Building blocks for accountability

Establishing an enabling social and cultural environment is fundamental to achieving greater OGBV accountability. People must be informed on the role they play in fighting the culture of impunity surrounding OGBV. Leveraging the power of the people to act as watchdogs can be done through citizen/investigative journalism, research and campaigning, as well as media coverage that is representative of women in all their diversity.

As profit-driven entities, tech companies are influenced and incentivised by market dynamics. These can be leveraged for greater accountability through, for example, increasing peer competition between tech companies, or incorporating a gender-lens into due diligence or investment criteria.

Strengthening existing and new links across sectors and establishing forums for collaboration can lead to increased understanding and trust. These networks help organizations to hold each other to account and support the collective drive towards change.

The lack of data sharing and transparency from tech companies is a huge barrier to accountability and progress on OGBV. To monitor progress, common standards and principles for transparency and data sharing need to be established across national and regional levels. This includes a common data platform for OGBV with clear indicators and metrics for measurement.

Increasing accountability on OGBV also requires individuals to have an increased level of digital literacy and behave as digital citizens, holding each other to account on their online behaviors and interactions. Governments and tech companies have a responsibility to prioritize investment into digital literacy and citizenship programmes, to support communities to meaningfully participate on their platforms without putting the onus of safety on them. Much of this work is currently happening in the non-profit sector without adequate investment.