December 2003
A document of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
RAP publication 2003/15
The "Expert consultation on rural women and distance learning: Regional Strategies" was issued following the consultation meeting which was held from 23-26 October 2001 in Beijing, China. It was jointly organized by FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Gender and Development Programme and China Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School.
Rural women in Asia make significant contributions to the agriculture sector, but their access to information and communication technology and current techniques of production still needs to be improved. Poverty is not just economic, an information poverty also reinforces marginalisation. Key factors affecting the progress of rural women are their high representation among the illiterate, their poor education, their lack of timely and adequate access to modern technologies, and their insufficient skills. The gender-differentiated access to resources is rooted in gender biases embedded in society. These biases could be countered through information dissemination. A potential threat exists, however, that with exponential growth in information related to economic and social participation and in the technologies that disseminate information at high speed, the educational divide (formal and informal) could be further exaggerated among rural women. Therefore, it is important that the educational resources in the region be mobilised to eliminate the inequity suffered by rural women in their access to education and information.
The Asian region has yet to fully utilise its immense potential of the distance learning (DL) approach for developing human resources for agriculture and rural development, particularly among rural women. Hence, the consultation examined regional distance learning strategies and identified resources to mobilise and application approaches in distance-learning programmes for the advancement of rural women.
Social and physical distances isolate rural women and girls and impair their economic and social advancement. The consultation explored regional opportunities and constraints to reduce rural women and girls' isolation and to accelerate their advancement through innovative educational programmes. To this end, the consultation sought to identify means and measures to apply regional distance learning resources and innovative educational programmes. A greater availability of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) holds a potential to accelerate rural women's access to learning. Appropriate ICTs would facilitate national efforts to achieve faster and timelier educational delivery and to improve the learning process. The consultation reviewed application of ICTs as tools to provide distance education that will reduce the knowledge and information gap of rural women and girls. However, it should be emphasised that ICTs are only tools for transferring information; the appropriate knowledge is the fundamental concern.
The priority, then, is on the quality and relevance of educational resources and learning achievement among rural clients, particularly rural women and girls. Hence, the emphasis is placed on gender equality in rural human resource development using the distance education programmes. Within this context, the consultation aimed at identifying regional resources and strategies to meet the learning needs of rural women and girls.
The consultation included participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The consultation concurred that there is a need for establishing constructive working partnerships between agriculture university systems in the Asia and Pacific region. The participants expressed a need for strengthening the network in the region, initially among the institutions that participated in the consultation but with a decentralized modality and they developed an outline for regional project for distance learning for rural women.
For more information contact: Revathi.Balakrishnan@fao.org
