Building an inclusive tomorrow
From the gender digital divide, the socio-cultural gaps to the socio-economic gaps, I believe the unprecedented times that world is facing at the moment is showing us why we need to have an inclusive world.
Inclusivity is such a broader perspective so I will focus on two parts gender gap between women and men and economic gap between the middle class and the poor.
Within a span of four months the world has changed drastically, especially in Africa, life has just taken a direction that most of us were not prepared for. One minute our kids were in school the next they are on a holliday with no predicted end. One moment we were going to work the next we are forced to adopt working remotely, businesses are forced to go digital and employees lose their jobs. One minute universities have a schedule of that of a secondary school the next they are forced to adopt online learning where students have the right to choose when they will get online unless it’s a test.
Life has changed so much but this has also exposed the holes within our systems to a point that we want to just hide from the rest of the world.
Leadership Crisis Vs Inclusion.
While we have spent centuries believing women leaders are not qualified to lead, let alone during crisis because “they are emotional, weak and need guidance”, the pandemic has proved us wrong that at the moment most of the countries that are doing so well in managing the situation have women as top leaders and decision makers.
That compassion and empathy is now considered strength in a leader, something that we have spent decades telling women that was their weakness.
Most essential workes like nurses are female, the people are risking their lives everyday for us are, the women we don’t consider strong enough to call heroes or leaders.
Beyond that, despite the socio-economic gap between developed countries and developing countries, a number of developing countries have set an example on how leadership can have tremendous effect during crisis.
Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa among others have been able to contain the pandemic better than some of the developed countrise because of the leadership perspective they have and strategies they have in place compared to some of the “greatest” developed countries.
This should is even more supported because the world in it’s entirety has brought together leaders and countries and communicated how we can together tackel this crisis.
What if we showed the same solidarity is tackling economic issues facing developing countries? Won’t all of us be able to provide for our citizens and have a balanced world? Won’t we have increment in global GDP if the number of middle class is increased in developing countries?
Economic Crisis Vs Inclusion.
Economies are dwindling because most of small businesses are closed, while more then 50% of the small businesses in Africa are female-led meaning, if women don’t work, our economies suffer.
Businesses are turning digital but the digital literacy of their customers is about 50%+ less hence cutting the sales. If more than half of the world’s population is still offline, how do we make sure they are equally able to receive rervices of the businesses that are currently adapting technological advance?
Internet is turning into a basic need to a population is is living under $1 per day, how dare we force them to choose between eating and educating their children? Had we prepared economies that are inclusive, this forced transition would have not been as hard to them and to all of us.
Socio-Cultural Crisis Vs Inclusion.
In Tanzania, the number of FGM has spiked and just recently it was said that over 80 children got pregnant in a span of one month of schools closedown. And child marriages has also spiked because families are looking for sources of income, families feel the pressure of taking care of themselves with no certainities of tomorrow.
How dare we have created an environment that forces a girl child into more crisis because we have failed to protect them even from their own families. There are no infrustructures where girls can report these things without risking their lives, domestic violence has risen, how do we protect the victims? There is no centered they can call nor run to.
While countries like Tanzania have put in strategies to continue offering online learing digitaly and through TV, what about those families that can’t afford having a TV or buying a bundle for online learning? How do we make sure this education strategy is inclusive enough?
Had we created the world that is a little more inclusive, our situation today may have been more bearable and we would not have alot to worry about. If our systems were designed to be more inclusive, we would have ways to face this situation more decisively and with oneness than we are doing at the moment.
We need to building an inclusive tomorrow even in this crisis, especially in this crisis.
