New technologies present opportunities that should produce positive effects for the empowerment of women, integrating the gender perspective so as not to create new sources of inequality, underlines a report by the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS ).
Entitled “Accessibility of women to economic opportunities in Morocco”, this policy brief, written by Mounia Boucetta, PCNS Senior Fellow, emphasizes that digital technologies offer a space for creation and development that allows many women to work online, either in the field of employment or entrepreneurship, reports MAP.
“Specific programs are needed to support and provide the appropriate framework for women who embark on digital entrepreneurship, failing which we are seeing the emergence of digital informality which, moreover, is not exclusive to women”, notes Ms Boucetta, adding that social media can thus be used to connect women to supportive communities and economic opportunities, but there is a need to tackle cyberbullying, misinformation and gender bias online.
And note that according to the High Commission for Planning (HCP), the use of new information and communication technologies contributes up to 19% to violence against women. This contribution is 34% for girls aged 15-19 and 28% for women aged 20-24.
The policy brief also stresses that telework will certainly be increasingly developed, which could offer more flexibility to workers, according to their needs, considering, however, that this framework, in the long term, does not allow them not to keep the same quality of exchange and connection with their colleagues and can affect their career development.
In addition, the report recalls that the government has set itself the objective of increasing the female activity rate from 20% to 30% by 2026, noting that this projected increase will require measures that produce exceptional effects.
“Producing impact at this level and in a sustainable way in 4 or 5 years remains a very ambitious objective. The targeting policy is essential to meet the real needs and provide responses adapted to each socio-economic category of Moroccan women, in based on the four factors analyzed, namely: age, education, marital status and environment/region”, specifies Ms. Boucetta.
As a result, the target rate of 30% should be broken down into sub-objectives by category and by territory, to identify the additional effort to be made by all the stakeholders (public authorities, private sector and civil society) as well as as well as the actions to be put in place to achieve this, according to the set timetable.
These actions, continues the same source, should reserve specific programs for women whose age groups are between 25 and 59, since the growth sought would come from these segments which present a strong potential and at the same time a great deficit. .
And to conclude that there are many possibilities for strengthening women’s access to economic opportunities. They must be part of a dynamic evolution that takes into account the factors that have the greatest impact on their activities and that takes into account the diversity of their needs and constraints.