Over the past decade, digital technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa and other low- and middle-income regions have become increasingly central to how people access financial products, services, information, markets, education, and public services. Yet, digital inclusion continues to be shaped not only by access, stable digital infrastructure, and affordability, but by perceptions of safety, trust, and protection.

Data and evidence indicate that increased digital inclusion also results in negative experiences and outcomes for end users, especially vulnerable groups from low-income populations who already experience a plethora of barriers to access, equity, and protections that influence their lived experiences and ability to build their resilience. This includes women, female youth and persons living with disabilities from different geographies and demographics.  This issue has become a central concern for gender equality and women’s rights in the digital era that compound existing gendered issues such as patriarchy and women’s active and productive economic and decision-making roles. In Kenya for example, 25% of women are less likely to participate in the digital platform era, owing to the risks and experiences of technology facilitating gender-based violence (TGBV). While many countries have made significant progress in expanding digital infrastructure and financial inclusion, digital safety systems have often lagged. Moreover, gaps in user awareness, platform design, reporting mechanisms, regulatory enforcement, content moderation, and survivor support continue to expose vulnerable users to harm.

Emerging findings from a study in Ethiopia commissioned by Mercy Corps AgriFin and carried out by Dalberg Advisors highlight that as connectivity expands, women face growing exposure to online harassment, fraud, surveillance, exploitation, identity theft, data misuse, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence, with ~25% to 37% of women reporting to have experienced some form of online harm. The study further demonstrates that safety concerns directly influence digital participation, trust in digital services, and continued usage of mobile-enabled services as expressed by different women stakeholders engaged throughout the study.

While the Ethiopian study focuses on low-income women across four categories – young women, low-literacy women, women micro-entrepreneurs, and women in public-facing progressions – from multiple sectors in both rural and urban areas, underlying challenges including rising digital and agricultural produce fraud, AI-enabled scams, deepfakes, synthetic media, algorithmic discrimination, online harassment, privacy concerns, financial scams, weak reporting channels, are increasingly experienced by women in Agriculture who also take up multiple forms of employment and political positions across sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, growing questions have been raised regarding platform accountability, particularly with the rate of emerging technologies, including AI. While AI offers opportunities to expand access, personalize services, and strengthen digital inclusion, it also introduces new risks that can disproportionately affect women, youth, low-literacy users, and first-time digital adopters in urban, peri-urban and rural regions.

As ecosystem actors, including policymakers, MNOs, fintechs, technology providers, public sector, and private sector commit to gender-inclusive digital transformation, two key questions emerge:

What frameworks and mechanisms are required to build inclusive and safe digital ecosystems that increase gender-equitable access and uptake for all users, especially women in Agriculture?

What must multi-sectoral ecosystem actors, including community groups commit to, and implement to achieve this?