The working report of UNPOG’s research on role of e-Government for gender equality and women empowerment has been published. The report titled “From Promoting gender equality to empowering women: role of e-Government in Asia and the Pacific” is the final outcome of UNPOG’s research in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Women’s Information Network Center of Sookmyung Women’s University, Korea.

The research conducted in two phases over one and a half years aims to analyze the degree to which e-government development and provision in Asia and the Pacific countries contribute to promoting gender equality and achieving MDG 3 as well as to provide a toolkit to assess national e-government readiness for gender equality and women empowerment.

This research adapts the methodology of the United Nation e-Government Development Index (EGDI) as the main analysis framework to explore the capacity and progress of e-Government programmes to promote gender equality. 11 selected countries are categorized into 4 categories of emerging, enhanced, transactional, and connected, based on the e-Government Readiness for Gender Equality which comprises three key pillars: telecommunication infrastructure, capacity development, and online service for women. Additionally, online based country expert survey and focus group interviews in selected countries were conducted in order to draw out deeper policy insights.

The electronic copy of the working report of the research is provided and the final report would soon be updated.