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Today, May 17, is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, and the theme is Digital lifelines: Strengthening resilience in a connected world. It sits on one simple truth. Access now decides survival, opportunity, and voice. For women and girls, that truth is not neutral.
Information and communication technology shapes how people learn, earn, and participate in public life. For many women and girls in Nigeria, access still depends on cost, device control, and permission within households. Even when access exists, safety is not guaranteed in digital spaces built without them in mind.
Digital inclusion is often reduced to internet connection, but it goes further. It includes skills, confidence, and the freedom to use technology without fear. A young woman who shares a phone or avoids online spaces due to harassment is already excluded, even when she appears connected.
The idea of digital lifelines makes sense in crisis moments. Floods, inflation, insecurity, and distance from services push people to rely on mobile tools for banking, alerts, and support. When women lack stable access, they lose speed, information, and sometimes safety itself.
A global declaration on women and girls in digital spaces points to a gap between access and rights. The International Telecommunication Union continues to push frameworks for inclusion, but frameworks do not stop harassment or gendered surveillance on their own. Online violence still decides who speaks and who retreats.
ICT supports development through education platforms, remote work, and digital finance. These tools open income routes for women who are often shut out of formal systems. But opportunity without protection becomes another form of exposure.
When women step into digital spaces, they also step into visibility. That visibility attracts harassment, judgment, and control. Many withdraw quietly, not because they lack interest, but because the cost of participation becomes too high.
Digital lifelines raise a harder question about who stays connected when systems strain. If access now shapes power, then exclusion is not accidental. It is structural. What does resilience mean when half the population still negotiates entry into the digital space instead of belonging in it?
