3.5 Asia and the Pacific
Three out of four practices combine access to digital skills and access to digital technology. The other practice combines access to digital skills with entrepreneurship and leadership. Three out of four practices target women and girls and/or gender equality, specifically.
Table 6: Access to digital skill, technology, inclusion, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and services (Asia-Pacific)
| Practice | Access to digital technology | Access to digital skills | Financial inclusion | Entrepreneurship and leadership | Access to infrastructure and digital services |
| Online Safety Act 2021 (Australia) | X | X | |||
| eSafety Women Program (Australia) | X | X | |||
| Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Strategy (Australia) | X | X | |||
| Addressing gender gap in access to ICT infrastructure and services and digital skills (Republic of Korea) | X | X |
Two practices are strategic documents themselves, aligned with other national strategic documents. The Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Strategy (Australia) is a strategic document and a Values Pillar of the International Cyber and Critical Tech Engagement Strategy. The 2022 Action Plan to Support Women Scientists and Engineers (Republic of Korea) launched by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) is implemented in line with Digital New Deal Strategy.
Key highlights
Activities
 | Act on online eSafety and give the authority in charge functions and regulatory power to address online harms and promote online safety. Sets specific requirements on basic online safety expectations. |
| Consultation with other government l institutions and stakeholders who are directly and indirectly affected by the policy. |
| Educational (e.g., a social media self-defence training), promotional and community awareness events; regulatory and compliance activities; and research, advice and liaison. |
| Extensive research conducted and industry consultation to develop a programme on online safety targeting women. |
| Awareness-raising and understanding of technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) to help women identify it and take steps towards preventing it. |
| Self-assessment activity for programme partners. |
| Support to identify potential for better practice and increased resourcing, providing practical and implementable examples of how to improve the design, activities and monitoring of the project to better address gender mainstreaming priorities. |
| Mentoring programmes for girls and young women, with voluntary participation of women experts and professionals. |
| Training programmes on new digital technology, service and entrepreneurship for young women and women with career interruption. |
Resources
| Tools and information brochures to equip women to protect themselves and their families against all forms of online abuse. |
| Matrix to assist partners to understand the gender mainstreaming strategy. |
| Financial resources for the implementation of the act and/or the strategy. |
| Minimum percentage of investment on gender mainstreaming activities or projects across the portfolio. |
| Guidelines to promote the participation of female researchers in critical R&D projects. When selecting the government budget R&D project, extra points are provided if more than 10 per cent or participants are women or the project leader is a woman. |
Collaboration and partnerships
| Stakeholders: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications; ICT regulator; eSafety Commissioner; Ministry of Science and ICT. |
| Coordination and consultation across government institutions. |
| Partnerships with domestic violence peak bodies, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and organizations with staff who are required to have an online presence for work. |
The Online Safety Act 2021 (Australia) provides the eSafety Commissioner (an independent statutory office holder who is appointed by the Minister and provided support by staff from the Australian Communications and Media Authority) with a broader range of functions and strengthened regulatory powers to better address online harms and promote online safety. The Act sets out requirements for Basic Online Safety Expectations and expands protections for women who are disproportionately impacted by online harms in a number of ways, including by creating a world-first cyber-abuse scheme for adults to assist victims of seriously harmful online abuse to have the material removed. Key activities include educational, promotional and community awareness events; regulatory and compliance activities; coordination across Government; and research, advice and liaison. In 2021-22 eSafety received AUD 18 million for measures to target online harms that disproportionately impact women and children (AUD 15 million to increase eSafety’s investigations capacity, which includes investigations into reports of image-based abuse; and AUD 3 million to develop new technologies to identify intimate images and duplicates of intimate images which have been shared without consent, assisting in the rapid removal of image-based abuse material, providing greater support to victims). Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is the policy department responsible for online safety in Australia. The Department worked very closely with the regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, consulted widely with a range of stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by the policy, to develop the Online Safety Act.
The eSafety Women Programme (Australia)50 seeks to address online gender-based violence in a range of scenarios, including the use of technology as a means of abuse in domestic and family violence situations, and empowering women in public facing roles who disproportionately experience gendered online violence as a result of their profession. The programme has been developed through extensive research and industry consultation and supports stakeholders across government, non-government, universities, and the private sector. The programme helps women take control of their online experiences by: providing practical tools and information to equip women to protect themselves and their families against all forms of online abuse; training frontline, specialist and support staff in the domestic and family violence sector, giving them the knowledge, skills and resources to effectively support women and their families, and; actively raising awareness and understanding of technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) to help women identify it and take steps towards preventing it. The Women in the Spotlight programme provides training and resources to raise awareness about gendered online abuse and the ways it can be stopped, including social media self-defence training. The eSafety Women programme is driven by staff from the eSafety Education, Prevention and Inclusion branch. It currently comprises ten staff (including Women in the Spotlight). eSafety has key partnerships with domestic violence peak bodies, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and organizations with staff who are required to have an online presence for work.
The Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Strategy (Australia)50 is a Values Pillar of the International Cyber and Critical Tech Engagement Strategy and a cross cutting theme of the Cyber and Critical Tech Cooperation Program (CCTCP). Recognising the different GEDSI skills and capacity of partner organizations, CCTCP will take a collaborative and incremental approach to facilitating improvements in GEDSI skills, practice and outcomes across the Program. The CCTCP GEDSI matrix will assist partners to understand the underpin a CCTCP-designed and supported self-assessment activity for Program partners. At the beginning of each project, partners will be supported to explore GEDSI components of the activity design, identifying potential for better practice and increased resourcing, providing practical and implementable examples of how to improve the design, activities and monitoring of the project to better address GEDSI risks and promote GEDSI priorities and need. Projects already funded through CCTCP will be provided with the opportunity to opt-in to the GEDSI self-assessment process. There has been a very collaborative approach by the CCTCP in the design and development of this strategy. As part of annual reporting processes and project evaluation, there was a clear theme that CCTCP partners were very interested and engaged in this work, and that they wanted to have more direction and support in terms of GEDSI practice. This work commenced with a literature review of cyber and critical technology to understand more broadly the challenges facing the sector across the globe, as well as the region in which the CCTCP operates. In addition to mainstreaming GEDSI across all project activities, CCTCP will fund strategic stand-alone initiatives that build GEDSI knowledge, data and practice in the sector. Across the CCTCP portfolio, a minimum of 10 per cent of the overall programme funds will be invested in GEDSI-specific activities (this is in addition to gender mainstreaming throughout activities) by 2025.
Action Plan to Support Women Scientists and Engineers (Republic of Korea). The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) launched the 2022 Action Plan to Support Women Scientists and Engineers to help enhance capabilities of women scientists and engineers. It consists of three strategies: i) fostering innovative women talent in science and technology, ii) creating more sustainable jobs for women scientists and engineers, and iii) fostering an environment where people can strike a balance between work and life. The Action Plan will include a project to foster and support women scientists and engineers, and a project to establish and operate the support centres for women scientists and engineers. Guidelines are established to promote the participation of woman researcher in critical R&D projects. When selecting the government budget R&D Project, extra points will be provided if more than 10 per cent of participants are women, or if the project leader is a woman. Government budget for gender equality and other funds are available. Various mentoring programmes with voluntary participation of women experts and professionals are provided for girls and young woman. Training programmes on new digital technology, service and entrepreneurship for young women and women with career interruption are implemented in line with Digital New Deal Strategy.