2:45 – 3:15 PM – GeNorms: An R Shiny App to Improve Gender Equitable and Social Values in Sub-Saharan Africa

The African Union Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2018-2028) aims to increase women’s empowerment in all spheres of life, from political to economic and social. However, harmful gender norms continue to hamper economic growth by denying millions of girls their right to education, jobs and opportunities to advance their health and well-being. This work represents part of a larger effort to track, model and address gender-equitable attitudes in African countries. We developed and deployed predictions from a machine learning algorithm to R-Shiny web application (GeNorms) to help individuals assess their gender attitudes as well as their intersection with other social values like religious tolerance, social cohesion, political values, social class and other relevant demographic characteristics. The GeNorms shiny app is based on Argon– a user-friendly and open-source dashboard based on Bootstrap 4. The app encompasses three unique modules and leverages several r-packages for data science and a package of UI helpers. First, we leveraged {leaflet} to visualise geographic patterns in gender equitable attitudes across three countries (Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia). We also used {shinysurveys} to collect user responses to predict their gender-equitable attitudes. Based on the predictions derived from the user responses, we provide additional information to help individuals with less equitable attitudes improve their knowledge and ultimately enhance their attitudes towards gender equality. Overall, our app has the potential to promote gender equitable norms across African countries while also challenging other harmful social norms.