UNESCO Workshop Tackles AI Risks Targeting Women in Caribbean
UNESCO Kingston hosted a one-day workshop on March 9 in Jamaica to address how artificial intelligence amplifies gender-based violence and online harassment affecting women across the Caribbean region. More than 50 government officials, youth organization leaders, and other stakeholders attended the session, titled "AI & I: Shaping a Safer Digital Caribbean."
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence - including harassment, impersonation, and image-based abuse - disproportionately harms women and girls online. Generative AI systems worsen these risks by amplifying existing gender biases, enabling deepfakes, spreading misinformation, and creating non-consensual content.
What the workshop covered
Participants examined practical topics including why AI matters for women's safety, how digital platforms enable gender-based violence, and the specific risks generative AI poses to women. Sessions also covered online privacy, digital safety practices, and ethical AI principles.
The workshop used hands-on activities and peer learning rather than lectures. Participants ended with a guided reflection where they identified concrete actions they could take in their own organizations and communities.
Why this matters for development professionals
For IT professionals and development teams, the workshop underscores a basic truth: AI systems reflect the data and decisions that built them. Without deliberate design choices, these systems replicate and magnify existing inequalities.
Jamaica's Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, said: "Technology reflects the hands that build it and the society that feeds it data. If we are not careful, AI will not just mirror our existing inequalities; it will magnify them."
The initiative aligns with UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and builds on research into how women experience digital spaces differently than men.
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