Question3

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

Thank you Jennifer, I personally think that the community radio is very perfect for rural women and so is the mobile phone which is handy easily accessible. However, experience and constant interaction with these rural women has shown that the usage of the mobile phone is still limited to only verbal communication. This is so because their skills levels are still low and so they cannot use the phones maximumly for texting (SMSing), searching for market information and for carrying out transactions/payments using the new mobile transfers that have been branded by telecommunication companies as "mobile Money" "m-sente" "Zap" and M-pesa. Also the issue of language plays a big role in determining which ICT works best. Still community radio and mobile phones cut across literacy levels in terms of listening to information. When it comes to writing, many women can hardly write in their 'Mother tongues'. Therefore, as we brainstorm about what ICTs work best for rural communities, we should not eliminate face-to-face meetings and listenership clubs especially in rural communities. Maureen Agena Uganda

Maureen has raised very valid points about the social cultural constraints. I would like to share some observations on the issue based on our research 1. Language: Generally the content is available in English and rural women are not familiar with English. 2. Problems during the Training: Training is one of the most important components while introducing ICTs into the rural setting. The duration of the training should be sufficient; the language of the training should be suited to the competency level of the user group. It is found that male because of their better exposure to new technologies such as mobile and in some cases computers also, are more comfortable in understanding the functioning of ICTs. More over as they are better educated and better skilled as far as language is concerned it is easier for them to grasp whatever is explained during the sessions. Another advantage with men is that they can learn with fellow men where as women do not have any such chance and training is the only place where they do have a chance to learn the technology. Hence training session should be well planned and be very simple, supported by visuals wherever is necessary. One to one attentions should be paid to women. Venue of the training is also important. Generally rural women are not able to travel alone hence either training venue should be near their villages or proper transportation facilities should be provided. 3. Repair and Maintenance: Provisions of repair and Maintenance facilities are must for women. It has been observed in our research that Simputers (An indigenously developed Simple Computers) distributed to male and female heads of the village rural self governance units, went out of order after a few days/months and because no repair and maintenance facilities were available at the village level women were unable to get it repaired. The Simputers owned by women were frequently out of order as they were not so well trained in using them as their male counter parts were.

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 3 will open on 8th July 3.What are some of the challenges that people/projects faced that looked at empowering women in ICT in relation to rural livelihoods? What are some of the solutions? [/quote] Good Question Lisa. I am eagerly waiting to read what the rest of the participants have to say about this. The biggest challenge is the Negative cultural and societal beliefs that "Technology is for men". In a typical rural set-up, any electronic device is controlled and managed by the men in this case the Male Gender. Right from Access, usage, application etc. With this kind of mindset, women are totally ignorant about the role ICTs can play in improving their livelihoods. Then, the mode in which implementers of projects in rural areas present ICTs to rural communities scares Women away. They think that ICTs are limited to only computers and Internet. The women do not look at mobile phones, radios and or public address systems as ICTs. This is because it is not made clear to them by say the trainers or implementers. The solution to this is to present ICTs to rural communities especially women in the simplest ways possible if they are to realize its importance. Given the fact that it's the male gender that dominates Technical fields, whenever ICT related projects are being implemented in rural areas, it is mainly the men who conduct the trainings and teach Women. This justifies their belief that technology is surely a male department. A simple solution to this is to involve more women in baseline surveys, trainings and facilitating ICT projects that target women in rural areas. In this way, the women will change their perception and open up to embracing ICTs. That's my opinion for now!! Maureen Agena WOUGNET

First of all I would like to thank Maureen and Anupama, they have raised very important points. This leads me to one thing; that the challenges faced in rural communities are almost similar, the only changes are the dynamics that come along with them. To add on what was highlighted... Am sharing from the experiences of the researches and GEM we conducted. 1. We found out that Lack of awareness was a major disease faced by the implementers. Like I said earlier, there was no single activity that was shared for the communities. Most of the work done went unnoticed. It was very severe for the women because most of the time they were at home and on their gardens. Most of the men engaged in informal groups where they usually engaged in lousy talks that eventually became a security concern. 2. It was very difficult to raise a sizeable number of women who would act as show cases for the rest of the women in the entire Sub Counties, for the ICT training. The training was provided to a few women who managed to visit the telecentres. It was proved though that the small number of women who attended trainings used ICTs; computers, radios to make their business adverts on mostly their agricultural produce, to improve their livelihoods. However, there is still a very big challenge as regards to access and use of especially the computers. They failed to get spaces to do all that they wanted, which led them to accessing expensive cafe's, where they could never financially sustain their expenses. 3. There is still another challenge to the ICT providers regarding outdated types of computers that have very slow processing speed. These computers are still used in the telecentres. It was very difficult for the women to hang on for the services, as most of them had other house cores to accomplish hence, they were denied the chance to use the services. 4. A number of women had to travel long distances, given the fact that every Sub County had one telecentre and they are widely covered by very huge number of villages. This complicated the mode of services delivery. It was agreed though by the telecentre manager that maybe satellite telecentres be introduced at parish level, so that the distance women have to move is reduced. However, this program is hampered by the finances for it to be implemented. I always hate long emails. Will come back later. Sarah UgaBYTES

Thanks to all of you for all your great inputs. All that was cited, language, difficulty to access training, lack of awareness, old equipment, long distance to the nearest ICT centres or the belief that ICTs are for men, are indeed the major challenges that people face. . Part of the solution could come from has already been suggested by some of you, that it literacy training and education for all, particularly for women and the girl child. Education is a key. We have found out in Niger and the DRC, that when they use their solar cellular phones, women want to be able to make calls and send texts, so they demand literacy training courses. These requests should be encouraged and fulfilled. Education, together with a higher self-esteem, paves the way to changing the belief that ICTs and progress in general are for men only. Eliane

One of the greatest challenges is age.Peoples belonging to younger age groups regardless of gender and educational differences are more likely to grasp the techniques to operate the ICT devices.Thus parents or older peoples usually depend on their children or younger relatives for operating mobile phones,computers,radio,television and land-phones.Youngers are more adept to understand the emerging technologies. I suggest the authority to consider this aspect as a solution for proper utilization of ICT in development.

Empowering women in ICT is one of the ways to bring women aboard/ abreast the information age. However the extent of how this is done and success is acheived differes from rural to urban from educated to uneducated. Even though there are many benefits, rightly said, a) Some projects seem to take out the money from the society or family unit she lives. A couple for example have a different klifestyle to single men or single women living separately. This means that their lifestyles are different. |so like most projects focussing on women empowerment, the wome has been taken sinly. if a women has a husband or children, she has to be taklen collectively. Mistakes have been commited by thinking that, a woman can work on her own in this case. No. Where this is the case, instead she should be considered as a family. 2. I have talked of literacy levels, societal roles and sanctions, economic power, education, etc all these play an important role to the successful implementation of ICT4D for women, 3. Compared to men, women have limited resources particularly in rural areas, and their power to control, determine and use resources is also limited. This means that, where for exampla COST SHARING has been insitutted, the woman automatically became left out. SOLUTIONS: ICT4D would be successful by considering the women as part of that society where she is, and this way, working out together best ways. Although not a primary focus, ICT4D projects shoulsd take into consideration awareness creation of the importance of ICTs for development regardless of sex; it must be made clear that the woman can learn and use computers much as the money, etc.

Greetings to all, I would like to define gender equality "as equal opportunities for all, Female and Male' Technology tastes sweet on the lips of everyone and ICT has been embraced by everyone that has the ability to mildly understand what it is all about. However involvement of the women in technology based projects has been minimal world over. To me, this is basically because of the attitudes and perceptions of the communities especially in Africa, "girls cannot understand science concepts. Science is too complex for women'. This has definitely affected the women and further decreased their confidence on how much they can contribute to the progress of technological projects since they view them as complex. Currently, there have been tremendous efforts to balance gender in development projects, however I see a scenario where women are WILLING to be eliminated from some projects due to lack of confidence and self belief on how much contribution they can offer in some of these technology based developmental projects. It should noted that in some cases, there isn't enough capacity in women and that sometimes, it's not about marginalization but striking a balance between competences in implementing a project and gender inclusion for the sake of it! I suggest the following; 1. Develop programs to vigorously sensitize and raise awareness among communities about the capabilities of the girl child and women as a whole in development of their community and later their nations. 2. Education of the girl child should be emphasized and not only for passing the girl child through school (to read and write) but also empowering them to realize that they possess equal or even better potential with their male counterparts in contributing to society. 3. Motivate women to get involved in ICT or any other technological based projects using female role models that can showcase or present their success stories in similar successful projects elsewhere.

Thank you for the interesting question and answers. I work on the empowerment of women farmers in Syria through participatory research in agriculture. One of the reasons men give when justifying women's absence from participatory programmes or decision-making opportunities is 'women do not have access to information, they do not know input prices, they do not know. So..how can we trust their decision? why should we collaborate with them?' This causes women's exclusion from agricultural technology development and decision-making opportunities and has strong impacts on women's empowerment and on their livelihoods and that of their households. We tried to facilitate women's access to information (also) through ICTs but we found that women had little and indirect access to ICTs. Generally, decisions about intra household expenditures are taken by the men, and technology is associated with men and not women. Therefore, technology is purchased for and owned by the men. In one case we bought a (pink!) mobile for a woman farmer but after a few weeks she did not own it any longer... 'some husbands think that mobiles or computers allow women to get easily in touch with strangers'..she said However, what I have seen in many families is that computers are becoming important for children's education - and boys' education, in particular. Fathers are willing to spend money to buy a computer even if expensive. Since women are in charge of helping children with their homeworks ...one way of getting women access to computers can be teaching them to use their computers so that they can help their children. Does anybody have similar experiences? alessandra

[quote="jennifer"] 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 [/quote] Thanks to all for the insightful postings on the topics. Women's participation at all levels is a prerequisite for social, economic, cultural development and social integration. Most of the cases the traditional values and have prevented women's participation in decision-making at community and household levels. This excludes them from decision-making structures and in some cases dalit ( untouchable) women experience double discrimination. Further, no economic value is attached to women's daily activities such as child bearing, nurturing and agricultural work. Health wise, women suffer more and are more vulnerable, for example, maternal mortality is a great threat.. Culturally they have been tuned to bear with any physical and social hardships silently and violently. Many women are victims of hostile social customs, systems and traditions. Therefore before and while developing any initiatives like ICT 4D project, we have to consider the above issues as most of the posting has already recommended. Especially we have to give greater emphasis on inclusive and integrative development. In my opinion, there should be clear linkages between ICT initiative and gender balanced Economic empowerment activities in the community

Anupama and Maureen raise some very important points in challenges regarding training. Due to social, cultural, literacy issues especially in rural areas, Many factors come into play. In a typical rural agricultural area, Women will come after 11:am when they have first gone to the gardens, prepared a meal for the children and will have to leave before 4.00 Pm again to be home in time, before the husband comes home. Literacy may also affect the quality of the training, trainers therefore need to be aware of various gender issues at play in such contexts and adapt accordingly. Janet C. Achora WOUGNET