Jan - thanks for your very thought provoking points around gender not being the only lense we should look through but that we need to challenge other power dynamics and places of privilege. And the speech by Merlie B. Mendoza I will upload to our resources section. best, Jenny [quote="janbmgo"] ..also I recommend this speech on equitable governance and people empowerment, delivered by Merlie B. Mendoza, CARITAS Manila, Philippines, at SESSION 3: SUSTAINING DEVELOPMENT AND WITHSTANDING CRISES, at Informal Interactive Hearings of the UN General Assembly with Non-governmental organizations, Civil society organizations and the Private sector [/quote]

Hullo everybody, Thanks for the inputs and the very interesting and thought-provoking points. Hannah, I will definitely read the article by Helen McQuillan. This does point to the huge value in writing about the work that we do. It is important for local content, learnings, experiences and realities to be produced by people involved at the community level. Hence the importance of a discussion such as this. You all point towards capacity building being more than just about the technology. When we link livelihoods to ICTs, it cannot just be about the technology but rather rooted in the society and context and linked to improving conditions. Tehcnology is political and gendered in itself and we need to reflect this when talking about ICT for development. This question 6 could take a week to discuss! We welcome further input on experiencs, suggestions, ideas, lessons learned etc Best, Jenny [quote="hannahb"] Building capacity for innovation What great suggestions, so nice to have the benefit of all your experience and analysis! I don't have anything to add on how capacity building can be made more effective for women. I have recently been thinking again about how to plan ICT4D projects and thinking that capacity building is a very important element sometimes overshadowed by issues of infrastructure and access, and what's more with the potential to turn a programme from service delivery into real empowerment, social change and innovation. ANd for this to happen, I think that capacity building needs to include, but also go beyond training people to use a technology or system. Of course, what it does depends on the ICT tools, system and purpose, but one example is to link capacity building with local (women's) organisations, for maintenance and management of the ICT system as well as use. Enabling and supporting women to manage the system, use their creativity and local knowledge to solve problems and issues (with technical training or support) may build capacity for innovation and allow new ideas to emerge, especially now that mobile ICTs are so much more accessible without outside help. In the latest Community Informatics journal there is an article by Helen McQuillan following research on women in an ICT project in Ireland. She found that, while men dominate in the technology expert group, by focusing on other types of expertise and capcity, women could contribute fully to managing and maintaining the system. After all, ICT is social as well as technical. She says: "By applying a feminist lens to community informatics we can start to develop positive action programmes, which support women's roles as innovators and active change agents and challenge existing knowledge paradigms and power hierarchies." http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/506/462 Hannah [/quote]

Hello, Welcome to the Forum's closing question; you may still go back to previous questions and join the discussions. Previous questions have explored the multiple barriers to rural women's uptake of ICTs in agricultural production. Here we seek to explore what capacity building would benefit women and how this can be effectively implemented in rural contexts. Development processes acknowledge that introducing ICT tools to projects is not enough. What are the other elements that ensure success and what are the specific needs that women have that will encourage uptake and ensure longevity of use? Thanks for your participation! Jennifer Forum Moderator

Greetings, Thank you Oumy for sharing the smart toolkit for evaluating Information Products and Services. It is good to see that there are tools freely available for M&E given the cost (as you pointed out) of resources for thorough and meaningful evaluation. We do need to value evaluation enough to budget for this in our projects. Sophia your point of women being hardest hit by the current economic crisis is important to acknowledge. I found the following article very good: "How women are being impacted by the crisis - 10 things you should know" http://tinyurl.com/36wx4vm I also like your point about providing evidence of the sucess of ICT, gender and rural livelihoods to governments and donors and connecting this to evidence that it could assist in achieving the MDGs. I guess we often think about our work in isolation and should make sure that we are connecting to existing platforms and protocols which we need to influence. Best, Jenny

Hi Jan, Thank you for your input and you make some valid points. I agree that we need to have a number of gender indicators given that gender issues are cross-cutting. There are also many linkages in impact such as women being able to use ICTs to access information on cost-effective ways of removing pests from crops, means better crops, more household income and e.g. money to send girls to school etc. ICT4D projects do need to build in M&E from the outset and include relevant gender indicators. the involvement of communities, service-providers etc is critical in this regard. Most of my experience with evaluation has been GEM - http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/?q=methodology And some interesting evidence in the form of digital stories from practitioners people may find useful - http://www.genderevaluation.net/mygem/videos We are soon to produce a manual which has one thematic guide on GEM for rural ICT4D projects. GEM has been used by a number of organisations undertaking rural ICT4D projects, and most of them designed their evaluations to focus on addressing needs that went beyond issues of availability of ICTs to: * whether or not women are in a position to actually reap the benefits of ICTs; * how society's perceptions of women's roles can change; * how women's own perceptions of themselves (self-esteem) and their roles in society can change; * determine the extent of women's awareness of ICTs, and their comfort and use of ICTs; * how gender issues and unequal power dynamics between men and women may have been further exacerbated or may have been reduced through the development intervention. Perhaps others have examples of M&E for their projects? Warm regards, Jenny

A crucial part of any successful development project is thorough and rigorous monitoring and evaluation. Evidence is crucial to donors' faith and continued support of projects. In a world where funding resources are scarce and competition fierce, how do we collect evidence that is useful and convincing? What do donors want to know and how should evidence be presented that will ensure the survival of projects? When gathering data, how do we do this while ensuring the confidence and consent of communities? Jennifer, Forum Moderator

Gender is understood as being the relations between men and women, which is not determined biologically but is constructed socially. It plays a huge role in societies "and often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution". Factors such as culture, location, age and belief systems all impact on the way women and men access privilege and position. This question explores quite practically, the steps we can take in ensuring that women are empowered in ICT4D projects and that both men and women will benefit. Jennifer Forum Moderator

Existing power relations in society determine who enjoys the benefits from ICTs, which means that these technologies are not gender neutral. There are an array of tools and technologies available to some but not to all. Reliable infrastructure is needed in order to use these tools. This question seeks to explore what is needed to use ICTs effectively, what are the barriers to using ICTs and which tools are being used by women and why, particularly in rural and agricultural contexts. What are the barriers which constrain and limit rural women's ability to harness new technologies in their lives and how can projects and programmes employ relevant ICTs to improve rural livelihoods? Jennifer Forum Moderator

Hello, Practitioners generally acknowledge that there is a danger in a "one size fits all" approach to development. An understanding of local realities, cultures and conditions enables development projects to flourish and benefit communities and implementers. This question seeks to hear and discuss experiences that worked and those that did not work where women were empowered to use ICTs in agricultural production and to improve their status in communities. Jennifer Forum Moderator

Hullo everyone, There is a wealth of video interviews, news stories and articles on the GenARDIS website in French and English - http://genardis.apcwomen.org/en GenARDIS (Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society) is a Small Grants Fund created to address Gender Issues in Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific countries. There have been 3 rounds of the grants and a total of 34 organisations have implemented projects using the grants. Best, Jenny