This blog is part of the WomenConnect Challenge Blog Series: Introducing Strategies for Closing the Gender Digital Divide. USAID’s WomenConnect Challenge (WCC) is a global call for solutions to improve women’s participation in everyday life by meaningfully changing the ways women access and use technology. In the first round of the Challenge, WCC awarded nine grants to organizations working to identify and change the social and economic circumstances that keep women offline and under-empowered. Through close partnership with local awardee teams and community members, WCC has identified five proven strategies for closing the gender digital divide and increasing women’s empowerment. This blog explores one strategy at length.

Development professionals have long theorized that access to and training in digital technology can help empower women in marginalized communities around the world. “Women and technology,” mused Revi Sterling, Director of the WomenConnect Challenge (WCC). “The combination of the two should really be this amazing force multiplier that creates countless opportunities in sustainable development, and yet they continue to work against each other.”