Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 16) – Benita Rowe on “The Tech Will Save Her’ – False Promises in Digital Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Solutions”

This is the sixteenth episode of our podcast based on the vignettes contributed by friends and colleagues to Tim Unwin’s new book Digital Technologies in an Unequal World: An Empancipatory Manfesto. In it, Benita Rowe illustrates how “Digital interventions aimed at preventing or responding to gender-based violence (GBV) have re-emerged in recent years in cyclical form, each positioned as a world-first innovation”. Yet, she argues that “Despite differences in format, these interventions often replicate a flawed set of design assumptions that consistently fail to
account for lived realities”.

The full vignette can be read here.

All audio files relating to the book are also available on our podcast with a new episode every week.

Benita (originally from Australia) designs and advises on digital strategies with a focus on service delivery in humanitarian and conflict-affected settings. Over nearly two decades, she has worked across crisis preparedness and response, to education and health, supporting system resilience in more than 17 countries, in collaboration with UN agencies, international organisations, private-sector and industry actors, local organizations, and foundations.

Full details of the book are available through the following links:


Other recent episodes

Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 25) – Tim Unwin on “Lessons from Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education” ICT4D Collective » ICT4D

Tim is the Catalyst of the ICT4D Collective, and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, and was the editor of ICT4D: Information and Communication Technology for Development (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and author of Reclaiming Information and Communication Technologies for Development, (Oxford University Press, 2017). Full details of his new book … Continue reading Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 25) – Tim Unwin on “Lessons from Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education” ICT4D Collective » ICT4D is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://ict4d.org.uk/
  1. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 25) – Tim Unwin on “Lessons from Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education”
  2. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 24) – Tom Wambeke on “Beyond the Cable: ‘The embrace of co-designed, plural futures'”
  3. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 23) – Ugo Vallauri on “The Right to Repair”
  4. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 22) – Jamie Proctor on “The Right People, Building Things They Understand, and Striving to Deliver Directly for Citizens”
  5. Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World (Episode 21) – Ettie Unwin on “Crafting a More Equitable Framework for Global Epidemiological Research Practice: Working With Not On”

Leave a comment