PULA NO. 6:June 2005
A Newsletter on Women and ICTs in Africa
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PULA -the newsletter of the Association for Progressive Communications' APC-Africa-Women network- profiles the work and activities of women's ICT initiatives in Africa and links women to each other and to initiatives and opportunities.
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CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. Who produces Pula?
3. Our Voices: Stories from the field
4. Profile of an ICT Champion
5. Policy Focus
6. News and Events
7. Resources
8. World Corner: Global News
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1. EDITORIAL
Welcome to the sixth edition of PULA. In this edition, Margaret Zunguse of EKOWISA explores Zimbabwe's national ICT e- strategies and policy formulation process. We profile Linuxchix Africa and the founders who want to position African women within the free and open source (FOSS) movement. We point you to a new gender and ICT policy websitejust launched by gender and technology activists, the APC Women's Networking Support Programme which helps women make ICT policy a priority. PULA includes news and events, useful resources and our World Corner section features Women's Information Technology Transfer based in Croatia and a link to information on a Gender and Evaluation Methodology (GEM) workshop hosted recently in Cairo.
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2. WHO PRODUCES PULA?
http://www.apcafricawomen.org
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to empower African women's organisations to access and use ICTs for equality and development. APC-Africa-Women is the Africa regional programme of the Association for Progressive Communication's Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP).
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3. OUR VOICES: STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Zimbabwe National ICT E-Strategies and Policy Formulation Process: Where are
we as gender activists?
By Margaret Zunguze, Executive Director E-Knowledge for women in Southern Africa (EKOWISA) http://www.ekowisa.org.zw/
For years, it was known that the Government of Zimbabwe in close cooperation with the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) were engaged in discussions and activities aimed at creating a sustainable knowledge society/economy through the effective use of ICT by developing a coherent National ICT Strategy. The key driver group in all this was the k-economy task force. Government ministries and private sector and a handful of civil society representatives made up the k-economy task force. However, not much feedback was received from this process.
The real action kicked off with the appointment of the National ICT Project Coordinator and his assistant late 2004. The intended final project outcome was the National ICT Strategies Document to be formulated and linked to the National Millennium Development Goals.
The project would achieve this by undertaking several activities including e-readiness surveys, conducting awareness campaigns and organizing stakeholder workshops.
The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) was selected as the national consultant to undertake most of the activities of the national ICT Project.
EKOWISA is working with other interested Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to articulate our stance on ICT issues particularly from a gender perspective.
What does E-Readiness mean?
E-Readiness is a measure of the e-business environment, and would include an in-depth diagnosis and assessment of Zimbabwe's:
*Connectivity and technology infrastructure required to support ICT and its applications
*Business environment and consumer and business adoption
*Policies and regulatory framework
*Social and cultural environment including financial and human capabilities
to use the technology
*Supporting e-services
These assessment activities were done across the country with discussion workshops held in the major cities. Civil society was not very visible in this process. The government worked closely with private sector and it was obvious that if civil society remained on the sidelines, the outcome of the process would focus more on profit drivers rather than be people and development focussed.
Working towards the inclusion of gender
It is within this background that UNIFEM and EKOWISA teamed up to host a workshop in October 2004 that focused on gender issues in the ICT Strategies and Policy Process and gave civil society the opportunity to learn about the process and strategize the way forward. Ninety-five delegates (75 women) attended the workshop from civil society, government departments, the private sector and women in business.
Nomcebo Manzini, Regional Director of UNIFEM said, "This is an important partnership as it brings together multi-stakeholders to strategize on how we as women can be on the cutting edge of accessing ICT for the development of our capacities, opportunities and choices. I need not belabour the point of how important ICTs have become in promoting development; you all know that.
What may not be so clear is how ICTs even as they are promoting development can also be an instrument for widening the gap between the rich and the poor, between north and south and between men and women."
"ICT constitutes big business and big corporations are at the centre of defining the terms and conditions of developing new technologies, they are also at the centre of who has access and who does not', continued Ms Manzini. These quotes highlight the challenge civil society organisations like EKOWISA face to locate their support and interventions in the context of gender equity and equality.
One young female participant (early twenties) said, "ICTs is a power relations issue. Those with power either financially or educationally can access them. This is why more women are not assessing the computer. Culture issues come also into play. Girls are socialized to believe that they are not to be technical; this is a man's domain. This type of socialisation has disadvantaged older women but not the young generation! There is stillroom for women to encourage each other and win the battle of the mind-set. The women need to build each other up!"
The next steps
The next phase will be the e-publicity events where technical experts and other stakeholders will hold discussions using mass media to create national debate on ICT issues. It is in this phase that civil society can make their greatest impact by participating in the countrywide discussions and highlighting developmental aspects of ICTs to ensure that the process is inclusive of all members of the Zimbabwean society.
The space is wide open for civil society to locate their support interventions in the next stage of the ICT National Project process that includes holding awareness raising campaigns within communities about the role and importance of ICTs. This is an area civil society organisations have had great experience in and we include advocate on critical gender issues to access and use of ICTs. Tackling the digital divide is an enormous task and no one group can solve the problem on their own.
As civil society takes the debate to their community groups, some questions we as gender advocates can ask are:
*What ICTs do we as women want?
*How are we communicating now and how can ICTs improve this?
*Are the gender ICT issues peculiar to Zimbabwe or can we learn from what other developing countries have done?
*What ICT options are better for the future of women?
*As women are we accessing the ICT options that are open to us? Are we aware of how to lobby for the inclusion of gender issues in the ICT policy process?
There is great need for civil society in Zimbabwe to strategize and discuss gender and ICT issues and take advantage of the WSIS 2005 process.
For more information on gender and ICT issues go to:
http://www.genderit.org/en/beginners/whygender.htm
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4. PROFILE OF AN ICT CHAMPION
Linuxchix Africa launches an organization to give African women a
voice and a role in the free and open source (FOSS) movement
Its name sounds draws instant attention. And Linuxchix Africa – founded in 2004 by African women and for African women -- has got a big goal before it. That is, opening access in what is meant to be a 'free and open' technology sphere but still seems to be attracting only a very few women.
Linuxchix Africa is the Africa chapter of a world-wide group, founded in 1999 by Deb Richardson to offer an alternative to the "locker room mentality" of other Linux User Groups and forums.
Linux, or GNU/Linux, is part of the FOSS network, which has grown impressively to challenge the mainstream, commercial-driven world of proprietorial software.
In Africa, this chapter hopes to help build the critical mass of Linux skills among African women. It will also evangelise the use of FOSS for the many community development challenges being faced by Africans, especially African women.
Free software gives users the freedom to run software, study how it works and adapt it, to redistribute copies, and to improve the program and release improvements to the public so that all benefits. This could help free up scarce rand, kwacha or francs for the larger challenges of development, rather than to pay to some multinational for uncopyable software.
ICT however tends to be still male-dominated, with the world of FOSS even more acutely so. Linuxchix Africa intends to play a catalyst's role that will demystify FOSS to the people who stand to benefit the most from it.
LinuxChix worldwide (www.linuxchix.org) was designed to provide both "technical and social support" for women Linux users, although there are members of the community who are men. Members of the community are referred to as "a Linux chick" (singular) and "LinuxChix" or "Linux Chix" (plural) regardless of gender. There is also another network in Brazil – http://br.linuxchix.org.
For more information visit http://www.africalinuxchix.org and subscribe to chix@africalinuxchix.org. Or contact LinuxChix Africa founders Anna Badimo, anna@cs.wits.ac.za andDorcas Muthoni, dmuthoni@kenet.or.ke
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5. POLICY FOCUS
New gender and ICT policy website helps women make ICT policy a priority
http://www.genderIT.org [English]
Gender and technology activists, the APC Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP), have launched GenderIT.org, a new information and communications technology (ICT) policy portal for women and policy-makers.
What does GenderIT.org feature?
*The issues: GenderIT.org spell outs technology policy issues and implications so that women's activists can clearly see the links to their work in the defence of women's human rights.
*Worldwide perspective: GenderIT.org offers special focus on Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Regular news features come from GenderIT.org's policy-writers living in those regions.
*Events and Who's who in policy? GenderIT.org presents the main actors and arenas for ICT policy from the global level right down to the national scene.
*Resources and articles: GenderIT.org links local to global, to ensure that activists at home can take advantage of advances in international policy instruments and processes. It highlights local and regional ICT policy examples and implications.
*Policy-makers' section: GenderIT.org provides orientation for policy
makers too on how to draft gender-sensitive national ICT plans.
*Anti-jargon: GenderIT.org demystifies ICT policy and technical language.
As a clearing-house for all resources, papers, and articles on gender and ICT policy issues, GenderIT.org helps gender and ICT advocates keep informed on pressing ICT policy issues and frameworks being planned nationally, regionally and globally.?
For more information and for feedback and contributions go to:
GenderIT.org: http://www.genderit.org.
More about GenderIT.org's launch:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=91258 (English)
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=a--e91260-1 (Spanish)
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=a—e91295- 1(Portuguese)
Or write to Katerina Fialova, GenderIT.org project manager
kaca@apcwomen.org or Brenda Zulu, GenderIT.org African content manager
brendazulu2002@yahoo.co.in
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6. News and Events
6.1. Winners announced for second round of GenARDIS Small Grants Fund
http://www.cta.int/about/genardis2_winners.htm [English]
The GenARDIS small grants fund supports work on gender-related issues in ICTs for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries agricultural and rural development. The fund supporters announced the selection of Round 2 GenARDIS grant winners in May. The programme was developed in recognition of the constraints and challenges encountered by rural women in ACP countries with respect to ICTs. Submissions consisted of research programmes, training courses, publications, broadcasts, theatre productions, promotion materials, etc. All projects focused on innovative use of ICTs by or for rural women to improve the well-being of their families and communities. APC-Africa-Women coordinates GenARDIS.
6.2. Isis-WICCE Launches New Rural Information Unit in Soroti
http://www.isis.or.ug/isis_news.php?newsId=43&mainCategory=1&category=4
[English]
A state of art information unit has been launched at Teso Women Peace Activists' (TEWPA) new office in Soroti town in Eastern Uganda by Isis-Women International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis- WICCE), a non-governmental organisation that has been operating in Uganda since 1993. The new unit is the fourth of the series of such units to be opened and supported by Isis-WICCE in the country with the aims of building skills and enabling the communicative mechanisms of women especially those in the rural areas. It comprises of a computer set with its printer, a television set, a video deck, a mobile telephone hand set, and a landline
telephone system.
6.3. Winner of the 2004/5 APC Africa Hafkin Communications Prize announced http://www.apc.org/english/hafkin/2004/ [English]
For young people living in poverty in coastal Kenya, surfing the internet and learning how to use computers make most sense when these skills mean better economic opportunities and work- readiness. In recognition of this, APC announced on May 26 that the winner of the APC Africa Hafkin Communications Prize for 2004-5 is the *Global Education Partnership - Wundanyi* in Kenya.
"If it were not for GEP, I would not have learned to use a computer," Jostinah Wawasi, a former GEP student told APC. "After GEP I joined a local university and majored in Economics. As a young woman living in Wundanyi, Kenya, this was not a usual career. My GEP experience helped me understand my talents and abilities. After graduation, I became a consultant in Wundanyi for a major agriculture project where I have helped my community members to set up savings and credit societies."
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7. Resources
7.1. Website - Fighting female foeticide through ICT
http://www.indiafemalefoeticide.org/[English]
The practice of female foeticide or the selection of the sex of the foetus is a combination of personal choices, family issues, social, ethical, medical and even legal reasons. Technology has come to play an increasingly crucial role. Indian group, the Datamation Foundation has launched a website to actively promote legal measures banning (and penal action taken against those who conduct) selective sex tests, which can result in the decision to abort female foetuses.
7.2. Book - Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
http://www.mdgender.net/ [English]
Pathway to Gender Equality: CEDAW, Beijing and the MDGs. This UNIFEM publication outlines how the wealth of knowledge generated from the processes surrounding the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action can be used as a lens to understand and address the gender equality dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The publication highlights critical gender equality concerns for each MDG, identifies specific measures governments must take, and provides helpful resources to facilitate this work. This book can be downloaded from the above website free of charge.
7.3. Website - Siyanda: Mainstreaming gender equality
http://www.siyanda.org/ [English]
Siyanda -which means "we are growing" in isiZulu- is an on-line database of gender and development materials. It is also an interactive space where gender practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources. Siyanda aims to be an ever growing resource to support practitioners in implementing gender programmes and in mainstreaming gender equality concerns, whether they are gender specialists or not. Siyanda is hosted by BRIDGE -the Gender and Development Information Service located at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) based in the United Kingdom.
7.4. Report - Beijing Betrayed http://www.wedo.org/files/gmr2005.html [English]
The Global Monitoring Report, a world-wide appraisal of women's status BY women, serves as a response to governments who think women?s rights have been secured. WEDO has worked with women's groups from nearly 150 countries to produce the report, which describes and analyzes the experience of women, region by region, regarding issues including peace and security. The report can be downloaded free of charge.
7.5. Website - Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa [English, KiSwahili, French]
“Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa” now has French and KiSwahili websites on line. The project aims to develop, spread and encourage the use of radio broadcasting techniques and content for peacebuilding. Other changes have been made to offer a better site, and to improve the site's potential for exchanges between radio professionals. An edited version of the “Survey on Attitude of Radio Professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa towards Peacebuilding” is now available online in the survey section.
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8. World Corner
8.1. Women's Information Technology Transfer (WITT)
http://www.witt-project.net/ [English]
WITT is a website and a collective of Central and Eastern European women using the internet as a tool for social activism. WITT is committed to bringing women's actions, activities and struggles to the spotlight, promoting the use of free software as a way to highlight women's voices. Women can publish on the website in their own language (8 languages are available to be used as the site develops).
8.2. Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for ICT Initiatives workshop
A GEM workshop was held from 7 - 8 May 2005 in Cairo, Egypt hosted by APC WNSP which brought participants who are interested in gender issues in ICT for development together and provided them the opportunity to exchange experiences, insight and knowledge in gender and ICT issues. While the workshop had a strong focus on gender evaluation, emphasis was placed on understanding basic concepts on the intersections between gender and ICTs. The WSIS Gender Caucus Africa Region brought 11 members to learn the GEM methodology and to focus on Africa- based gender and ICT policy issues.
Read more about the Cairo workshop: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=33304
For more information on GEM and to download the methodology, go to:
http://www.apcwomen.org/gem
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If you have e-mail access, you can get web resources listed in PULA by sending a message to www4mail@kabissa.org with the web address
(usually starting with http://) in the body of your message.
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We welcome your opinions about this newsletter. Contributions for publication in French, English and Portuguese and for suggestions and ideas, please email Africa@apcwomen.org. To subscribe or unsubscribe email africa@apcwomen.org.
Pula is produced by APC-Africa-Women, a project of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) http://www.apc.org
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Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial Licence
2.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Some rights reserved: APC-Africa-Women 2005
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