1.3 Definitions: Gender mainstreaming; Practice, policy areas, regions

Gender mainstreaming in this handbook refers to the definition established by UN Women: “(…) a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities – policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, and planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects.”²⁰

The term practices in this handbook includes national policies, strategies, programmes, projects mainstreaming gender in digital policies. The definition also includes other initiatives related to the policy-making process such as institutionalized gender-focused inter-ministerial coordination. The definition of practice was deliberately kept broad to be able to collect practices from countries of different level of development.

Practices of mainstreaming gender were categorised by type, according to five key policy areas:

	Access to digital technology: Access by women and girls to digital technology and cybersecurity (including online safety).
	Access to digital skills: Access by women and girls to technical/professional studies, university, and particularly, to programmes equipping them with, at least, basic digital skills in the area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
	Financial inclusion: Availability of digital banking and digital payments (national and international), especially for women. Availability of universal service funds or financial mechanisms in place for example to finance projects or programmes for vulnerable communities including women and girls, or to provide access to digital services. It is worth mentioning that, in order to be able to access these services, some specific skills are required.
	Entrepreneurship and leadership: Women’s access to networks, knowledge sharing platforms and associations, presence in decision-making roles within the ICT field or the digital sector, and possibility to share knowledge and experiences.
	Access to infrastructure and digital services: Available, universal, and affordable. These policy areas include the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age21 focus areas and follow the same definition used in the context of the ITU and Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) pilot project assessing gender in digital policies, strategies and regulations in Burundi, Ethiopia and Haiti, implemented in 2021 and 2022 and whose methodology is included in the Annex to this handbook.22

These policy areas include the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age²¹ focus areas and follow the same definition used in the context of the ITU and Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) pilot project assessing gender in digital policies, strategies and regulations in Burundi, Ethiopia and Haiti, implemented in 2021 and 2022 and whose methodology is included in the Annex to this handbook.²²

20 UN Women

21 Launched in 2016 by ITU and four founding partners – GSMA, the International Trade Centre, the United Nations University and UN Women – EQUALS contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Agenda through actions and evidence-based research aimed at closing the global gender digital divide. EQUALS uses a multidisciplinary approach that integrates research, policy and programming to promote gender equality in technology access, skills and leadership, as well as conducting ground-breaking, evidence-based research. For more information: https:// www .equalsintech .org/

22 ITU