'The promise and peril of Africa's tech revolution for women and girls' - op-ed by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed

When women withdraw from online spaces to protect themselves, we lose their voices in politics, journalism, and civic debate. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence not only denies women their most basic human rights, but it also robs our societies of their contributions” The UN Deputy Secretary-General reflects on this year’s 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-based Violence campaign.

Africa's digital transformation is accelerating at an extraordinary pace. Internet access has grown at more than double the global rate and a new generation is connecting to opportunities their parents could never have imagined. But there is a dark side spreading just as fast as the connectivity itself – one that threatens to lock women and girls out of the very revolution they should be leading. This rising digital violence is more than a gendered threat; it is a challenge to sustainable development itself. When women and girls cannot participate safely online, Africa’s digital transformation cannot deliver the inclusive growth, innovation, and social progress needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

Africa stands at an inflection point. With 70 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans under 30, this is the world's youngest continent as we experience the fastest technological transformation in history. Internet access in Africa has grown at 16.7 per cent annually since 2005 – more than twice the global rate. Mobile technology has leapfrogged traditional infrastructure, putting connectivity and financial tools directly into people's hands. The opportunities are unmistakable: education without borders, economic inclusion without bank branches, civic participation without gatekeepers.

But opportunities, like risks, are not equally distributed. Women and girls have less access to the internet than men, yet they face far more danger online. A study across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa revealed that 28 per cent of women reported experiencing online violence. Globally, that figure rises to 38 per cent – nearly two in every five women. For young women and girls aged 15 to 25, the statistics are even starker: 58 per cent have faced online harassment.

The forms this violence takes are as varied as they are devastating; doxing that exposes personal information to mobs; harassment campaigns that drive women from public spaces; stalking that continues across platforms and borders; the sharing of non-consensual intimate images; deepfakes that misrepresent realities; and coercive control that monitors individuals. These are all part of a continuum of violence against women and girls, one that has evolved from the physical to the virtual world, and now each reinforce the other.

The cost is both an individual and a collective trauma. When women withdraw from online spaces to protect themselves, we lose their voices in politics, journalism, and civic debate. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence not only denies women their most basic human rights, but it also robs our societies of their contributions. It stalls development and perpetuates inequality precisely when Africa's young population could be driving unprecedented progress.

Yet the same technological advances that enable this violence also offer paths forward. Digital literacy offers the best protection against digitally driven abuse, harassment and outright violence. Last year’s adoption of the Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact set the world on a new collaborative course to close the digital divide for all countries and ensure that digital tools and breakthroughs safely boost progress and protection, not hinder them.  

Across Africa, we see countries leading the way. In Zimbabwe, the Spotlight Initiative – the UN's high-impact partnership to end violence against women and girls – has supported landmark provisions in the Data Protection Act that criminalize publishing intimate images without consent, child sexual abuse material, and cyber-grooming. 

In Nigeria, the Initiative has strengthened responses in schools and universities through digital tools that enable student-led dialogue and anonymous reporting. At the global level, we are convening social media influencers, digital creators, parliamentarians, activists, and survivors to reimagine what safe online spaces could look like.

Preventing violence this pervasive requires the comprehensive approach that the Spotlight Initiative has pioneered across 26 countries. Laws and policies must protect rights both online and offline, backed by institutions with the resources and will to enforce them. Better data will help us understand the scope and patterns of this violence and develop evidence-based responses. Prevention must address violence at its roots by challenging the attitudes and behaviours that normalize male violence in all its forms. Survivors require quality, survivor-centred services, and the civil society organizations, activists, and women's movements already on the frontlines of this work – the people who understand the terrain best – must have the resources to continue leading. Above all, we need to ensure that women and girls, and especially survivors, are not just consulted, but leading this mission. 

The women and girls of Africa should not have to choose between opportunity and security, between participating in Africa's digital future and protecting themselves from violence. The continent with the youngest population and the fastest-growing connectivity has a chance to pioneer an unprecedented technological revolution that doesn't repeat the inequalities of the past, instead it transcends them. This is Africa's moment to show the world that technology and equality can rise together, and that future begins with the safety and leadership of women and girls.

By Amina J. Mohammed for Africa Renewal