Since the announcement of the Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF) by Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2023, partners have pledged additional funding, leading to the launch of a new and bigger global effort -- the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative. Partners have collectively committed over US $801.8 million in aligned funding to the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative and $72.1 million in direct and affiliated funding to WiDEF to halve the digital gender gap by 2030 -- following the G20's historic commitment to the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration.

The Women in the Digital Economy Initiative brings together governments, private sector companies, foundations, civil society, and multilateral organizations to accelerate progress towards the closure of the gender digital divide, in order to improve women's livelihoods, economic security, and resilience, with a focus on five pillars: 

  • Access and Affordability. Increase women's access to the internet and internet-enabled devices, and ensure that devices, digitally enabled services, including digital finance, and data are affordable, reliable, secure, and accessible, including for users with disabilities.
  • Relevant Products and Tools. Design, develop, and provide access to relevant products and tools (interfaces, voice technologies, applications, digitally enabled services) that meet women's needs and facilitate women's demand for and use of mobile devices and applications, particularly smartphones, internet, and other technologies, especially for income-generation purposes.
  • Literacy and Skills. Strengthen women's digital skills and literacy, including media literacy, so that they can fully and safely access digital services, and participate and lead in digital spaces, including the digital economy.
  • Safety and Security. Address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including gender-based online harassment and abuse, and strengthen safeguards for digital user protection, including on consumer financial protection, data protection, cybersecurity, fraud, and risk mitigation.
  • Data and Insights. Expand collection and responsible use of required sex-disaggregated data, research, and gender analysis (a) to better understand and address social norms and systems that influence gender disparities in technology adoption; (b) as a precursor to inform gender-equitable design of and activities related to digital policies, protocols, platforms, products, and services; and (c) to track and benchmark change.

Across these priorities, the Initiative will support, wherever possible, local, women-led, feminist and gender-transformational solutions, products, and tools.

The Initiative builds on WiDEF, a joint effort between USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. WiDEF is a pooled partnership that identifies, directly funds, and accelerates evidence-based, proven solutions to close the gender digital divide by addressing the barriers that prevent equal participation in the digital economy. USAID committed $50.5 million and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $10 million, respectively, by 2026, with at least half of these resources focused on Africa. To expand the reach of WiDEF, partners have pledged an additional $11.6 million as of September 2023: $10 million from Microsoft and $1.6 million from the Government of the Republic of Korea.

Benefits of Joining

By joining the Initiative, organizations have the opportunity to: 

  • Drive the agenda for advancing a gender-equitable digital economy and help accelerate progress to close the gender digital divide.
  • Gain access to partners, potential funders, funding opportunities, and/or organizations which they can fund or invest in as members of the Community of Practice.
  • Directly fund or co-fund proven, gender-transformative, evidence-based solutions vetted by WiDEF.
  • Raise public awareness of their investments to close the gender digital divide.

How to Join the Initiative

No one government or organization can close the gender digital divide alone. The U.S. Government invites other governments, the private sector, foundations, civil society, and multilateral organizations to collaborate and commit financial, knowledge, human, and other resources toward WiDEF and the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative. 

Initiative partners will:

  • Make a commitment and/or dedicated investment(s) toward halving the gender digital divide by 2030 in at least one of the five WiDEF key pillars.
  • Share data and learnings on their progress towards achieving the key results of the Initiative, in order to demonstrate evidence of success and proven solutions, if available.
  • Commit to collecting and sharing sex-disaggregated data, wherever possible (i.e. number of total and active users, if organizations have direct users, and/or program participants, percentage of women).
  • Actively participate in the Women in the Digital Economy Community of Practice.

For further information on the Initiative, reach out to genderdigital@usaid.gov.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the relationship between the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative and WiDEF?

The Women in the Digital Economy Initiative connects stakeholders with a shared focus on accelerating progress toward the 2023 G20 commitment to halve the gender digital divide by 2030, through investments, learning, and networking. Initiative partners make individual, aligned commitments to close the gender digital divide that advance at least one of the Initiative's five pillars, and may collaborate and partner in specific sectors or countries.

Initiative partners also have the opportunity to directly contribute to WiDEF as Funders. Funders collaborate through the pooled partnership to accelerate progress towards the G20 target, either by contributing resources to the pooled Fund or by directly investing in gender-transformative solutions identified by WiDEF's open call for proposals. Funders will also engage with WiDEF-led advocacy efforts.

Who are WiDEF Initiative Partners?

So far, WiDEF Initiative partners include all direct funders of WiDEF as well as organizations that have made commitments related to the 2023 G20 commitment to halve the gender digital divide. All will be invited to join the Community of Practice to be launched in March 2024.

Are organizations that made commitments to WiDEF in the Vice President's Global Initiatives on the Economic Empowerment of Women also Initiative Partners?

The Initiative did not exist at the time, and these entities will be invited to join the Community of Practice.

Can an Initiative Partner receive WiDEF funding?

Initiative Partners or other organizations can apply to Requests for Application (RFA) if they meet the eligibility criteria unique to each RFA. There will be a total of seven open calls for RFAs; five of which will award monetary funding and two of which will provide technical assistance. Each round will have its own focus area(s) and criteria. Sign up here to receive WiDEF updates, including information on the RFAs as they become available.

How do I learn more about WiDEF?

See this page for further information on WiDEF.

Can an organization that is unable to make an aligned commitment to the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative or a funding commitment to WiDEF join the Community of Practice?

Yes, organizations unable to make commitments to the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative or WiDEF may join the Community of Practice.

What do you mean by proven solutions?

WiDEF funds solutions that clearly demonstrate previous evidence of having a positive impact on closing the gender digital divide by addressing one of WiDEF's five core pillars.