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

Jennifer is right to point out that "Existing power relations in society determine who enjoys the benefits from ICTs, which means that these technologies are not gender neutral." As I mentioned in my last post, applyng a gender analysis or lens to our work on ICT is about making sure that we recognise and analyse these power relations, and the effect they have on people's access to communication tools and media, to inform our decision making and understand/ direct our potential impact. THis means that there are no 'off-the-peg' answers to this question. The fact that ICTs are not gender neutral does not mean that we can make assumptions aboiut which ICT will be best for women. But by applying good participatory assessment and power analysis tools to ICTs and existing communciation patterns it will be possible to understand the types of barriers, constraints and opportunities (poor) women face in accessing and using ICTs. For example, in many places we have found that women do not control household income, meaning that access to mobile phones is limited. Even where they have access to the phone, they do not have control over top up and use of credit. In other places, as mentioned in my last post, women had access to radios in their household but did not control the listening choices - neither timing nor tuning - so rarely accessed programmes designed for and targeted at women. When working on telecentre type projects, I designed participatory tools to pick up on some of these issues. For example, getting groups of women and men to rank different communication tools by accessibility, affordability, appropriateness etc can generate good discussion about the differences and uncover some of these underlying power dynamics which will have such an impact on how a project plays out, and who benefits. I would be happy to share them, though they are about 8 years old now so may need updating! Hannah

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Question 1- Opened 5th July 1. What is the importance of considering gender issues when working in ICT4D rural and agricultural projects and programmes? What are the key gender issues? [/quote] Hi there, I think we all realise that it is absolutely essential to consider gender dynamics and issues when planning and implementing programmes and projects. ICT relates to information and communication, and it is so important to know who needs what information, and how they might be able to access it. For example, if it is a project trying to disseminate information, it is important to understand both the gender dynamics of the potential users of that information (how many are men/ women and do they have different access and control issues?). And if a programme is about increasing communication capacity - people's voice and their ability to find and demand relevant information to support their wellbeing and livelihoods - then it will be important to understand the different types of services and capacity that women and men require. And on the other hand, it is always very important to find out who has access and skills to make use of what type of ICT tools and media. For example, in the Reflect ICT project in Uganda e discovered that while most households had radio sets, actually it was the men who controlled when it was switched on and what was listened to. Women relied on face to face communication for their health and livelihood information, whether neighbours or health workers. It is so important to understand gender dimensions of the opportunities and constraints to accessing different types of media, especially considering the important role that women play in food security and production. However, I would say that while it is important to have an idea of the different gender issues which can emerge or affect the way projects and programmes play out, gender issues are about dynamics - and as such are different in every case. That is why it is so important to ask questions and use methodologies to help to understand the underlying gender and power dynamics as well as specific issues which affect women or men. I expect that will be a future question in this forum!

Hello all my name is Hannah and I work as a consultant for various international development organisations. I am currently working with FAO and IFAD to support the sharing of learning around gender mainstreaming in their rural development work. It is interesting because in my experience both gender and knowledge management are issues which are fairly invisible and underlying other processes, and there is a real challenge in making the gender component of projects and processes visible - getting it reported on and shared well. My background is in participatory methodologies and communication technologies and processes. I began researching ICT for development for a masters dissertation and developed an action research project from that. The project looked at how the Reflect approach, which combines participatory tools with Freirean ideas for literacy and empowerment, could be the basis for people (especially women) to plan and set up their own telecentres to meet their specific information and communication needs in ways appropriate to their own skills and patterns of communication. Since then I have worked with different INGOs on a range of issues, including recent research and capacity building for Plan on mobile phones for development. But the realisation that people's cultures of communication are fundamental to their acceptance and use of different technologies or systems has been very influential in the way I approach all of this work.