How Safety-by-Design tech can end technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Africa – Global Voices

Report on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) and the Imperative of ‘Safety by Design’ for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

Introduction: TFGBV as a Direct Barrier to Sustainable Development

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) represents a significant impediment to global and regional development agendas, directly undermining progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Defined as any act of violence committed or amplified by digital technologies, TFGBV disproportionately targets women and girls, creating a hostile online environment that curtails their participation in public life. Recent incidents in early 2025, where AI-generated deepfakes were used to attack female candidates and journalists in Ghana, Senegal, and Namibia, illustrate a critical threat to democratic processes and gender equality. This report analyzes the impact of TFGBV on key SDGs and examines the multi-stakeholder response centered on the ‘Safety by Design’ framework as a crucial strategy for building inclusive and safe digital ecosystems.

The Scope and Impact of TFGBV on SDG Attainment

Undermining Gender Equality (SDG 5)

TFGBV is a direct assault on the principles of SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The violence silences women at critical moments, hindering progress on several key targets:

• Target 5.2 (Eliminate Violence): A UN Women poll indicates 58 percent of young women have experienced online harassment. In Kenya, a 2024 study found nearly four in ten female university students had been direct targets of digital abuse. These statistics confirm that the digital sphere has become a primary front for violence against women.
• Target 5.5 (Ensure Full Participation): The intended outcome of TFGBV is to force women out of public spaces. Research shows nearly three-quarters of women journalists have endured online abuse, often linked to disinformation campaigns. This systematically obstructs women’s full and effective participation in political, economic, and public life.

Impeding Economic Empowerment and Reducing Inequalities (SDG 8 & SDG 10)

The economic and social consequences of TFGBV are severe, creating barriers to SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and exacerbating conditions targeted by SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). A global survey revealed that over half of women entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries face online harassment, with 40 percent consequently reducing their public and professional activities. This self-censorship leads to lost economic opportunities, suppresses diverse voices, and deepens gender-based inequalities in the civic and economic spheres.

The ‘Safety by Design’ Framework as a Solution for Inclusive Innovation (SDG 9)

The ‘Safety by Design’ principle offers a proactive solution aligned with SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Rather than treating user safety as an afterthought, this framework mandates the integration of safety, privacy, and consent into the core architecture of digital products. It provides a common vocabulary and measurable benchmarks to hold the technology ecosystem accountable, transforming TFGBV prevention from a reactive fix to a fundamental design requirement. This approach is essential for ensuring that digital infrastructure is not only innovative but also safe, inclusive, and sustainable.

Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration: A Strategy for SDG 17

Addressing TFGBV requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach as envisioned in SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. Collaboration between civil society, technology companies, and governments is proving essential for developing and implementing effective solutions across Africa.

The Role of Civil Society

Civil society organizations are at the forefront of translating lived experiences into actionable policy and technological tools, directly contributing to SDG 5 and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

• The Safe Sisters network in East Africa provides digital security training to women journalists, enhancing their capacity to participate safely in public discourse.
• In South Africa, the GRIT mobile app, co-designed with survivors of domestic violence, provides an encrypted tool for storing evidence, thereby strengthening access to justice (Target 16.3).
• The Ugandan civic tech group Pollicy uses its “Digital Safe Tea” game to collect anonymized data on user experiences with online harassment, which is then shared with developers to improve product safety before launch.

The Role of Social Media Platforms

Digital platforms are increasingly being called upon to tailor safety features for their African users. Recent initiatives demonstrate a shift toward greater accountability and partnership:

• TikTok launched a Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council, engaging regional experts to critique policies before implementation, fostering a more inclusive governance model.
• The regional service Ayoba has integrated a system to screen images against a database of non-consensual intimate material provided by gender rights groups, blocking harmful content proactively.
• Global tools like StopNCII.org, developed by a Meta-led alliance, empower victims to create a digital fingerprint of an intimate image to prevent its circulation across multiple platforms, offering a scalable solution.

The Role of Governments and Regional Bodies

Governments are creating legal and regulatory frameworks essential for building strong institutions (SDG 16) that protect citizens online. This legislative momentum is being harmonized at a regional level.

1. Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act (2020) established a legal precedent by criminalizing the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
2. South Africa’s Cybercrimes Act followed by making revenge pornography illegal and extending a duty of care to anyone who reposts such material.
3. Kenya is advancing draft rules that would mandate safety impact assessments for all social platforms before they launch, embedding ‘Safety by Design’ into national regulation.

These national efforts are supported by the African Union’s Child Online Safety and Empowerment Policy, which calls for member states to legislate corporate responsibility and track platform compliance, creating a continent-wide standard for online safety.

Conclusion: Integrating ‘Safety by Design’ to Secure a Sustainable Digital Future

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence is not a peripheral issue but a core development challenge that threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The emerging consensus in Africa demonstrates that a proactive ‘Safety by Design’ approach, implemented through robust multi-stakeholder partnerships (SDG 17), is the most effective path forward. The collaborative efforts of civil society, platforms, and governments to hard-code safety into digital infrastructure provide a powerful blueprint for aligning technological advancement with the fundamental goals of gender equality (SDG 5), justice (SDG 16), and inclusive innovation (SDG 9).

Analysis of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 5: Gender Equality
   • The article’s central theme is Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), a direct violation of women’s rights and a barrier to gender equality. It details how online abuse, deepfakes, and harassment specifically target women to silence them and cause harm.
2. SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
   • The article discusses the role of legal frameworks and institutions in combating TFGBV. It mentions specific legislation like Ghana’s “Cybersecurity Act” and South Africa’s “Cybercrimes Act,” which criminalize online abuse. It also highlights the role of regulatory bodies and regional institutions like the African Union in setting standards and policies.
3. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
   • The issues are rooted in digital technology and infrastructure (social media platforms, apps, AI). The article advocates for a “Safety by Design” approach, which calls for innovation in product development to embed safety into the core functionality of digital tools and platforms.
4. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
   • The article repeatedly emphasizes the need for collaboration to solve the problem. It provides examples of partnerships between governments, civil society organizations (Safe Sisters, Pollicy), tech companies (TikTok, Meta, Ayoba), and regional bodies (African Union) working together to create safer online spaces.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Under SDG 5 (Gender Equality):
   • Target 5.2: “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres…” The article directly addresses this by focusing on TFGBV, which it defines as acts committed through digital tools that result in “physical, sexual, psychological, social, political, or economic harm.”
   • Target 5.5: “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership… in political, economic and public life.” The article states that TFGBV is used to “discredit” and “drive offline” women journalists and female candidates, and that women entrepreneurs “pulled back from public life,” directly impeding their participation.
   • Target 5.b: “Enhance the use of enabling technology… to promote the empowerment of women.” The article discusses making technology safer so it can be a tool for empowerment, citing examples like the GRIT mobile app which helps survivors of domestic violence store evidence securely.
2. Under SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions):
   • Target 16.1: “Significantly reduce all forms of violence…” The entire article is about strategies and actions to reduce a specific form of violence: TFGBV.
   • Target 16.3: “Promote the rule of law… and ensure equal access to justice for all.” This is addressed through the discussion of new laws in Ghana and South Africa that criminalize online harassment and revenge pornography, and tools like the GRIT app that help strengthen court cases for victims.
   • Target 16.10: “Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms…” The article highlights that TFGBV “silences women’s voices,” which is an attack on the fundamental freedom of expression. The solutions proposed aim to protect this freedom by making online discourse safer.
3. Under SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure):
   • Target 9.1: “Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure…” The concept of “Safety by Design” is a call to build resilient digital infrastructure that can anticipate and prevent online harms, moving beyond a model that acts only “after harm has spread.”
4. Under SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals):
   • Target 17.17: “Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships…” The article showcases this target in action, describing how “platforms are inviting African experts into the engine room, governments are embedding design mandates into licenses… and civil society networks are feeding survivor data directly into product sprints and policy drafts.”

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Prevalence of Online Violence: The article provides several statistics that serve as baseline indicators.
   • “More than half of women entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries report online harassment.”
   • “nearly three-quarters [of women journalists] saying they have endured abuse.”
   • “58 percent of girls and young women have experienced at least one form of online harassment.”
   • A 2024 study in Kenya found “nearly four in ten [university students] had been targets themselves.”
2. Impact on Public Participation: An indicator of the severity of the problem is the rate at which women withdraw from public life.
   • “four in ten [women entrepreneurs] have pulled back from public life to protect themselves.”
3. Legal and Regulatory Adoption: Progress can be measured by the number of countries and institutions adopting relevant policies.
   • The existence of laws like Ghana’s “Cybersecurity Act” (2020) and South Africa’s “Cybercrimes Act.”
   • The requirement for social apps to file “safety assessments before launch” as proposed in Kenya’s draft rules.
   • Adoption of policies like the “African Union (AU) Child Online Safety and Empowerment Policy.”
4. Platform and Tool Adoption: Indicators of progress include the implementation of safety features and the use of protective tools.
   • The number of downloads for safety apps like GRIT, which has “pushed downloads of the app past 10,000.”
   • The establishment of bodies like TikTok’s “Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council.”
   • Metrics tracked by the AU, such as “takedown speeds and language coverage” for harmful content.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: globalvoices.org