There are a number of definitions of what a telecentre really is or should be. What remains a common element though is that ICT-based services are provided to community members, though the range of ICT-based services and community participation may differ. But no matter how these are defined, telecentres are increasingly seen as one very potential vehicle that could deploy ICTs in such as way as to shift social power relationships and facilitate institutional transformation in favour of marginalized groups.

The main reasons for developing the thematic adaptation guide, "GEM for telecentres" are due to the following realities:

1. the inequalities of access to, appropriation of, and use of ICTs by women;
2. ICT projects and programmes are still viewed as gender neutral;
3. gender research over the past decade shows evidence of a gender digital divide with respect to access, control and use of ICTs.

Many in the ICT for development sector view telecentres with hope. Hope that the telecentres could foster actions to avoid gender inequalities by creating access to information to women for better livelihood; by creating employment for women (as “infomediary” or “facilitadoras”) within the community; by ensuring technology is owned and controlled by women; by enabling a friendly environment for women to speak up and raise their voices; by involving women in the mainstream development process; and by making women aware of their unleashed potential for themselves as well as for their families and society. However, there are very real and difficult challenges faced by telecentres, their management and staff. The critical factors for change are located within the issues of:

• Ownership, participation and control;
• Collective empowerment over individual empowerment;
• Bottom-up knowledge with concomitant development of new systems and external linkages; creating value for new technologies without reliance on demand driven strategies; and
• “Sustainability” as community appropriation (here sustainability is not seen just as financial sustainability, it includes social and economic appropriation as described by Sally Burch, and if transforming power relations is important, these are considerations).

Most of these issues are very closely linked to how telecentres are managed. The fact that there’s a constant demand for financial sustainability of telecentres by those who financially support the initial set up of such centres, makes it difficult for managers to respond to the community’s information and communication needs in a more wholistic way For example, free internet service in telecentres was rejected as a workable idea because of the business/income-generating model deployed—telecentres are not allowed to disseminate any service free of charge. Yet UNESCO calls on libraries to provide free internet services.

Gender issues in telecentres, especially the most obvious in community telecentres, i.e. in relation to location, content and number, capacity and decision-making authority of female staff and resource allocation towards female staff. These will differ according to contexts, especially cultural and religious. For example, the marketplace in LAC countries may be suitable as a site for a telecentre, but not for countries in South Asia, where women are seldom seen trading.

Despite the challenges, telecentres can still offer up empowerment possibilities. How can the telecentre be a space for those who want to have access to external spaces, contact officials? How can it facilitate community involvement? How can data be used to support service providers, i.e. to know how many women are pregnant in the village, to channel health care services and support. Here, telecentres could use the “Right to Information” actively. For example, if data shows that 15 women are eligible for widow pensions, how can this be reconciled? There’s a need to see if information about support is transparent and if women are really receiving pensions. In terms of a women's empowerment agenda, it is important to evaluate not only at project level, but to think too of policy level implications. For telecentres, think of alternative patterns that are pro-poor first, and then think about gender. What’s important is to ensure community and women's ownership at the local level? The core issues in ICT policies that would enable the transformatory agenda demands a new ICT ecology to enable gender transformation, and therefore new paradigms for

1. Connectivity
2. Software (open source and localised)
3. Content

How then can GEM be applied in telecentres? Polly Gaster stresses that “GEM aims to include gender issues alongside or within other areas of evaluation needs —in other words, it’s not something to be applied separately or at a different moment”. Women in underdeveloped areas continue to bear the consequences of the growing digital, knowledge, and gender divides. So, when evaluating a community telecentre from a gender perspective, some key aspects should be considered:

• whether the telecentre is able to foster the community development process in a participatory way, including women in its work with equity and equal opportunities;
• how access to information is changing the behaviour and mindsets of the beneficiaries, both men and women.

It is essential that principles of gender equality and social justice shape the way digital technologies are defined, deployed and governed, if telecentre projects are meant to promote sustaining and empowering alternatives—to move beyond paid service provision. It is also important to highlight that the process of personal empowerment needs an active role of the beneficiary. Women will not be truly empowered if they do not support the process with personal exploration, commitment, and strong conviction. Gender bias is a cross-cutting issue that is embedded and reproduced naturally. It is also socially-defined, subject to “negotiation and contestation.” Before starting a negotiation, women and girls need to make choices and perfectly know what options are available. Through an empowerment process, they can make their own choices, speak out on their own behalf and control their own lives. Because of cultural mandates, women do repress a lot of their skills or just think these should be used only to serve others, do house work, raise children, look after the elderly, etc. Once they begin to understand that the skills they already have could turn into powerful tools to play other roles in their own homes and in their communities, their self-reliance and self-esteem grows.

The GEM thematic adaptation guide that will be developed for telecentres will aim to:

• Identify gender considerations/issues in relation to telecentre management and operations, policy, service provision and performance and networking.
• Assess how women and men participate in telecentres and to understand how telecentres contribute or not contribute to changes in gender roles of women and men.
• Assess how women and men benefit from telecentres and how telecentres affect gender relations among women and men in communities.
• Develop recommendations for telecentres in ensuring gender equality in their work.
• Identify what inputs, activities and learning can effectively build capacity of project implementors in gender evaluation.