For this year’s International Women’s Day, the United Nations is spotlighting women’s contributions to and persistent discrimination in the digital world under the banner ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.’ As part of the annual 8 March celebration, the UN’s high-level event is convening a range of tech entrepreneurs and activists to discuss the socioeconomic impacts of the digital gender divide and the pressing need to protect women from online gender-based violence.

Given its rapidly growing digitalisation, Asia-Pacific is a priority area, as an uneven deployment of the Internet risks significantly exacerbating existing inequalities and hampering the region’s digital transformation. In building a future-fit digital ecosystem in Asia, government, industry and civil society leaders will need to work together to embed gender equality, as well as democratic Internet governance and free market principles to accelerate its inclusive expansion.

Tackling gender-based digital discrimination

The Asia-Pacific region bears a pronounced digital gender divide, with only 54% of women using the Internet in 2020 compared to 59% of men. The problem is particularly stark in South Asia, where a 36% gap in online access separates the genders, while significant inequality in mobile phone ownership makes matters worse.

Beyond technical and cultural barriers to Internet access, women and girls in Asia-Pacific face many forms of digital discrimination, ranging from fewer digital education and training opportunities – and by extension high-value tech job prospects – to a shockingly high 88% rate of online abuse and violence according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, with women’s rights activists and female journalists disproportionately targeted.

The response to these challenges must mobilise education, legislative protection, bolstered law enforcement and inclusive digital policymaking. Hong Kong-based education entrepreneur Jennifer Yu Cheng has emphasised the importance of providing teenage girls with digital skills and inspiring them to succeed in STEM fields, saying that “change starts early and today’s adolescents are the key to closing the gender gap and creating a better future.”

More broadly, Asian countries should pass new legislation to guarantee women’s online safety and prosecute e-criminals, while holding tech platforms used to commit digital abuse and violence crimes accountable via improved evidence sharing with law enforcement. And as UN digital equality experts Sarah Knibbs, Debora Comini and Atsuko Okuda posit, “governments should take action to ensure women and girls” are “empowered to shape the region’s digital transformation as innovators, entrepreneurs, business leaders and decision-makers.”

Future-proofing Internet governance

Gender equality progress within Asia-Pacific’s Internet governance will need to be reinforced by open, democratic principles to tackle current issues. As Sadaf Khan, co-founder and director of Media Matters for Democracy, has pointed out, “Asia-Pacific is a challenging region because it regroups countries with very different economic, political and cultural backgrounds,” making it “hard to find a common language” for Internet governance that reflects the needs of all countries.

This reality was on prominent display ahead of the recently held Executive Committee election for APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry responsible for allocating Asia-Pacific’s IP addresses. One of the candidates, Internet entrepreneur and governance activist Lu Heng, was particularly vocal in advocating for changes to APNIC’s governance and operations, including relocating its headquarters from Brisbane, Australia to Singapore, which shares a greater geographic and cultural proximity with a much larger share of APNIC’s economies – not to mention its status as a regional digital powerhouse.

The lively election campaign spotlighted a number of other issues and proposals, with Lu Heng saying that that the newly-elected Committee members “have a huge job ahead of them in reforming the governance of APNIC." Crucially, going forward APNIC must ensure member-based Internet governance, with the Executive Committee giving a voice to all community stakeholders to support inclusive Internet expansion across the region. This more inclusive governance could start within APNIC itself—following the recent elections, none of APNIC’s EC members are women, despite the fact that there were several female candidates standing.

Sadaf Khan, as well as UNESCO representative to Nepal, Michael Croft, rightly advocate for the region’s adoption of Internet Universality Indicators (IUIs) as a governance framework that allows all countries to “speak the speak the same language.” Moreover, UNESCO is encouraging Asia-Pacific countries to embed ROAM-X principles – representing rights, openness, accessibility, multistakeholder participation and gender equality – to progress evidence-based Internet policy-making and effective regional collaboration.

Shoring up slowing investment

While robust Internet governance is key, reaping its full rewards will require continued investment into an Asian digital space encountering headwinds after years of prosperity.

Last year, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company reported that Southeast Asia’s digital economy, anchored by Singapore and Indonesia, remained an investment “hotbed” in the first half of 2022 amid a 13% year-on-year in venture capital. But its projection that macroeconomic woes and rising interest rates would likely usher in a downturn in the second half of 2022 is unfortunately materialising.

Singapore-based e-commerce and gaming stalwart Sea Limited, once a “symbol of Southeast Asia’s internet boom,” has entered a period of declining revenue growth and devaluation, with rising inflation knocking off roughly $166 billion of its value since 2021. Spooked by anticipated declines in valuation for Asia-Pacific, investors’ “love affair with the region’s internet firms is cooling rapidly,” according to Bloomberg.

With cost-cutting measures like massive lay-offs and salary freezes neither just nor sustainable solutions for digital firms scrambling to reassure foreign investors, the region needs future-proof interventions. By developing strong local digital skills and promoting innovative, high-growth sectors like fintech, robotics manufacturing and automation, the public and private sector can work together to turn the tide.

Vietnam, with its highly-skilled local workforce and the Philippines, which boasts a strong record of fintech investments, have both been tapped for long-term investment growth, proving that an inclusive approach to digital economic growth is the way forward.

The UN’s International Women’s Day focus on digital gender inequalities presents a timely opportunity to highlight and address a broader range of issues holding back Asia-Pacific’s Internet. Tackling these challenges will be essential in creating a future-fit digital ecosystem that maximizes the Internet’s socioeconomic benefits for all of society. Through gender-inclusive initiatives, open, democratic governance and a strong investment climate, the region can unlock the full potential of its digital transformation.