Context: Why is this project important?
Despite that approximately 70% of Pakistan's 160 million inhabitants living in rural villages, nearly 90% of the ICT-related infrastructure is installed in urban areas. This leaves a large portion of the country's populace without access to ICTs potential to support human development. The widespread disparity in access between different population groups, often referred to as the 'digital divide', can also be seen between women and men, and girls and boys. The attendant result is a challenge to the development promises made by the significant growth of ICTs in spite of the premium placed on it by experts over the last decade.

The Project: How does this initiative address the development problem?
This project aims at looking into issues of access and to increase the understanding of disparate benefits using a gender-specific lens in rural Pakistan. More specifically the researchers propose to critically examining the gender-specific aspects of ICT use and its impact on development in rural areas of Pakistan. Challenging the assumptions of ICTs as gender-neutral, context-free artifacts, the project aims at measuring different dimensions of the gender digital divide in these communities, raise awareness about the gender disparity, and draw lessons for appropriate technology and governance conducive for improved access to ICTs by women and girls. Addressing one of the common gaps left by initiatives that only address rural-urban digital divide and seldom consider gender dimensions of these ICT interventions, this project considers if and how rural girls and women access and use different ICTs, and the bi-directional influence this has in gender relations situated in the rural Pakistan.

Objectives:
The general objective of this initiative is to conduct an assessment of gender-specific ICT use in rural Pakistan and to explore its potential for human development in general, and women's empowerment in particular. More specifically, this project will:
 -  measure the extent of the gender digital divide in rural Pakistan through a study on gender-specific ICT access and use;
-  raise awareness regarding the gender digital divide in rural Pakistan and its impact on human development in general and women's empowerment in particular through seminars, stakeholder workshops, a conference panel, newspaper articles, a policy brief, and training activities; and;
- draw lessons for appropriate technology and governance conducive for improved access to ICTs by women and girls.

Development Impact
It is expected the development impact to fall in line with the anticipated results, however at this time it is not possible to make an assessment.

Outputs & Website
All publications and materials related to this project will be listed in SDPI  website.