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Aligning with the 2019 International Women’s Day theme #BalanceForBetter, the head of U.N. Women called for the revolution in technology to help achieve gender equality across the world.

The Commission on the Status of Women’s annual meeting began Monday, March 11. According to the commission’s website, this year’s theme focuses on access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Executive director of U.N. Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka believes affordable Internet service and use of mobile phones for financial purposes will be key to enhancing the lives of women.

“We have made progress toward gender equality. We have more women in significant roles, but we’re still leaving many, many more women behind,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said in a speech prior to the commission’s meeting.

“Sometimes we even lose the gains that we’ve already made. And that is why we are emphasizing the importance of innovation and technology.”

Equal access to technology and the ability to help create it is a fundamental issue of women’s human rights around the globe. The gender technology gap hinders women and girls from bettering their quality of life and connecting with the world around them.

Gender equality in local communities has the potential to be advanced by access to technology. For women and girls, Internet access can expose them to a new method to learn how to read and write, or help them understand proper health and safety procedures.

The use of “mobile money” via mobile phones has already proven to successfully benefit the lives of women in Kenya in the same way microcredit loans help women in developing countries start businesses.

Mobile money can be used to buy energy or to deliver water, helping to strengthen infrastructure and bolster the GDPs of countries. Providing clean water means young girls don’t have to walk miles to fetch water to be boiled. Instead, these children can stay in school, get an education, pursue a better life and break the cycle of poverty. In other parts of Africa, drones are delivering medicine to rural communities and sprinkling organic material on crops to kill pests.

“The bad news is that even though there are solutions, they are not being taken into account fully, even where it reduces the cost,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

One of the biggest barriers standing in the way of these changes is infrastructure. The commission is still debating the affordability of various infrastructure projects and how to efficiently speed up the process of technology transfer to poor, rural communities. While not all parties agree with her, Mlambo-Ngcuka believes access to high-speed internet is just as crucial as access to clean water.

New technologies can also aid in movements to end violence against women. Social media has given women around the world a platform from which to speak out about sexual assault via the #MeToo movement. Mlambo-Ngcuka reminds the public that social media advocacy and the implementation of policies and laws against abuse and domestic violence can work together to enact positive change.

As the first woman to hold the position of Deputy President of South Africa from 2005 to 2008, Mlambo-Ngcuka is an innovator and change-maker in her own right. Her speech on International Women’s Day showed dedication and determination to create more opportunities for women all over the globe.

“Today we celebrate the power and potential of women and girls as innovators. We celebrate their creativity in a world characterized by the speed and scale of change,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said. “We want innovation and the scale of change to intentionally benefit women and girls, and we want women and girls themselves to be inspired to innovate and influence the whole ecosystem of innovation.”