Africa-Press – Botswana. Government has shown commitment towards empowering woman and girls to participate in the digital space, says the Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Mr Tumiso Rakgare.
The minister said this in Gaborone on Wednesday when briefing the media on his recent trip to the United Nations 67th Commission on the status of women (CSW67), which was held in New York from March 6 to 17.
He said theconference themed; Innovation and Technological Change and Education in the Digital Age for Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls, gave his delegation an opportunity to give an update on the progress the country had made thus far.
He cited among others the school digitalisation project aimed at building capacity of learners from early age of development, adding that through the project, 51 000 learners and 5 000 teachers in 34 government senior secondary schools had been issued with laptops since September 2022.
He said phase two of the project targeted 140 000 learners and 13 500 teachers at junior secondary school level.
Mr Rakgare said vulnerable groups such as people with disability who were a priority at the commission on the status of women and at national level, were supplied with individual digital braille, note takers, magnifying tables as well as scan and read equipment.
Further, he said rural communities were empowered through the village connectivity project where government facilities such as schools, dikgotla and health facilities were connected with open WI-FI.
“Noting that the protection of women and girls within the cyber space is critical, we shared that the Cyber-Crime and Computer Related Crimes Act recognises cyber harassment, cyber stalking, offensive electronic communication and revenge pornography as offences, thereby affording those aggrieved an opportunity to seek legal redress,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Rakgare said the country could not afford further delays in mainstreaming gender issues across all sectors of the economy.
“Now that we have global experience on gender issues, it is our intention to scale up our efforts in mainstreaming of gender, not only in government, but in all sectors,” he said.
The minister said there was political will in the public service where up to 50 per cent of permanent secretaries were women while 70 per cent of directors were women.
He therefore called upon all sectors of the economy to make a deliberate decisions and ensure that their services met the differing and specific needs of women and girls as well as men and boys
The Director of Gender Affairs, Ms Thapelo Phuthego said the country had done well in achieving gender equality in sectors such as basic education, adding that women were making progress into sectors such as mining.
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