Feminist Tech Exchange in Cape Town reclaims technology for women's rights
Cape Town, South Africa, Nov 9
More than 100 women’s rights activists from 46 countries are converging on Cape Town 10 – 12 November to harness the creative and strategic use of video, audio, social networking platforms, digital storytelling, mobile phones and community wireless networks for women’s transformation, activism, advocacy and movement building at the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX).
The Feminist Tech Exchange 10-12 November
The FTX will explore feminist practices and politics of technology and raise awareness on the critical role of communication rights in the struggle to advance women’s rights worldwide. Recognising the historical and current contributions of women in shaping technology, the Feminist Tech Exchange grounds technology in women’s realities and lives.
Five simultaneous training tracks led by a community of trainers from all latitudes will offer participants hands-on experience in information and communications technologies (ICT) for activism. Daily thematic dialogues will examine communication rights issues and how they relate to women’s rights, including violence against women, participatory governance and women’s ownership of knowledge. Participants can also share the knowledge, skills and capacity they bring to the event in open exchange sessions throughout the three-day exchange.
FTX Hub 14-17 November
Immediately following the Feminist Tech Exchange, participants will put new skills and knowledge into practice at the FTX Hub during the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) 2008 Forum on Movement Building 14 – 17 November, also to be held in Cape Town with more than 1500 in attendance.
The FTX Hub offers a central meeting place during the AWID Forum for any Forum participant to find out about the interconnections of technology, communication rights, and feminism. They can build on their tech skills, blog, learn how women in different corners of the world use the internet for advocacy, or go on a tech hunt for the online campaign to end violence against women, Take Back the Tech.(http://takebackthetech.net). The Hub will spotlight the critical role that ICTs can play in movement building.
FTX Online – http://ftx.apcwomen.org
Through FTX Online, the FTX community will reach out to wider audiences using their new technology skills – emailing, shooting videos, recording, broadcasting, social networking and sms-ing – moving information onto the internet and out into the world directly from the AWID Forum.
The website will also have resources and useful tools to support feminist practices of technology. Visitors will have the opportunity to see, hear, read and comment on the creative and strategic ways that other organisations have used technology to advance women’s rights around the world.
Who is behind the FTX?
FTX is organised by the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), together with local partner Women’sNet.
The FTX community of facilitators, coordinators and trainers is made up of a team of 20 women from different parts of the world, sharing their skills, experience, knowledge, energy and commitment into shaping the FTX.
FTX is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Global Fund for Women, OXFAM Novib and Abigail Disney.
The APC WNSP is a global network that focuses on strengthening network building within the women’s movement and advancing women’s rights through the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). APC WNSP is part of the Association for Progressive Communications, an international network of civil society associations dedicated to empowering and supporting people working for peace, gender justice, human rights, development and the protection of the environment. http://www.apcwomen.org
AWID is an international feminist membership organisation that works to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally to effectively advance the rights of women. To learn more about AWID, go to: http://www.awid.org
Women’sNet is a feminist organisation that works to advance gender equality and justice in South Africa through the use of ICT. We provide training and facilitate content dissemination and creation that supports women, girls, and women’s and gender organisations and networks to take control of their own content and ICT use. http://www.womensnet.org.za
Source: APC WNSP
