Gender and Information Communication Technology (ICT) Survey Toolkit

The Gender and ICT Survey Toolkit provides a set of resources for obtaining a landscape assessment of gender and information and communication technology (ICT), providing organisations wanting to use mobile technology in their humanitarian and development interventions with practical tools to obtain data on women’s access to and usage of mobile phones and other connected devices. This data can be used to inform project design or create a baseline to understand the efficacy of an ICT intervention.

As explained in the guide, “[I]n low and middle income countries, over 1.7 billion women do not own mobile phones - or, in percentage terms, women are 14 percent less likely to own a mobile phone, compared to men. Furthermore, even if a woman does own a mobile phone, we know that she is far less likely to make full use of its suite of services. Several industry stakeholders have made efforts to understand this gender gap, but the data remains fragmented and lacks standardization.” For this reason, this tool was developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project implemented by FHI360. The mStar project seeks to increase access to and use of mobile and digital technologies by low-income individuals, civil society, local government institutions, and private-sector stakeholders.

The Toolkit is designed to instruct users on how to understand the implications of landscape assessments and apply learnings to their projects and programme portfolios. It contains a brief, easy-to-use guide to facilitate survey preparation, data collection, and data analysis, as well as a suite of quantitative and qualitative survey tools. What organisations want to learn about gender and ICT in the communities where they work, i.e. the main research questions, will dictate which parts of the Toolkit they should use. To facilitate use, each tool is designed as a standalone module. The key themes covered are: ownership, usage, control, behaviour, digital financial services (DFS), agriculture, and internet connectivity. The survey, expert interviews, and focus group guide are laid out around these questions. The publishers note that, while this is an ICT toolkit and references several different forms of ICTs, the primary focus is on mobile technology.

The sections are as follows:

Survey Preparation Guide

• Defining Research Questions
• Determining the Methodology
• Collecting Data

Data Analysis Guide

• Cleaning and Coding Data
• Uncovering Answers to Research Questions

Appendices: Gender and ICT Survey Tools

1. Access and Usage, Core Module
2. Access and Usage, Expanded Module
3. Digital Financial Services Module
4. Mobile Agriculture (mAgri) Module
5. Technical Proficiency Interactive Interview Module
6. Respondent Demographic Module

• Expert Interview Guide
• Focus Group Discussion Guide
• Informed Consent Example