One of NetHope’s key platforms for inclusion is Women of NetHope. Women are severely underrepresented in the technology space, holding only 26.7% of tech-related jobs. Leadership positions are still also incredibly male-dominated, with just over 10% of Fortune 500 company CEOs identifying as women.
The same is true in the nonprofit tech space, which is why Women of NetHope has been investing in our global community of women through mentoring, leadership courses and scholarships to our annual Global Summit.
“Half of our Membership have participated in this program, from around 40 countries around the world,” says Morgane Bradley. “It’s not just about supporting women in HQ, and IT or digital roles that happen to be in HQ, it's also about supporting women across these organizations, wherever they’re based. We have a lot of participation from different countries in Africa, and also from the Pacific, and parts of Latin America.”
Watch this video to hear Diane Onyango share the impact Women of NetHope has had on her career as a woman in tech at NetHope Member Oxfam International.
Connectivity, collaboration, and localized solutions.
NetHope has two-decades’ experience getting communities connected, particularly in disaster contexts. And we’ll keep doing that, because connectivity is more essential for communities than ever – not only giving people access to essential information, but allowing them to share their own data too, and feed into responses, for example helping to shape localized climate adaptation plans.
But our work towards digital inclusion has and will continue to go beyond purely connectivity. The NetHope Digital Leadership Institute is providing digital skills and training for employees at all levels of our Members, prioritizing those in non-traditional IT roles, and has recently launched a course in Localization of Digital Transformation to support local organizations with their digital operations. We’re expanding Women of NetHope, to continue supporting those who identify as women in our community to grow their digital skills and leadership and stay in the nonprofit sector. We’re planning to offer coaching as well as mentoring and create peer-to-peer mentoring circles to help meet the large demand for mentorship within the program.
“The context of the nonprofit sector is what's been so unique,” says Morgane Bradley, speaking of the large uptake Women of NetHope has seen. “Because there are mentorship programs out there. There are leadership courses out there. But they don't have the context of the nonprofit – and we all join for the cause, we want to contribute to society, which takes a toll, right? And hearing from women who have gone through the same experiences is what the women were looking for. They want the actual experience of ‘what did you do as a woman in digital?’ ‘How did you face this kind of stigma?’ ‘How did you approach this challenge?’”
Nurturing long-term digital access and services.
“We have to dispel the notion that local capacity does not exist or is somehow insufficient. To create lasting change and sustainable digital programming, communities, local NGOs, and the population we're serving must be at the centre of the conversation and decision-making.” says Morgane Bradley.
NetHope is piloting a climate equity initiative in Uganda which aims to amplify community voices and integrate their experiences into digital climate models. We are also working with community leaders and local NGOs to develop a connectivity and resilience training curriculum so communities in the Tana River County have access to early warning systems and improved communications systems.
Don't miss...
Every installment of our six-part series exploring how NetHope’s 2024-2030 strategic plan is tackling the New Digital Divides:
Digital Inclusion resources
