Women’s Exclusion From the Digital World Has Withheld $1 Trillion From Low- And Middle-Income Countries" GDP

UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2022 report concludes that in the last decade, women’s exclusion from the digital world has deprived low- and middle- income countries of up to $1 trillion of their gross domestic product (GDP), a loss that could rise to $1.5 trillion by 2025 without action. 

Despite national and international public and private initiatives, there persists a significant digital gap regarding the access to digital tools and digital literacy. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, 34 percent of the world’s population, 2.7 billion people, still don’t have access to internet and 69 percent of men use it compared to 63 percent of women.