Get In and Get In Early: Ensuring Women’s Access to and Participation in ICT Projects
Recent research on Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based projects shows that the majority of these projects developed and funded by major donors do not consider gender an important component of project design and, consequently, fail to address the demands of women in the targeted communities and provide them access to ICT.
No Women at the Start
Much of the transfer of ICT to developing countries has come in the form of projects funded and/or executed by multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organisations and foundations. Regrettably, and following the pattern of other earlier development interventions, the inclusion of women and their needs in these projects has generally come as an afterthought. The year 1995 was a watershed for most of these groups to start ICT and development efforts. However, it was not until 1998 that the consideration of gender and ICT began to appear on the agenda of donor and international development organisations.1 This was more evident in the papers presented to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication Development Conference in Valletta, Malta and International Development Research Centre’s sponsorship of the track on women and ICT for the Economic Commission for Africa’s 40th anniversary conference on women and development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Even after that introduction, it was not until 2002 that many important development players, such as the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the European Union, began to take seriously the integration of gender in ICT projects.
More and more, research is making the case for gender equality and equity efforts. “New evidence demonstrates that when women and men are relatively equal, economies tend to grow faster, the poor move more quickly out of poverty, and the well-being of men, women and children is enhanced.”2 Development organisations are coming to realise that gender analysis and incorporation of gender are necessary if they are to fulfil their mandate and meet their objectives. Put simply, many development practitioners now believe that the incorporation of gender concerns results in more successful project outcomes. 3
Given the new awareness of the role of gender in ICT policy, what insights can we offer to ensure that the mistakes of efforts in other areas (i.e., agriculture, transport and environmental projects) are not repeated in project design and implementation and that a workable approach is taken from the beginning?
Why Women are Invisible
While there is new consensus on the importance of a gender focus in information technology and development, the incorporation of gender into projects linking ICT and development is still the exception, rather than the rule. One reason for this is that “if you don’t ask for gender, you don’t get gender.” In many cases, project designers do not incorporate gender into their analyses and design because project proposal guidelines do not ask for it. This happens even when the majority of project participants and potential beneficiaries are women. An example is Peoplink <http://www.peoplink.org>, a well-known and successful example of artisans, the majority of whom are women, in developing countries using e-commerce to market their wares. Yet the Peoplink project proposal to the World Bank Group’s infoDev made no single mention of women or gender. When there are no references to gender in the project proposal format instructions, and no requests for gender-disaggregated data or analysis in the reporting requirements either, these elements rarely emerge voluntarily. As Helen Derbyshire wrote, “equity outcomes are not achieved unless they are explicitly stated and operationalised through well thought-out procedures.”4
The other reason is simply the lack of gender awareness on the part of those involved in project planning. This leads to incomplete project analysis (i.e., no gender analysis) and consequently, the failure to address women’s needs and demands. For example, telecentre projects in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, which did not consider gender from the start, found that they did not meet women’s demands and that they were not providing equal access to women and girls because: (1) they did not address gender relations and the social constraints imposed on women and girls, and (2) they did not provide services that addressed women’s needs.5
How to do Gender
What do project planners need to do in order to incorporate gender into ICT projects? Some suggestions for incorporating gender into project design and implementation follow:
(1) It is imperative to consider gender from the beginning of project design. They are not to be added in hindsight or as a mid-term correction. Key to doing this is the involvement of gender-aware persons in project planning or design. Gender-awareness is the desired minimum; someone trained in gender analysis would be optimal. In addition, by using an engendered project design process, which serves as a guide on how to integrate gender analysis in the planning process, the team is most likely to understand and include gender considerations.6 It should be noted that the number of women involved in project design and implementation, or as participants, is not a guarantee of gender awareness, but a fully participatory process will most likely include gender experts and/or input from organisations that work with women and on gender issues. There are many cases where women feature prominently in design and implementation teams, but without any gender awareness.
(2) It is nearly impossible to find a project without gender issues. Project designers in China thought that theirs was such a project.7 The Ministry of Information Infrastructure in China, executors of the project, believed that macro-policy projects, particularly those in technical areas, were gender-neutral and did not need to incorporate any special concern for women. It held that ICT development in China, particularly in e-commerce, would benefit many people in China and “...so, automatically, women will be half of the beneficiaries.” Labouring under such an argument, the agency did not take any particular note of women’s needs or interests in the project. In an effort to incorporate gender into its projects, infoDev sponsored a gender analysis of this and other projects, in the course of which the reviewer brought Ministry officials to see that the project actually had many gender aspects that they had not considered.8 In Ecuador, Chasquinet has implemented numerous successful telecentres; however, the organisation noticed that even when it assumed that everyone would benefit from services provided, it was clear that usage patterns reflected gender differences and that the telecentres needed to address those differences by developing specific programmes for women and girls.9
The assumption that a so-called gender-neutral information technology project will benefit an entire population, regardless of gender, disregards the impact of gender relations on technology and the societal constraints that women face in accessing and using information technology.
(3) The socio-cultural context is all-important. Technology does not operate in a vacuum. In itself, information technology cannot combat constraining socio-cultural forces (such as machismo and negative male attitudes toward women and stereotypes about women), but needs to be complemented by gender analysis and corrective measures. This is illustrated by another infoDev funded-project in Panama,10 where the technology itself could not correct extensive gender discrimination in employment. Although a Web-based database of graduates seeking employment got the resumes of many women to employers’ desks (or monitors), traditional attitudes of machismo still reigned, preventing women from being hired for managerial positions. In a third infoDev funded-project in Peru,11 lack of awareness of gender roles on the part of project designers meant that the economic roles that women play and the ways in which they could benefit from the new technology were overlooked. The project was directed at information services for farmers, who the project defined as men, ignoring the important economic roles women play in agriculture in Peru. In an infoDev funded-project in India that uses personal data assistants to collect information on women’s health, the lack of gender analysis prevented an understanding of gender relations on the vital issue of reproductive health.12 Questions about reproductive behaviour were directed only to women, but men’s attitudes are obviously essential to a full understanding of reproductive health. In the China project cited earlier, the absence of gender analysis led to a blind spot about the different ways that the proposed telecom reform policy would impact men and women. In a training programme for East African health professionals held in Kenya, the lack of gender analysis kept the project from taking proactive measures to recruit women and anticipating the difficulties women would encounter in terms of project scheduling and access to connectivity.13
Awareness of the socio-cultural context is also of overriding importance in ensuring the participation by, and the distribution of benefits to, both women and men. In some cases, this could happen best by ensuring that women and men work together. In other cases, it meant separation of the sexes in training and meetings. Often, special accommodation is needed to ensure that women as well as men are able to participate (e.g., attention to course and meeting schedule in recognition of women’s multiple roles and time constraints).
(4) In technical fields (including meetings and training), projects need to be pro-active to ensure the participation of women as well as men. The pool of eligible women in technical areas, especially in Africa, is small, and sometimes, corrective measures may be needed to include them. For instance, in technical training, because of the smaller number of women who take technical courses, they may have lower skill levels than men and some reme-diation may be necessary. In addition, outreach efforts are essential to ensure that women are aware of project services and opportunities. These efforts must consider the appropriate channels in communicating with women (which, for example, may not be an Internet-based or E-mail-based advertisement but rather a poster in schools or women’s support organisa-tions) and must try to provide women with the necessary conditions to participate in project activities (such as day-care assistance or schedules that consider women’s multiple work responsibilities).
Where We Go from Here
Based on experience, if we want to address gender issues in ICT projects, gender must be integrated into project analysis and design from the beginning. There is no such thing as gender-neutral design. Gender-neutral projects neglect the complex socio-economic and cultural context which impacts project outcomes and which constrains women’s access to and participation in ICT projects.
The integration of gender analysis in project design and implementation is of great importance. We recommend two specific strategies. First, on-going research and work on gender and ICTs should be made widely available to inform and educate practitioners about gender analysis and to increase awareness of gender issues. Second, donors must take the responsibility of incorporating gender concerns in their own work and in the specific requirements for project preparation and funding, even when projects are demand-driven (i.e. when donors receive proposals from organisations to fund their projects). Specifically, donors should develop and publish guidelines for project design and implementation that integrate gender analysis and provide guidance on how to implement projects from a gender perspective (e.g. project proposal instructions and data requirements that include gender considerations, and gender-disaggregated data for monitoring and evaluation purposes). In addition, donors should develop accessible gender resources that can be used by their partners.
Nancy Hafkin has worked in the area of gender and information technology for development for more than thirty years. For 25 years she was with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as chief of research and publications at the African Center for Women, chief of the Pan African Development Information System, leader of the ECA team to promote information technology in Africa and coordinator of the African Information Society Initiative. She now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Footnotes
1 Although the Association for Progressive Communication Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC-WNSP), which puts emphasis on using ICTs as advocacy tools, got underway in 1993. See Association for Progressive Communications, Networking for Change: the APC-WNSP’s First Eight Years (Manila: 2000) for a detailed account of APC’s work in this area.
2 The World Bank, Integrating Gender into the World Bank’s Work: A Strategy for Action (Washington, D.C., 2002).
3 Why do we focus on women while using gender analysis that considers the situation of both men and women? When talking about gender and development, we are looking at whether policy, projects and activities impact men and women differently. From the history of development we know that the differential impact nearly always favours men. Thus, to achieve equity, gender analysis leads to special attention to the situation of women.
4 Helen Derbyshire, Gender Manual: A Practical Guide for Development Policy Makers and Practitioners. London (UK): Department for International Development (2002), p.10.
5 See Sonia Jorge, Gender Perspectives on Telecentres, ITU-Telecom Americas 2000; Chasquinet, Estado del Arte de los Telecentros en America Latina y el Caribe, February 2002 <http://www.tele-centros.org/estarte/index.html>; and presentations of telecentre projects at the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
6 Sonia Jorge, “Gender-Sensitive ICT Projects: A Policy Framework,” prepared for the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
7 “Exploring Adequate Reform Models for the Telecom Sector in China.” The gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Prof. Liu Meng in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank. org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d19018 5256b180057ba4f/d3f2f6035a6250338 5256b10005b7dfd?OpenDocument>.
8 A number of gender analyses of infoDev projects cited in this article point out gender omissions in projects that could have been corrected in project design. The citations from infoDev projects are not meant to criticise infoDev projects; rather, they commend the institution for its openness to gender analysis and its application to future projects. Few other donors have done this. More details on the infoDev gender review framework can be found in Louise Chamberlain, “Gender Review of ICT Projects” <http://www/digitalnetwork.org/content/stories/index.cfm?key=250>.
9 Geovanna Muñoz, “The BarrioNet Project,” presented at the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
10 “The National Graduate Registry in Panama—Partners for Employment.” Gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Michael Clulow in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d190185256b180057ba4f/8a20e479a61c0c1f85256b5d0060948d? OpenDocument>
11 “Information Systems for Rural Development: A Demonstration Project.” Gender analysis of this project was done for infoDev by Norma Puican in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank. org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d 190185256b180057ba4f/886bce8 daced1d7d85256b 750070e048?Open Document>.
12 “India Health Care Project—Use of Information Technology for Delivering Quality Health Care to the Rural Population.” Gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Prof. Shiraz Wajih in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/e4ed1d55d4e1c27085256b 180057ba50/eeaa76fe47e8a51d85256b 10005b7bf2?OpenDocument>.
13 “Infodev Health Information Training Center.” Gender analysis of this project was completed by Karen Odhiambo in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d190185256b180057ba4f/84dfebf109f0be0785256b10005b7bf4? OpenDocument>.
Moulding ICT to Their Needs: Kerala's Women Overcome Their Misgivings
Developments in information technology affect men and women differently. With the Internet fast becoming the “electronic hall of democracy,” access to this becomes a paramount issue for women in their efforts to enter the public arena. Though women in Kerala enjoy the highest rate of literacy and educational status in India, this has not necessarily translated to social conditions that might encourage them into fields such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In addition, there is further reluctance among many women to accept new technological advances.
Society still views the computer as an instrument, the mysteries of which a man can better unravel. From childhood, the girl child is not encouraged to ‘experiment’ and ‘explore’—which is usually the prerogative of the boy child, and considered his natural instinct. There is also the general feeling that information technology (IT) and related jobs are elite, connected to foreign lands and to be taken up only if you are thinking of such a career. “ The computer is not native. It is still viewed as something which came from abroad,” said S. Jayasree, project associate of the Sakhi Resource Centre for Women in Trivandrum, Kerala.
The experience at the documentation centre of Sakhi, the first resource and documentation centre on women’s issues in the state of Kerala, shows the urgent need to apply the latest ICT innovations, however, simply because it is the fastest and surest way to be heard. Our experiences with grassroots women and others from diverse backgrounds confirm that such technology is the answer to a reliable means of communicating and propagating women’s concerns.
Kerala Women in the Development Debate
Despite Kerala’s high literacy rate, functional literacy on its own, however, does not necessarily constitute an ability to be open to and adept in new technological advances. The computer and E-mail communication era has not found easy acceptability among the women of Kerala. To begin with, technology is generally introduced first to the male members in a household. The boys get priority over girls. It is usually the brother who ‘teaches’ the sister to use the computer. Internet kiosks in Kerala are filled with boys surfing the Web. The girls’ usage of the computer is much less, and limited to typing of application letters, rarely as a tool for enjoyment or exploration. This opportunity of a space accessible to boys from any economic background is not similarly available to the girls. The women and girls who access the Web are those who have personal computers or PCs in their homes.
Kerala has a vibrant and growing women’s movement drawing on the collective experience of women in trying to understand and challenge the current gender power structure in society. Even though the reactions from the public in the beginning were not favourable or encouraging (as feminists are still seen as weird and frustrated women), there is an acknowledgement of their role in reacting and protesting against the various unequal relations. Prominent among their protests was their campaign on the Suryanelli case, where a young girl was detained by 42 men, and exchanged and exploited for sexual favours. In its campaign strategy, Streevedi, a women’s network, blocked the entry of the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) while the assembly was in session. It also strived to keep the issue (and similar sex racket cases) alive in the minds of the public by organising ‘caravans’ through the state, distributing pamphlets, and delivering speeches to introduce to people a perspective of such abuses vis-à-vis the media’s tendency to sensationalise these cases into tabloid scandals!
Two other successful campaigns of the women’s movement were instances of sexual harassment at work: the complaints of a high-ranking officer against a minister, which led to the latter’s resignation, and that of an employee of the Calicut University. In the Calicut University case, the Internet played a crucial role in garnering international and national support for the victim.
“I appreciate its speed. We are able to link with other groups of women and thus mobilise and gather international support fast,” says Mercy Alexander, social activist and convenor of Streevedi.
It is striking that these technological advances are happening in an environment that theoretically offers tremendous opportunity for Kerala women. ICT can link women in various areas, help coordinate agenda, speed up communication, reaching a vast number of people in less time. It moreover allows people not used to verbalising their opinions to articulate them in a relatively safe space. The computer, in other words, ironically allows one to be powerfully evocative. However, in a predominantly rural state like Kerala, the lack of resonance between technologies and women’s own realities may result in alienation. “At first I was apprehensive of the computer. I thought I would make a mistake, and the computer would be harmed! It is, after all, an important instrument,” says Daya J., another project associate of Sakhi Resource Centre for Women.
The IT World: A Man’s World
The paradoxical situation in Kerala of high educational attainment and the low visibility of women in the technical spheres extends to the IT world. While women are generally preferred in the data-entry stage, there is a higher percentage of men in Web Design and advanced stages of production. Moreover, a majority of the computer companies in Kerala prefer men to women as a long-term investment, especially when it comes to the product-development level, because of the misperception that the women are less experimental. “While men and women adapt equally well to a new computer in their work environment, men tend to push the machine to new limits, where women tend to limit themselves to what has been taught to them—though again, there are exceptions,” says Inapp Software’s Babu.
There is an impression that women cannot cope with the demands of ICT-based work, and that their priorities revolve around their families. The usual reasons of ICT employers who prefer hiring men to women:
* reluctance of women to travel due to domestic/societal controls (objections from parents/husbands, childcare/pregnancy);
* additional problems encountered with young and single women employees who travel, including their refusal to share accommodation with the opposite sex;
* tendency of women to leave their jobs to get married, leading to the organisation’s loss in terms of the training and time invested on the worker; and
* the generally tight work schedule of ICT organisations, fixed deadlines and high-stress nature of the work.
“But it should also not be forgotten that women have a double work burden, and much of the constraints and so-called ‘inefficiency’ of women are not a result of personal incapability but of men deciding what their priorities should be,” says Aleyamma Vijayan, director of Sakhi Resource Centre for Women.
The creative, challenging work is usually assigned to the men, and the monotonous, repetitive work such as data entry to the women. Women’s lack of mobility, and the late work hours also impinge on the full par-ticipation of women in technology-oriented endeavours. Again, it is the men that set the norms and accepted social behaviour patterns for women. “Anything a woman does becomes a news item!” says Jayasree, referring to how a woman’s situation is almost always trivialised.
Sakhi’s Attempts to Fill the Gap
The idea behind the setting up of a documentation unit in Sakhi was to make changes happen, because any restructuring and redefining of embedded attitudes in both women and men presume significant change. Sakhi was established in 1996 to the amalgamation of women’s voices and experiences. As a training and information dissemination centre, the group’s focus is to gear grassroots women and activists for action, advocacy and lobbying, as well as policy formation. The centre’s mission is to empower and network grassroots women’s groups.
The Challenges and Local Application
Synergy between one’s receipt of information and her application of this is needed. Because the issue of access is all-important, Sakhi has used translations to reach the masses. The strategy of repackaging the traditional trusted word to an unattractive page of grey matter, however, has its limitations and constraints. Malayalam, the regional language used in Kerala, is a tone-specific, gesture-intense language, but the language’s nuances and feel are swept aside in the translated versions.
Within India, the diversity of dialects and languages is over-whelming, yet for women to inform and inspire change, they need to share their experiences closely. Inter-regional sharing of encounters is necessary, but the challenges of cross-regional translations are tremendous. Since the culture of globalisation holds prominence, it becomes all the more crucial to insist that new technologies accommodate regional languages for future exchange. Here, ICT plays a major role: a software in Malayalam font is now widely used to encourage the local population to access ICT without hesitation. This has made it easy for women activists to express themselves via the computer. To paraphrase, Satish Babu of Inapp Software in Technopark, Trivandrum, networks don’t connect computers, they connect people, and women are better at networking than most men.”
Hearing their Voices
A number of women with the practical knowledge and insights of activists have been working at the grassroots level for years now. But there are many more women with indefatigable energy and athletic minds that are invisible. Several women’s groups and feminist individuals should be given recognition and be made visible, especially to the academe. However, turning this dream into reality, initially received with excitement, has dented enthusiasm somewhat because the entry of these social activists into the theoretical, scientific world with technological props like the computer and the Internet came quite late. Occupied and exhausted by their problems at home and at work, as their presence is required in both arenas, the women found participation in the world of research daunting. On top of technology’s rapid move forward to an alien planet of keyboards, monitors, computer languages, E-mail, and chat lines, the silence, privacy and basic self-reliance that research work requires can result in the alienation of these women.
At the documentation centre, this uncertainty was tackled by the provision of resource persons to ease the women’s journey through their studies. The initial hesitation having passed, many of them are now eager to try their hands at the computer. Though owning a PC is still beyond the reach of many of these women, there are several centres—NGOs and women’s groups—where computer time and space are available. Using the E-mail as a link won quick acceptance.
Pinpricks and Drawbacks
The IT world could be the equalizer for women from diverse backgrounds and with different concerns. The Net gives equal opportunities to all, regardless of their gender, background and economic status. This is a medium that could be a leveller—some may have a PC at home but women can also use and access the Net through the computers at a centre, NGO office, etc. The important point is fair access.
The experience at the documentation centre reveals that any intimidation first experienced in dealing with ICT is offset by the women’s energy and curiosity. Women activists and social activists in general remain spirited towards new ICT, even though their late entry into cyber age, coupled with their domestic duties and commitments, may delay their mastery of the computer.
ICT as Change Maker
Fortunately, the computer and the Internet, together, make for a media unique in its elasticity–that is, an individual can adapt/mould the technology to her taste. Unlike the typewriter, the computer has receptiveness and adaptability. The development of the Malayalam font, meanwhile, has democratised usage. In effect, women have access to a space where they can be discerning and apply their analytical abilities, and this is precisely why this medium can be the change maker in terms of information dissemination and consciousness raising. It also gives the women activist a chance to reach out and interact with the public space. This is crucial because Kerala still practices strict patriarchal moral policing of its women, and their visibility in public space is minimal.
A significant start is the decentralisation process in Kerala where the panchayats (local administrative units) are being computerised. Computer kiosks for information are also on the agenda. The elected women representatives can use these to interact with their constituencies and their colleagues overseas. The underlying objective here is to use ICT in implementing change and restructuring power equations.
Prema Nair is an independent research partner based in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. Her interests include gender equality, women and communication, and women in tourism. Creative writing, poetry and reading fill her leisure space.
Footnotes
1 Although the Association for Progressive Communication Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC-WNSP), which puts emphasis on using ICTs as advocacy tools, got underway in 1993. See Association for Progressive Communications, Networking for Change: the APC-WNSP’s First Eight Years (Manila: 2000) for a detailed account of APC’s work in this area.
2 The World Bank, Integrating Gender into the World Bank’s Work: A Strategy for Action (Washington, D.C., 2002).
3 Why do we focus on women while using gender analysis that considers the situation of both men and women? When talking about gender and development, we are looking at whether policy, projects and activities impact men and women differently. From the history of development we know that the differential impact nearly always favours men. Thus, to achieve equity, gender analysis leads to special attention to the situation of women.
4 Helen Derbyshire, Gender Manual: A Practical Guide for Development Policy Makers and Practitioners. London (UK): Department for International Development (2002), p.10.
5 See Sonia Jorge, Gender Perspectives on Telecentres, ITU-Telecom Americas 2000; Chasquinet, Estado del Arte de los Telecentros en America Latina y el Caribe, February 2002 <http://www.tele-centros.org/estarte/index.html>; and presentations of telecentre projects at the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
6 Sonia Jorge, “Gender-Sensitive ICT Projects: A Policy Framework,” prepared for the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
7 “Exploring Adequate Reform Models for the Telecom Sector in China.” The gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Prof. Liu Meng in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank. org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d19018 5256b180057ba4f/d3f2f6035a6250338 5256b10005b7dfd?OpenDocument>.
8 A number of gender analyses of infoDev projects cited in this article point out gender omissions in projects that could have been corrected in project design. The citations from infoDev projects are not meant to criticise infoDev projects; rather, they commend the institution for its openness to gender analysis and its application to future projects. Few other donors have done this. More details on the infoDev gender review framework can be found in Louise Chamberlain, “Gender Review of ICT Projects” <http://www/digitalnetwork.org/content/stories/index.cfm?key=250>.
9 Geovanna Muñoz, “The BarrioNet Project,” presented at the Gender Evaluation Methodology Workshop, APC-WNSP training workshop for ICT projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 15-19 May 2002.
10 “The National Graduate Registry in Panama—Partners for Employment.” Gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Michael Clulow in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d190185256b180057ba4f/8a20e479a61c0c1f85256b5d0060948d? OpenDocument>
11 “Information Systems for Rural Development: A Demonstration Project.” Gender analysis of this project was done for infoDev by Norma Puican in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank. org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d 190185256b180057ba4f/886bce8 daced1d7d85256b 750070e048?Open Document>.
12 “India Health Care Project—Use of Information Technology for Delivering Quality Health Care to the Rural Population.” Gender analysis of this project was completed for infoDev by Prof. Shiraz Wajih in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/e4ed1d55d4e1c27085256b 180057ba50/eeaa76fe47e8a51d85256b 10005b7bf2?OpenDocument>.
13 “Infodev Health Information Training Center.” Gender analysis of this project was completed by Karen Odhiambo in a study to be published shortly on the infoDev Website: <http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/20c7f8205b9d190185256b180057ba4f/84dfebf109f0be0785256b10005b7bf4? OpenDocument>
Women Connect! Case study of an alternative communication model
For women’s organisations engaged in outreach—whether to community members or to politicians, legislators and the media, communication skills are crucial. Today the communication strategies of women’s non-government organisations (NGOs) span a broad range—from posters, folk drama, and slogan-bearing t-shirts to the Internet and Websites. However, many, if not most, women’s organisations, in both developed and developing countries, know they still have much to learn about communication—be it traditional media, mass media or modern information technology.
Women Connect! was a five-year initiative to help women’s NGOs be more strategic and participatory in their use of communication and thereby increase their overall effectiveness. Our operating hypothesis and underlying conviction was that only by strengthening a broad range of communications capacities would an organisation be able to maximise its impact. We therefore designed an approach combining two components: (1) information communication technology (ICT) and (2) strategic use of traditional and mass media (such as posters, brochures, drama and radio), especially for what communications professionals refer to as “media campaigns.” Women Connect! presents a unique model in combining these two components in a single project that provides training, technical collaboration and small grants.
Women Connect!, including its pilot project, was carried out collaboratively between 1997 and 2002 by two organisations, the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health and the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California, both based in Los Angeles. The goals of Women Connect! were: (1) to contribute to women’s empower-ment through collaboration, commu-nications capacity-building and information-sharing with women’s organisations; and (2) to help women strengthen their organisations and their ability to achieve their own objectives, especially in the areas of women’s health and well-being, including reproductive and sexual health and rights.1 Women Connect! was carried out with 30 women’s NGOs in Africa (Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda2 ), but the lessons learned apply to communications work with women’s groups throughout the world. Our vision for Women Connect! was to help women’s organisations use the power of information and communication tools to change women’s lives.
Not Just ICT but Also Media
In recent years ICT has become indispensable for organisations and individuals wanting to communicate beyond their immediate locale. The women’s movement has also emphasised the importance of women’s having access to these technologies. Begins a recent analysis:
Information technology (IT) has become a potent force in transforming social, economic, and political life globally... More and more concern is being shown about the impact on those left on the other side of the digital divide—the division between the information ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’ Most women within developing countries are in the deepest part of the divide—further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share. If access to and use of these technologies is directly linked to social and economic development, then it is imperative to ensure that women in develop-ing countries understand the significance of these technologies and use them... Many people dismiss the concern for gender and IT in developing countries on the basis that development should deal with basic needs first. However, it is not a choice between one and the other. IT can be an important tool in meeting women’s basic needs and can provide the access to resources to lead women out of poverty. (Hafkin and Taggart, 2001, p.1).
However, also important in the work of women’s NGOs is the use of diverse forms of media (posters, brochures, drama, radio and so on) to communicate messages to grassroots communities. Around the world, including in “developed” countries, the skills of women’s NGOs in using these forms of media are often limited. In the past years, international donor agencies have supported a tremendous amount of skills building in the area of media campaigns, but mainly with governments and their health and education ministries (e.g., for family planning and child survival, immunisation, and Oral Rehydration Therapy). The approaches and lessons learned were not previously shared with women’s NGOs. We considered this a major oversight that needed remedying. In Women Connect!, we did not want to oversell ICT so that participating groups forgot the importance of other communication media. Rather, we also wanted to strengthen their capacities in using multiple forms of media and linking them more effectively.
During the initial needs assessment, women’s groups repeatedly expressed frustration over their relationships with journalists and how their organisations are portrayed in mass media. They wanted to be able to deal with journalists more effectively. In response, we added this to our programme.
Project Structure and Content
Women Connect! was designed with the following complementary activities: needs assessment, training workshops, technical collaboration, small grants, and sharing of women’s health information
Project Participation and North-South Issues
We knew from previous work that many women’s organisations wanted to improve their communications capacity. Yet, as an organisation based in the North, we wanted to avoid super-imposing Northern donor agendas. To identify organisations interested in participating in Women Connect!, we visited the women’s NGO communities in several African countries. In each of the three countries selected, we administered a needs assessment to interested groups, asking them to discuss their mission and organisational priorities. Many groups expressed interest in improv-ing communications, with regard to both ICT and media campaigns, and the use of traditional and mass media. They wanted to reach their target audiences better and felt they were not using media effectively. Additionally, many were not on E-mail and wanted to learn to use it, especially for networking and fund-raising.
Information Communication Technology 3
The ICT component of Women Connect! introduced new information technologies, especially E-mail and the Internet, to help women’s organisations link with the world outside. Unlike many other programmes that focus only on ICT (providing computers plus, at most, basic training in running them), our strategy went beyond merely “wiring” the organisations. A major premise was that the effective use of ICT requires much more than hardware, software, electricity and a phone line. Because technology is a dramatic innovation for many women’s NGOs, we believed it was critical to address how organisations incorporate this technology into their structures. We wanted groups to understand the ways in which technology can change power relationships and affect organisational hierarchy. The project also took into account barriers to appropriate use. For example, some NGO directors are intimidated by the technology and stand in the way of the adoption of these innovations, as a result excluding younger staff members with the interest or skill in these technologies. To succeed at ICT, organisations must allocate time, resources and support, and even change how people work. Some women’s groups had one or two persons carrying out the technology-related activities of the organisation. We helped to identify appropriate staff and worked to develop their skills.
Communication Campaigns and Strategic Use of Media
The second project component introduced the principles and components of communication campaigns, an important approach which many smaller NGOs are not familiar with or adept in.
A classic definition is that communication campaigns are “purposeful attempts to inform, persuade or motivate behaviour changes in a relatively well-defined and large audience, generally for non-commercial benefits and/or society at large, typically within a given time period, by means of organised communi-cation activities involving mass media and often complement-ed by inter-personal support. (Rice and Atkins 1989, p.7).
The media component emphasised two ideas. Too often, when organisations develop messages, they speak to themselves rather than to the audiences they are trying to reach, or they talk down to audiences. For instance, a poster in Africa showed a man beating a woman. The message, in English, said, “Wife-beating is illegal.” It had a scolding tone that talked down to people. Although the poster may have made the women’s group feel better, its effect on men’s behaviour, if any, is doubtful. Women Connect! emphasised the need for community-based research, especially a needs assessment and pre-testing of messages so that campaign designs would be more participatory and more tailored to the target group’s needs. After the training, Sheila Kamawara of the Uganda Women’s Network said that her group had been preaching to the choir and “had pointed fingers and not understood people’s problems and realities. There is... a strong and urgent need to look at issues from the eyes of the people we are trying to reach.”
The second important idea was the use of multiple media designed and combined in a more strategic way. We encouraged groups to use brochures, calendars, and theatre and radio messages because research tells us that campaigns work better when more than one medium is involved. Since the cost of multiple media and more strategic campaigns is greater, we suggested that groups could network and divide tasks and financial responsibilities. We felt this would also help them work together to have more impact in their communities.
Training, Technical Collaboration and Small Grants
Media Strategy and Information Workshops. In Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda, we identified a leading local NGO to co-host a Media Strategy and Information Technology training workshop. We identified professionals in each country to participate in the workshop as trainers and co-facilitators to be available for technical collaboration after the workshops.
Small Grants. “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” We knew that training alone was not enough to make something happen. Often in the development field, training workshops are conducted with the assumption that participants will go back to their organisations and implement the new ideas and skills learned from a workshop. Previous experience had taught us that this was not enough. We saw making small grants (ranging from US$3,000 to$5,000) available as putting steam in the engine. Following the workshops, we worked with each of the participat-ing NGOs to help them conceptualise a small-grants proposal. The Pacific Institute awarded small grants to 26 organisations in the three countries to conduct a one-year project based on their own design and related to some aspect of communications tackled during the training. Women Connect! provided technical assistance and collaboration during the year. In a final evaluation, the participating organisa-tions emphasised the importance of the small grants in allowing them to implement in a substantive way the new learning introduced in the workshops.
Three Organisations and Their Projects
Three examples illustrate the diverse approaches and activities taken by the 26 organisations that carried out projects with the Women Connect! small grants.
Forum for African Women Educationalists Uganda (FAWEU) - downloaded information from the Internet and repackaged it in formats appropriate for secondary school girls. Girls in 17 participating schools advised FAWEU on what kind of study materials they felt they needed. FAWEU downloaded various subjects, edited, photocopied and bound them, and sent them out to rural schools. Subjects distributed included profiles of female scientists, material on domestic abuse and how it can affect girls, tips for young poets and writers, and literary analysis of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.
Uganda Private Midwives Association - downloaded health information from the Internet, then translated and used this in radio programmes to reach rural audiences. Information targeted women and included topics such as maternal mortality, marketing professional midwife services, and health issues such as malaria and breastfeeding. The organisation translated radio pro-grammes into three local languages and promoted them on numerous private radio stations. 4
Jkesa Pfungwa (Zimbabwe) - worked to increase the participation of women in leadership positions in the communal area of Zaka. It carried out a needs assessment that provided strong evidence of the problematic attitudes about women as leaders. Men said such things as “Some women engage in extra-martial affairs when they become leaders,” and “God created Adam and Eve with Adam as leader.” Jkesa developed messages with audience participation and designed a campaign that included talks, workshops, drama posters and other media. Jkesa set up four yardsticks to measure the results including input indicators, activity indicators, outcome indicators, and impact indicators. Despite limited time, a hostile political environment in the country, and a cyclone, Jkesa estimates it reached 500 men and women directly and 2,000 indirectly. After its campaign, more women attended community meetings and their participation as local leaders increased significantly (Morna, 2001, p.39).
Results of the NGO Projects
In these three African countries, the lead women’s organisations were trained in how they can use the Internet to link better with each other and with the outside. Their understanding of the possible applications of ICT improved, as did their prudence in making choices. Many are saving costs through the use of E-mail in place of long-distance telephone calls and faxes. The ICT projects funded by the Women Connect! small grants yielded the following immediate tangible benefits:
* Connectivity: Nine organisations that did not have E-mail or Internet became connected.
* Women’s Internet Cafés: Two organisations (in Zimbabwe and Zambia) set up Internet cafés that also function as Internet learning centres. Both are training other women’s groups, women parliamentarians and other women on how to use the Internet and are providing access to women whose organisations do not have E-mail and Internet access yet.
* Websites: Five organisations established Websites.
* Repackaged Information: Nine organisations repackaged information from the Internet for dissemination to key constituencies, one of these using radio. The information covered HIV/AIDS, reproductive health topics, and subjects targeted at young women in schools.
The media projects carried out under the Women Connect! small grants yielded the following immediate tangible benefits.
* Campaigns: Eight organisations conducted campaigns on topics such as reproductive health, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, women in decision-making, gender stereotypes, and women and the law. Others produced t-shirts, stickers, posters, flyers and information sheets on specific women’s health and em-powerment themes.
* Research: One organisation conducted research on why its advocacy work was failing to yield the desired results, and produced recommendations for more effective media strategies.
* Community Publications: Two organisations worked with communities to help them produce their own publications—one a newsletter and another a training manual with strong emphasis on gender and health.
* Calendars: Two organisations produced calendars, one of which was an innovative motivational calendar emphasising new gender roles for women and men.
Insights
Adoption/Use of ICT
Each organisation has unique needs and must find its own way to integrate ICT —gradually—into its work. ICT cannot be used occasionally or superficially for it to become an effective organisational tool. Organisations must internalise ICT strategies in their activities, but the adoption of the technology must be strategic and gradual. Organisations just beginning to develop ICT capacity should resist the urge to design sophisticated Websites that are difficult to maintain.
Introducing new technology into an organisation causes changes that place pressure on systems, relationships, and communication and management styles. For example, will the system of one person’s opening up regular mail be duplicated to the opening up of E-mail? Who will have access to the Internet and E-mail? In many developing countries, computers are typically tools for secretaries, not management. With the advent of Internet, it becomes necessary for management and other people in the organisation to develop technology skills. There is also a need within each NGO for a designated staff member to provide oversight of and leadership in ICT issues.
There is a need for women’s organisations to engage at the ICT policy level. As the discussion continues about extending Internet access in developing countries, it is urgent that women’s organisations speak strongly about the need for equitable access.
Communication Campaigns and Strategic Use of Media
It is important that women’s organisations conduct community-based research, including needs assessment and pre-tests, to be certain their messages are communicated clearly to their intended audiences, and to involve those audiences in the process. Some women’s NGOs engaged in outreach do this already; many others welcome training in designing and doing needs assessments, participatory research, and testing of messages and materials. The process may be time-consuming and expensive, but groups learn that different target audiences receive messages in different ways and thus have to be reached in different ways.
Women’s NGOs engaged in advocacy and outreach need to design and implement campaigns more strategically using multiple forms of media. Effective campaigns have limited objectives and measurable results. Research from around the world indicates that campaigns are most effective when multiple media (such as booklets, radio, posters and drama) are combined.
Women’s organisations need to learn how to relate effectively to mass media professionals. Instead of looking at interaction with professionals (journalists, editors and even owners) only from their own point of view, women’s groups will be more effective if they develop long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial. This includes becoming known to reporters as local “experts” and “sources” of information, designing exciting and visual media events, and respecting journalists’ deadlines. Organisations that have good relationships with mass media professionals are generally much more satisfied with how they are portrayed.
The Way Forward
Through Women Connect!, an important foundation has been established for ongoing and future efforts. In the three African countries where the project focused, women’s organisations and individual leaders in the women’s movement were exposed, many for the first time, to more strategic thinking about how to do effective communication outreach. Groups incorporated this in their work and shared their learning and experiences with other organisations and women leaders. The participating organisations are now more keenly aware of the need to formulate communication strategies and to strengthen their use of ICTs and media.
References
Hafkin, Nancy and Nancy Taggart. Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study. Washington DC: Academy for Educational Development, 2001.
Mayer, Doe. “Melding Digital and Traditional Media for Social Change in Africa,” video from Women Connect!, 2002.
Morna, Colleen Lowe. “Learning to Link: An Evaluation of the Women Connect! Project of the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health,” Gender Links, December 2001.
Rice, Ronald and Charles Atkin. Public Communication Campaigns, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1989.
Footnotes
1 Women’s health was the primary subject matter, shared with participants in case studies and other materials.
2 One of these groups was Isis-WICCE Uganda which, under the leadership of Ruth Ochieng, took the lead in encouraging other Ugandan women’s groups to use ICT for advocacy, organising and information sharing.
3 Carole Roberts, technology coordinator for Women Connect!, designed and guided the ICT work.
4 See video of this and other Women Connect! Internet and media projects at <http://www.annenberg.edu>.
ICT Applications in Latin America: From Information to Knowledge-Building
With the electronic revolution and onset of the age of information, not only the global economy but also cultural and social values have changed. During the last two decades, the development of new technologies by the rich countries of the North, and the global South’s subsequent adoption of these support the argument that the technological revolution is taking place simultaneously in the North and South. A new piece of software, for example, can be launched simultaneously in Japan, Argentina and France. But, the number of users who can purchase it is not the same between the “digital divide.”
The discrepancy is such that in 1999, of the 153.2 million worldwide with access to the Internet, a mere 1.1 million were Africans (less than 1 percent), 26.5 million were Asians (17.3 percent), and 4.50 million were South Americans (2.9 percent), in contrast to 33.4 million Europeans and 87 million North Americans, who make up a 78.5 percent global total with access to the Internet. 1
A closer examination of these figures reveals further disproportions within Latin America itself. According to a study carried out between 1996 and 1998, Venezuela had 783 servers while Peru had only one.2 There is also differential access by gender. Women accounted for only 38 percent of the total number of Internet users, even though they represent 51 percent of the population in the region.3
The debate over this digital divide has focused on the political and financial mechanisms required to increase access to new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the South. But there is another element to this divide: the unequal use of ICTs to create knowledge and address social needs.
Information and Knowledge
Latin America should adopt and adapt ICTs to its own needs.
In this age of Information and Knowledge, information itself is the raw material which, parlayed, becomes knowledge. The agenda is therefore to transform information found online into knowledge and to gain a command of ICTs so that new applications attuned to the social needs of the region are developed. Despite the efforts of the commercial, financial and academic communities, however, the region is a long way from achieving this.
The region’s private sector has begun using the Internet to improve its marketing strategies through e-commerce and to provide electronic access to financial services. In the academic world, countries like Brazil, Chile and Colombia have set up national training programmes to develop computer skills of young students. Many universities offer online education programmes. One of the most outstanding initiatives is that of the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where courses to seven countries of the region are conducted via satellite and the Internet. Brazil and Colombia have developed ICT applications for informal education, which have earned them the “The Stockholm Challenge Award.”4
The progress in the adoption of ICTs in such areas as government transparency, health care services and raising the value of the local, national and regional knowledge has been noticeably slow.
In most of Latin America, government agencies often use ICT as a dissemination tool, without consideration of its communicative and interactive potentials. Mexican and Colombian government Websites offer space for debates, and those in Brazil and Venezuela provide some services online, but the region is far from implementing what it is known as electronic governance, which could help fight corruption. Besides, government agencies are only beginning to use Intranets.
Internet access, however, has come to be recognised as a matter of national interest, and governments have in place telecommunications programmes to expand the coverage of Internet in their countries. Unfortunately, there are still some making regressive decisions. Since last January, Cuba has forbidden the sale of personal computers to individuals as a means to control the people’s access to Internet content coming from its detractors.
Access and Networks
The requirements of building a knowledge society extend beyond a modern infrastructure and higher incomes to make Internet services affordable to everyone. In a recent survey carried out in Colombia, Internet users mentioned the difficulty in finding information on the Web.5
Some Websites provide information on the information available online, called meta-information. Such Websites are one of the best means of facilitating the access to specialised information. One good Latin American meta-information Website is the Portal de la Sociedad Civil de Chile (Chilean Civil Society Clearinghouse), which provides up-to-date information on social organisations and NGOs. It also posts documents, data on social issues, and news on citizens’ initiatives. There is an urgent need in Latin America for more of these types of sites to help strengthen the region’s capacity to use ICTs.
The creation of e-networks and the empowerment of people and organisations in ICTs are also essential if the region’s people are to take advantage of the tremendous resource that information has become. In fact, networks are the main tools of a knowledge society. ICTs could strengthen pan-American links, and in this direction, the Summit of the Americas has created the Connectivity Institute for the Americas.
Knowledge comes from the exchange of information. Although the number of listservs with meta-information is on the rise, only a minority of Latin American Internet users are part of electronic groups, online forums or virtual networks. This is partly because of the question of access, partly because most of these are in English (and operated from the north), and also because of a common misconception that sharing informa-tion leads to a loss of power. But the exact opposite holds true now.
Some nations recognise the advantage of electronic networks in terms of citizenship, social cohesion and bureaucratic management. In 1993, the government of Recife, Brazil set up the first network for free Internet access called Citizenship Network and Information for the Citizens. At a regional level, virtual networks are in their incipiency.
Knowledge Building
The use of ICTs has demonstrated that these are effective not only in disseminating information but also in promoting partnership, transferring knowledge, and encouraging community participation in development projects and decision making. The annual Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme now includes technological advancement and Internet access as one of its yardsticks in measuring social and human progress.
Latin America must encourage the implementation of ICTs to bring the region to the age of information. Developing countries in Asia and Africa are using ICTs in innovative ways to address environmental problems, promote indigenous culture, establish businesses for women, and disseminate new farming methods. In doing so, they illustrate that the lack of infrastructure is not an insurmountable obstacle as long as there is the will to use ICTs to meet social needs.
True, Latin America faces many obstacles before it can become an information society. It suffers from a lack of financing, limited telecommunication coverage in the rural areas, high telecommunications tariffs, the influence of anti-democratic groups, and armed conflicts, all posing competing claims on a limited national budget. These are obstacles linked with the structural problems of the region and requiring massive effort from governments as well as civil society. But the region cannot afford to be left behind by the revolution in ICTs either.
Footnotes
1 A recent NUA internet survey, cited by Hans D’Orville, Information Technologies for Development Programme Director of the UNDP, during the international conference “Connecting Knowledge in Communications,” Montreal, 1999.
2 Research carried out by the National Network of Research of Costa Rica and the Network Unit of Costa Rica University.
3 Research carried out by Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart for United States Agency for International Development, June 2001.
4 The Stockholm Challenge recognises the benefits and positive changes that information technology can bring to communities, rather than on the sophistication of the technology itself. It offers IT pioneers around the world a unique opportunity to showcase projects of excellence—private, public, academic or non-profit—in the categories of New Economy, Education, Health, Democracy, Culture, Environment and Equal Access.
5 Survey carried out by the magazine Soho, year 2000.
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Isis Resource Center holds one of the largest feminist collections of materials in the Global South. With 40 years of publication experience, Isis holds a vast collection.