En 1995 se llevó a cabo la primera conferencia sobre la condición de la mujer en Beijing. Quince años después mujeres de todo el mundo se encontraron en Nueva York, del 1º al 12 de marzo. “Los medios y las comunicaciones han vivido verdaderas revoluciones desde Beijing”, dijo el programa de mujeres de APC en una declaración publicada por la agencia IPS. También exigió que la revisión afirmara “que el acceso de bajo costo a la información y al conocimiento, internet y otras tecnologías de la comunicación son críticos y fundamentales para los derechos de las mujeres”.

Since January, sectarian strife has ripped through Nigerian communities. “A mass burial took place the day before yesterday and body counts are close to three hundred with over 80% of them women and children,” APC member John Dada told APC. “It is ironic that in the month of the Celebration of Women’s Day, such atrocities are being visited on innocent women and children.” Women are culturally respected as the givers of life and John blames deepening poverty and economic alienation for the cultural reversal but he sees a potential solution.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is launching its new website . The FTX is both a training initiative for women’s rights advocates and a community of feminist and technology activists. The FTX was developed by the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) in response to calls from feminist and women’s rights movements for greater understanding of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls from FemLink Pacific talks to Jan Moolman about Section J during the 15-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action in New York. “Section J is not just about women and the media, it is about media and communications systems.”

“It is talking about appropriate use of ICT...from Flip cameras to suitcase radio, women developed that policy and we need to reclaim it not just as media activists but also as the women’s movement. The rest of the women’s movement also needs to engage with Section J and work with women who are working on Section J…. if no one else is going to broadcast or publish it, we will.”

Bhagwan-Rolls, from Femlink Pacific, was at one of the few events that dealt with “section J” (the only part of the Platform of Action that deals with media and ICTs) in the Beijing+15 meetings that are going on in New York till March 12. At the 29th floor of a sky-scraper near UN headquarters, with an incredible view of Manhattan’s sunset, a team of media and gender activists (coordinated by the World Association of Christian Communication) presented the preliminary findings of their global report on women in the media. Analia Lavin blogs for GenderIT.org’s Feminist Talk.

Maria Suárez refers to the “‘J’ spot” in an article exploring why Section J was not a priority issue during the 2005 Beijing +10 review. Five years later, can we claim that women’s media and ICTs are now supported? Do we still feel forced into ‘choosing’ between the struggle to end violence against women or eradicate poverty and the struggle for our rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and to tell our own stories? GenderIT.org guest editor Jan Moolman talks about looking for the “J spot” at the upcoming Beijing + 15 review during the 54th session of the Commission of the Status of Women.

GenderIT.org takes a cross-country look at violence against women (VAW) and ICT laws and policy in Asia and Latin America, based on country reports highlighted in GenderIT’s previous VAW and ICT edition. They show the connections between women’s rights, violence against women, and ICTs. Guest editor Jan Moolman questions if women’s “J Spot” will be present at the upcoming Beijing Platform for Action 15 year review. Kathleen Diga tracks expressions of gender and power relations between women and men in the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project research findings.

With the goal to create awareness about information and communication technologies and violence against women in cyber space, and the implications of various government policies on women, a seminar titled “ICTs and Violence Against Women – Policy Implications” was jointly organized by Bytes for All (B4A) and the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) on 30 January 2010 in Lahore.

El trabajo del Programa de Apoyo a las Redes de Mujeres en América Latina y Caribe en 2009 logró avances que destacan contribuciones al campo de la capacitación en TIC, la evaluación de proyectos y la investigación social en el ciberespacio con perspectiva de género y feminista.

From 25 November to 10 December, the message came across loud and clear – whether it was via audiocast in Malaysia, chat relay in Brazil, protest march in Second Life, song-writing in Pakistan, calendars in Argentina, tweets in Mexico, posters in cybercafes in the Congo, or a mural on the streets of Soweto in South Africa. In over a dozen languages and through all platforms and medium both online and off, people took control of technology to end violence against women during the Take Back the Tech! campaign.

The Dominican Republic is the first Latin American country to act on their commitments to involve women in the information society nationwide. This Caribbean island nation of ten million has promised to include a “gender perspective” in every information and communications technology initiative and policy developed by the government from now on. The tool the Dominicans have chosen to design and evaluate all the public policies is the APC gender evaluation methodology (GEM).

Women’sNet, with partner, Artists Say No to Violence Against Women and Children, held an event in Soweto, Johannesburg. They used the occasion of International Human Rights Day, which marks the last day of the 16 Days of Activism to draw attention to the role that new media has to play both as a tool for abuse and as a tool for protest.

Pakistani activists, led by Bytes for All and the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES (P@SHA), are taking over the internet cloud and radio airwaves during the 16 days of activism to end violence against women (VAW) in the Pakistan Take Back the Tech! campaign.

Jehan Ara, P@SHA president, is leading “tweeples” in constant tweeting and blogging until violence against women is better addressed in her country.

Women’sNet has just completed painting a mural in Soweto, Chris Hani Bargwanath Hospital wall. The aim of this activity is to launch a global campaign, Take Back the Tech The campaign which calls on all ICT users – especially women and girls – to take control of technology and strategically use any ICT platform at hand (mobile phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, email, podcasts and more) for activism against gender-based violence.

From 25 November to 10 December, get ready to click your mouse, flex your SMS fingers and engage full energy to take control of technology to end violence against women.

APC’s Women’s Programme calls on users of the radio, television, internet, emails and mobile phones to Take Back the Tech!

Del 16 al 18 de noviembre se realiza el taller de Intercambio Tecnológico Feminista con la participación de 35 representantes de grupos de mujeres del noreste y sur del país, más 8 instructoras a cargo de los módulos de capacitación. Este intercambio tecnológico intensivo abarca cuatro áreas de comunicación utilizando las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación: audio, imagen y video, arte gráfico digital y trabajo en redes sociales por internet. La actividad se desarrolla en las dependencias de la Librería de Mujeres, en Buenos Aires.

Treinta y cinco participantes de seis paises latinoamericanos asisten al taller de GEM, metodología de evaluación con perspectiva de género de proyectos TIC, que se realiza en Santo Domingo, del 2 al 4 de noviembre. En su mayoría, representan a las oficinas de la Mujer de sus países, tanto a nivel nacional como provincial.

In rural Latin America, women are fed up of hearing that they are “too old” to use computers. “ The lives of many women in Latin America have changed significantly in the past few decades. Rural women in their thirties have at least primary school education and know their rights thanks in many cases to community radio,” says APC’s Dafne Sabanes Plou. “They are ready for a place in today’s networked world.”

El 17 y 18 de septiembre se realizó la Consulta Nacional del Proyecto ODM3 “Fortalecimiento de las mujeres para el uso estratégico de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación para trabajar contra la violencia hacia las mujeres y las niñas” . Participaron 40 representantes de organizaciones y grupos de mujeres de todo el país, además de académicas y funcionarias del Area de la Mujer. La reunión se realizó en la Librería de Mujeres, en Buenos Aires.

Cuatro países latinoamericanos, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia y México, darán cabida al desarrollo del Proyecto Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio 3: Invirtiendo en Igualdad, a cargo del Programa de Apoyo a las Redes de Mujeres de APC (PARM de APC). Las actividades a desarrollarse durante los dos años de duración del proyecto incluyen consultas nacionales, talleres de capacitación técnica, incidencia en políticas públicas y apoyo a pequeños proyectos a cargo de organizaciones y grupos de mujeres.

When the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) screened some of the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) digital stories in the AWID Forum plenaries in November 2008, APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (WNSP) manager Chat Garcia Ramilo remembers how thrilled the WNSP team felt. “And I remember how nervous and excited the FTX participants were too, as their personal story was about to be shown before 2,000-plus women.” The plenary was packed, and the second the narration of the digital story started there was a complete hush.

GEM is an evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use ICTs for social change. It is an evaluation tool for determining whether ICTs are really improving or worsening women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.

GEM has been developed from the ground up, and has involved the collaboration of hundreds of community-based organisations and individuals since its first design in 2002. The network that has developed includes people who developed GEM, who train in how to use GEM, who are adapting GEM to increase its applicability to rural ICT4D projects, telecentres, software localisation and ICT policy advocacy, and who are now offering GEM evaluations on a consultancy basis.

Members of the network share how GEM has changed their understanding of gender and the way they work with ICT. Read more

Ekaete Judith Umoh, director of the Family-Centred Initiative for Challenged Persons, is a polio survivor turned advocate for other women with disabilities. She was one of 100 women’s activists trained at the first Feminist Tech Exchange in Cape Town, South Africa late in 2008.

Mobiles equipped with cameras are being used to peep up girl’s skirts as they climb on board buses. The same “emergency alert” button to send a distress signal from a cell phone is also connected to a global positioning system signal that allows women’s movements to be closely monitored by their spouses. Hundreds of Indian women denounce street sexual harassment in the Blank Noise Project Blogathon, many snapping shots of “Eve-teasing” aggressors.

The APC Women’s Networking Support Programme joins the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) in their call to action and grave concern regarding the violent arrest of Shadi Sadr on the morning of Friday July 17th 2009.

AWID shares the following information and call to action:

The women belong to the group TIAME, a farming group in the village of Peko-Misegese, in Morogoro. “TIAME” is the local language for “lets us work together”. This group produces various crops including vegetables, beans, sunflower and round potatoes but accessibility to market information is a big problem.

Del 21 al 23 de julio se realizará en Bogotá, Colombia, un taller de GEM, Metodología de
evaluación de proyectos de tecnología de la información y la comunicación para el desarrollo, con perspectiva de género, con el fin de capacitar a facilitadores y facilitadoras de telecentros comunitarios. Estos facilitadores y facilitadoras, luego de la capacitación, pondrán en práctica la sensibilización de género en su tarea cotidiana y evaluarán la labor de sus telecentros
utilizando GEM.

El taller está organizado por COLNODO, la Universidad Autónoma de

Toyin Ajao-Dawodu from Nigeria is so into women blogging she helps run a technology camp for girls in Nigeria coordinated by her organisation, Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre. Together with W.Tech’s Executive Director, Oreoluwa Somolu, she co-facilitated the workshop “Blogs can move the world” at last year’s Association for Women in Development’s Forum on Movement Building.

The “Keep your chats exactly that!” campaign aims to ensure that young people are empowered to use their cell phones and the Internet for positive self expression. The campaign was launched by Girls’Net, a daughter project of Women’sNet.

“Keep your chats exactly that!” is a youth campaign run by Girls’Net, a daughter project of Women’sNet, to raise awareness among young people about the safe use of mobile phones, chats, and other social networking tools.