In Barangay Decabobo, Coron, Palawan, Philippines, while husbands are busy farming or fishing, plain housewives gathered themselves and discussed how to augment their family income. The result was the formation of a duly registered group which teaches them how to create handicrafts. The same group pays the women their products. The same group markets these products to tourist shops in town center. Their objective was met. ICT through mobile phone use linked these women facilitating them to address their concerns. ICT use still come handy if there are meetings called, updates to members and new information disseminated. 

Despite issues on access to ICTs, participation in the process of science and technology development, and “…the need for dissemination of information on appropriate production techniques and technologies identified by organizations such as International Women’s Tribune Center (IWTC), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) as a foremost concern…” (Huyer & Carr, 2002, p. 86), I believe that ICT can empower women in producer organizations.   

A growing documentation of businesswomen in developing countries using ICTs to improve the efficiency of their businesses and reach distant markets and of women’s businesses being set up using ICTs has been reported.  Examples of these organizations that endeavor to find innovative methods of reaching grassroots women producers with information which will assist them in increasing productivity of their labor on a sustainable basis are as follows (Huyer & Carr, 2002):

SEWA, India (Self Employed Women’s Association) — utilized ICTs to help women voice their opinions and advocate for policy changes; SEWA is a trade union registered in 1972. It is an organization of poor, self-employed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labor or small businesses.

http://www.sewa.org (SEWA, India)

IDRC, Canada (International Development Research Centre) — rural telecenters; IDRC is a Canadian Crown corporation established in 1970 that endeavours to help developing countries use science and technology to find solutions to local problems.

http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Pages/default.aspx (IDRC, Canada)
 

IWTC, International Women’s Tribune Center — information modules for rural micro-entrepreneurs; IWTC is widely recognized for its pioneering work and innovative approaches in the information and communications arena. It was one of the first to develop skill-sharing opportunities for women in the Global South with the new information technologies; one of the first to develop systems to support the growth of networks and networking.

http://www.iwtc.org (IWTC)

WIEGO, (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) —support to ICTs within export marketing strategies of grassroots women; Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global action-research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy.

http://www.iwtc.org/ (WIEGO)

Considering all factors equal in capacitating and providing access to ICT, women and small holders will certainly be empowered. Let us take the example of the Bangladeshi women who were first organized as savings and loans groups  using the Grameen's Bank model. (We did the same in the GoP-EU funded agricultral project under the Department of Agriculture, with the different barangays of the 5 Cordillera Province of the Philippines at a time when ICT was limited to basic IECs (information, education and communication) and it worked. At this time several of these groups metamorphosed into bigger groups using cell phones and to some who can afford, laptops or PCs to do nusiness, etc).

Anyway, back to the recent Bangladesh experience, the Agriculture and Rural  Development Department in the World Bank reports that: "Perhaps the best known shared-use model  is the Village Phone model first launched in Bangladesh, wherein micro-loans enable women in poor villages to purchase a mobile phone and re-sell phone service at per-call rates to their neighbors. The increasing affordability of mobile handsets and pre-paid sevice, combined with innovations such as multi-account mobile phones, are permitting greater local innovation in sharing phone service among those who cannot afford their own phone. Technical innovations such as cell phone signal amplifiers are extending the range of mobile services, and many telecommunication providers  are extenending communicationss infrastructure further into rural areas to respond to new market opportunities."

Considering the history of what gave birth to  these womens' groups of Bangladesh and tracking how they evolved, I perceive it to be one great example of women empowerment. Before, they labored to eek out a living through micro-financing. Now they are able to sell and phone services at that! I cannot help getting excited about it because they represent a real and live example of women who did not allow themselves to stay within  the vicious cycle of poverty, believing that is their lot in life. Instead, they took control of the situation, shifted their paradigms and took the courage to make a choice - using, at this time,   one of their avenues of growth - ICT. They took slow but sure steps in chartering their progress. To me this is the kind of empowerment that will last a lifetime. I am sure this  has spill over effects on all aspects of their lives aside from improving their economic status.

It is important to note that the activities of these women, i.e. using the village phone model, have somehow impacted technical innovations motivating telecommunication providers to come up with innovations that  responds to the growing needs of the new market.

Thank you Alice. For many the Grameen phone ladies are a very well known case. However, what about this work in the Cordillera Province of the Philippines? Would you tell us more about how this was a case where ICT empowered the women in local POs?

The now defunct Central Cordillera Agricultural Programme (CECAP), a special project of the Department of Agriculture, jointly funded by the Government of the Philippines and the European Union, operated in the 5 provinces of the Coridllera in 342 barangays which were in the hinterlands/uplands. The major components of the programe were: agriculture, instituional development, rural finace, infratsurcture, and marketing. The project areas were the poorest barangays which are accessible only by four wheel drives, motorcycles, or by foot. Most did not have electricity. The programme fielded extension workers in every component who work as a team. One area that these field workers concetrated on is organizing  women who wanted to join the Savings and Loans Association (SLA). SLA's were limited to 5 to 6 members for manageability. The SLAs formed  underwent training on policies and rules, simple accounting, livelihood seminars of their choice, etc. Learning modules were done through the use of flip charts written/painted in cloth for longer use and  when wet it was dried (weather condtions in the area is mostly wet season). Television sets were provided with learning devices. In cases where there was no electricity, the Programme provided portable generators. A two-way radio system was also set at the field offices, zone offices, and PMO which were found in strategic centers in the provinces. These radios were made available on a 24-hour basis,  for the use of the SLas and other program associations. These were utilized for example to monitor prices in marketing centers or to ask other information relevant to their group's activities. Sometimes, it is used for emergencies. As signals for cellphone use started to become more accesible, some members of the SLAs who had promising livelihood projects invested on acquiring a cellphone through their loan. Or those  who had children abroad acquired cellphones and started to use it for economic activites as well for other personal needs. Even with the advent of cellphones at that time, the two-way radio system was maintained until the program ended since its signal was more stabe/reliable than the signals form globe or smart. when it rains, which is often, the signals get lost.

Most of these SLAs connected to cooperatives who have capacitated themselves by investing on computers and use of sofware for their operations. They were assisted by the Programme through training/seminars on the use and maintenance of computers, how to automate their accounting system etc. They were also brought on study tours to expose them to their lowland and at times urban counterparts. Now there are women groups who on their own formed themselves, (usually women in the neighborhood)who adopted the SLA model and rely so much on the cellphone for their activities like reminding the members of their dues and other collections.

Until now the cooperatives whose members came from SLAs and other asosciations formed through the Programme intervention schemes are growing and they now have acces to the internet to improve their transactions.

The women in these remote barangays of the cordilleras are now better equipped to help their husbands specially in providing for the basic needs of the family. In many ways (big or small), ICT albeit in its traditional form contributed to the improvement of these women's families

Women's Economic Empowerment

These images showcase women in action and tell the story of women's economic empowerment within the region through building their livelihood and in reducing their economic insecurity.

http://www.adb.org/news/photo-essay/womens-economic-empowerment

Women Entrepreneurs Help Develop Pacific Private Sector

New legislation and regulations being introduced in the Pacific region are helping women entrepreneurs overcome barriers to setting up businesses and accessing credit. An article in the most recent Pacific Economic Monitor explores how women in the Pacific are helping shape the private sector.

http://www.adb.org/news/photo-essay/women-entrepreneurs-help-develop-pac...

Transforming Lives

Asian Development Bank's Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Project in the remote areas of Nepal is transforming lives of women by tackling different facets of women's unequal legal, social and economic status.

http://www.adb.org/news/photo-essay/transforming-lives

Cambodia: Women Development Centers

Earning more money - learning a skill - more time with their families. ADB is supporting Cambodian women's progress in all facets of their lives.

To answer the main question, it does both but I would like to focus on the positive side, the empowerment.  In last year's World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2011 (WTISD), the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) of the Philippines shared a success story on a digital literacy campaign for women.  According to the report, it is an ongoing crusade to train and equip 10,000 Filipino women from the poor and marginalized communities with basic ICT skils and proficiencies specifically on functional digital literacy.  The campaign allows Filipino women to explore and reach their highest potential as women in the digital information age.  Included in this project is the Basic and Customized Internet Literacy Course for Rural Women, which trains women in the rural communities on the use, application, and services of ICT as a vehicle for improving their social and economic conditions.

Harv

I agree with Sir Pierre that ICT marginalizes women and small holders in producer organizations. According to NAM S&T Centre’s publication “market economy trends in the new era of globalization widened the gap between education and technology opportunities for men and women.”  However, women are rich human capital which when given the right intervention can help boosts economic activities using ICT. http://www.namstct.org/Publication_Pdf/Info_Brochure_Empowerment_Women_10.pdf

Below is a success story of women using CELAC (Collecting & Exchange of Local Agricultural Content) in Uganda lifted from http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict_stories/themes/e-rural.html

Success Strategy: It is a common trend today within government and the farming community that in

order to realize increasing and better farm outputs, one needs to adopt use of modern farming methods. True as it may sound, its practicality among the grassroot farming communities is doubtable.

This is because its adoption comes along with the need to use modern farm inputs like hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and machinery which these farmers cannot afford. In Uganda, more than 70% of the farming community is composed of the women folk. It is they that shoulder the burden of fending for their often polygamous and extended families while the men collect, apportion and spend the incomes derived. It is on this foundation that the CELAC Project was laid. The project targets improving particularly the rural women farmers’ livelihoods and food security through engaging the government and civil society (women farmers inclusive) into a culture of knowledge sharing and information management of local content using ICT methods that include weekly SMS; the annual Knowledge Fair; radio and informational brochures and newsletters; through radio cassette and DVDs and the project website.

Partners: BROSDI, Hivos, FICOM (Farmers information Communication Management), ICTARD (Information Communication and Technologies for Africa Rural Development), Linux Solutions, VEDCO (Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns), World Vision, NAADS (National Agricultural Advisory Services)

The education is the added value for women using ICT devices in interacting with other members of the same POs or in seeking information necessary for its daily activity of farming. As it has been proved that ICT devices save time and money, women of developing countries need mostly enough time to deal with farming activities and to accomplish their daily domestic works, and so, if ICT tools bring welfare to the men, it allow happiness to the women by sharing essential information and improving  their own production and increasing in fine their income drawn by the best management of its producer organizations due to the optimization of ICT applications.

The problem is not to choose which ICT devices to adopt but to choose which content could circulate frequently in ICT devices of the producer organizations belonging to the smallholders and other supposed marginalized group like women. In fact a smallholder should send a message to another networked meanwhile, the education deficit or the reluctance should be contraproductive in the progress of the producer organization. By the way, a smallholder who asks another networked  to lend him some seeds, medicines or fertilizers could  get a silence  and otherwise receives a false response or a noise -multiple plausible responses instead of selecting only one optimal solution- , consequently in the hyperconnected world where should be uncontrolled means of e-communication  inside or outside  the producer organization, smallholders  and women are disoriented in the plethora of ICT devices  and do not know how to prioritize among listening the radio broadcasting farming information,  receiving and sending messages through ICT’s producer organizations and  understanding the messages submitted to or by close friends  or relatives via its own mobile phones. subsequently, ICT devices should turn up in wasting time and money for the reason that, those messages brought through ICT devices are sometimes irrelevant in disfavor of smallholders, as well as women.

Nowadays, the facility of acquiring ICT devices and the level of education are the facts which mostly marginalize in e-communications.  Indeed, a woman well educated and who use with rightness the ICT tools in the process of producer organization is never marginalized. Furthermore, a competitive producer organization does not marginalize women, moreover, the positive discrimination is the new concept in vogue in favor of supporting women in many cases.

The viable producer organizations in farming are those which are involved in the optimization of their farming activities like Mutoyi producer organization of Burundi,  which  is well known in Burundi country in empowering  smallholders and women by integrating them in the production process. I think that Mutoyi centre is the best structured producer organization of Burundi, it is supported by a non governmental organization from Italia and  has implemented its proper system of communication through modern ICT devices and a specific system of accounting for monitoring the value chain of its production, transportation, transformation, commercialization in the main cities of Burundi and payment of returns to the smallholders and women who have seen their way of living rising since the installation in MutoyI , a countryside of Bugendana commune, in  Gitega province with a label of high quality named “Mutoyi products”  and  remains the reference in the production process and in bringing welfare to the peasants and women around Mutoyi centre where the profits generated by Mutoyi products have been partially used to build basic infrastructures like hospital and primary schools since many years ago.

When you visit a shop of Mutoyi producer organization in Bujumbura city, you should believe that the famous Mutoyi centre belongs surely to a gender statute because you cross more women than men working inside at the key posts using ICT devices. Undeniably, women are not marginalized because Mutoyi producer organization is built on a skill of competitiveness and efficiency with the goal of increasing the added value of its products by improving its value chain of development since the step of production, transformation, transportation until the step of commercialization with the same label of brightness in agribusiness.

It is worth mentioning that I did publish many comments related to the content which should be mostly relevant for farmers like the post entitled ‘ICT not to waste time but for taking right decision’ available on the link below:http://www.e-agriculture.org/.../what-most-effective-wa..-.e-agriculture.org/.../what-most-effective-wa..

Prof Antoine KANTIZA, Master Uticef,-

The education is the added value for women using ICT devices in interacting with other members of the same POs or in seeking information necessary for its daily activity of farming. As it has been proved that ICT devices save time and money, women of developing countries need mostly enough time to deal with farming activities and to accomplish their daily domestic works, and so, if ICT tools bring welfare to the men, it allow happiness to the women by sharing essential information and improving  their own production and increasing in fine their income drawn by the best management of its producer organizations due to the optimization of ICT applications.

The problem is not to choose which ICT devices to adopt but to choose which content could circulate frequently in ICT devices of the producer organizations belonging to the smallholders and other supposed marginalized group like women. In fact a smallholder should send a message to another networked meanwhile, the education deficit or the reluctance should be contraproductive in the progress of the producer organization. By the way, a smallholder who asks another networked  to lend him some seeds, medicines or fertilizers could  get a silence  and otherwise receives a false response or a noise -multiple plausible responses instead of selecting only one optimal solution- , consequently in the hyperconnected world where should be uncontrolled means of e-communication  inside or outside  the producer organization, smallholders  and women are disoriented in the plethora of ICT devices  and do not know how to prioritize among listening the radio broadcasting farming information,  receiving and sending messages through ICT’s producer organizations and  understanding the messages submitted to or by close friends  or relatives via its own mobile phones. subsequently, ICT devices should turn up in wasting time and money for the reason that, those messages brought through ICT devices are sometimes irrelevant in disfavor of smallholders, as well as women.

Nowadays, the facility of acquiring ICT devices and the level of education are the facts which mostly marginalize in e-communications.  Indeed, a woman well educated and who use with rightness the ICT tools in the process of producer organization is never marginalized. Furthermore, a competitive producer organization does not marginalize women, moreover, the positive discrimination is the new concept in vogue in favor of supporting women in many cases.

The viable producer organizations in farming are those which are involved in the optimization of their farming activities like Mutoyi producer organization of Burundi,  which  is well known in Burundi country in empowering  smallholders and women by integrating them in the production process. I think that Mutoyi centre is the best structured producer organization of Burundi, it is supported by a non governmental organization from Italia and  has implemented its proper system of communication through modern ICT devices and a specific system of accounting for monitoring the value chain of its production, transportation, transformation, commercialization in the main cities of Burundi and payment of returns to the smallholders and women who have seen their way of living rising since the installation in MutoyI , a countryside of Bugendana commune, in  Gitega province with a label of high quality named “Mutoyi products”  and  remains the reference in the production process and in bringing welfare to the peasants and women around Mutoyi centre where the profits generated by Mutoyi products have been partially used to build basic infrastructures like hospital and primary schools since many years ago.

When you visit a shop of Mutoyi producer organization in Bujumbura city, you should believe that the famous Mutoyi centre belongs surely to a gender statute because you cross more women than men working inside at the key posts using ICT devices. Undeniably, women are not marginalized because Mutoyi producer organization is built on a skill of competitiveness and efficiency with the goal of increasing the added value of its products by improving its value chain of development since the step of production, transformation, transportation until the step of commercialization with the same label of brightness in agribusiness.

It is worth mentioning that I did publish many comments related to the content which should be mostly relevant for farmers like the post entitled ‘ICT not to waste time but for taking right decision’ available on the link below:http://www.e-agriculture.org/.../what-most-effective-wa..-.e-agriculture.org/.../what-most-effective-wa..

Prof Antoine KANTIZA, Master Uticef,-