Future of international advocacy – all on board the train crossing the digital divide?
In the early days of the Internet, Donna Harraway in her “A Cyborg Manifesto” wrote that we need to make this new space feminist from the start, or it will be another avenue for patriarchy to reign over us. Now, some 35 years later we are reading article, after article, after article about how Artificial Intelligence is racially and gender biased. For international advocacy, grassroots voices have always been scarce at UN meetings, with the pandemic, the digital divide is now providing another barrier to participation. Get some practical tips on how to make your online advocacy more inclusive, read the full article by our Hanna Gunnarsson published in iFokus, Jun 2020, pages 48-49. (Photo credit: UN Women/Feng Xinlin)
Tips for bridging the digital divide
As we are moving advocacy online, here are some steps our feminist movement and others should take to ensure we create online spaces that are inclusive and not exclusive.
- UN spaces must have a digitalisation plan if they go virtual
- We need to reshape advocacy
- Have tech teach-ins and skill shares within your networks
- Ensure your virtual meetings are accessible, read our “Planning Virtual Meetings” toolkit.
- Map out what our feminist internet dream place would look like
- Create non-anglophone spaces in your networks
Photo credit: UN Women/Feng Xinlin