Multi-stakeholder discussion to explore technological solutions to address violence against women in Tunisia

On 26 September 2024, UN Women and Nokia, with the valuable support of the Government of Tunisia and the Embassy of Finland in Tunisia, convened a multi-stakeholder roundtable under the theme of “Ethical AI: Safeguard Women and Girls in the Digital Space”. Following the 2022 Ending Violence Against Women in online sphere (OVAW) project in Tunisia, stakeholders were invited to discuss a proposed solution from the private sector leveraging AI and other technology to address all forms of violence against women and girls. The roundtable was part of the ongoing UN Women-Nokia global partnership, which focuses on enhancing women’s employability and entrepreneurship while identifying solutions to combat violence against women. Below are highlights from the day’s discussion.

More information on the event is available here: https://arabstates.unwomen.org/en/stories/press-release/2024/09/un-women-tunisia-and-nokia-convene-stakeholders-to-advocate-for-technology-driven-solutions-to-combat-violence-against-women

38 participants from 32 organizations attended the roundtable, including eleven representatives from public institutions, such as Ministry of Communication Technologies and the Ministry of Women, Children, family and senior. Seventeen participants represented civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector entities, including Oredoo, Sofrecom and Tunisie telecom.

Mrs Mehrzia Ouni, Head of the Communication Technology Department at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, underscored Tunisia’s growing telecommunications sector. She noted that Tunisia was the first country in Africa to launch 5G, and 72% of women in Tunisia use the internet, with 90% of them accessing online administrative services. Mrs. Ouni emphasized the importance of gender equality in the technology sector, given these trends.

Ms. Florence Basty, Representative of UN Women in Tunisia and Libya, highlighted the links between this discussion and the global  Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact agreed during the UN General Assembly in September 2024, both of which aim to promote a safer digital space and close the digital gender divide.

Mr. Karim Dridi, Nokia Tunisia Country Manager, pointed out that the collaboration between UN Women and Nokia focuses on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment through digital solutions. He emphasized that Nokia’s mission in this partnership is to strengthen the capacities of vulnerable women to enhance their employability and entrepreneurship and foster women’s participation in the tech sector.

Ms. Ada Kangas from the Finnish company Neuvo Inc. Global, presented their AI-driven solution designed to support survivors of violence against women. The solution features offline and online chat functions, an emergency location module, a service search module, all aimed at making critical information more accessible to women, essential service-provides and policy-makers.

Participants were then broken into two groups based on their areas of expertise for focused discussion. Group 1, composed of telecommunications companies and CSOs active in the technology space, focused on the technical enablers for the proposed AI-driven solutions. They discussed the technical infrastructure needed to implement and support the proposed solution in the Tunisian context.

Group 2 concentrated on strategies to raise awareness of the proposed AI driven solution in the communities. Participants actively engaged in brainstorming, creating an open space for all voices to be heard.

The plenary agreed on a set of key action points to take the proposed solution further to demonstrate proof of concept in Tunisia. The plenary underscored the importance of collecting available data to link the solution with the existing work and identify stakeholders’ roles and required skills.