RIGHTS: UNIFEM Warns of Digital Divide Between Sexes

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2000 (IPS) - Noeleen Heyzer, head of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), warns that information and communications technologies (ICTs) – unless equally shared – could create a sharp division between men and women.

The existing digital divide between rich and poor nations, she points out, could be made worse by a digital divide between sexes.

To illustrate her point, Heyzer recounts a story from Guyana, where information technology changed a remote rural community of about 2,000 inhabitants who did not even have telephones – until two years ago.

The women of the village had just revived the ancient art of hand- weaving large hammocks when Guyana Telephone and Telegraph installed an innovative satellite system. The company gave the Weavers Society 12,000 dollars worth of computer equipment, free access to the information superhighway, and also paid to have a young member trained in the use of Internet facilities.

With the subsequent creation of a website, the group last year sold 17 hammocks worldwide for about 1,000 dollars each, generating new wealth, and connectivity for the community.

When the male community leaders discovered the lucrative venture, according to the story which first appeared in the New York Times, they wrested leadership of the project from the hands of the women.

As a result, the Internet specialist resigned. One disappointed weaver commented: “We women do most of the work, and the men get rewarded.”

Heyzer said the project, and the potential wealth and connectedness that it could create, was destroyed by “gender dynamics”.

Addressing a meeting of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) last week, Heyzer said that ICTs have enormous potential in several areas: to link remote communities to global markets, to make telemedicine and telework available to communities in need, to democratise decision-making, and to support distance learning.

“But if the global community and national level policy makers are not pro-active about ensuring that the benefits of ICTs are equally available to and shaped by women and men, we will fail to reap the full potential of these powerful tools,” she warned.

She admitted that the digital divide not only threatens inequities between rich and poor but also between those with and without advanced education. “But, in the absence of concrete strategies, we also face the danger of a digital divide between the sexes,” she argued.

UNIFEM has already harnessed the power of ICTs by using video conferencing, electronic working groups, and radio campaigns to bring the UN system, together with governments and civil society, to create concerted action on violence against women.

Louise Frechette, the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, told ECOSOC last week that bringing the benefits of ICTs to the developing world is a formidable task because it faces major difficulties in three key areas: connectivity, capacity and content.

Firstly, information technology is empowering only when it is easily and cheaply accessible, she said. Secondly, capacity is not just the availability of computers to connect to the Internet, but also the technological skills needed to use the facilities and service them.

And thirdly, the majority of hosts are located in the developed world and 80 percent of the material currently on the Internet is in English, a language that 75 percent of the world’s people do not speak, Frechette said.

Unless the international community acts urgently on all these fronts, she said, the potential of the technological revolution for advancing socio-economic development will not be realised. “Bridging the digital divide will require global leadership and a major commitment of resources,” she noted.

According to a report released by a high-level group of UN technology experts last week, there are 270 million Internet users in a world population of about six billion, accounting for only less than five percent of the world.

Of the 270 million, about 90 percent are Internet users in the developed world.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn told delegates last week that rich nations invest about 130 dollars per capita on information structure compared with nine dollars per capita by sub- Saharan Africa. “This tells us that the gap exists,” Wolfensohn said, “The challenge is not whether we should address it, but why and how?”

“Some have raised the question of bread versus computers. We believe you want both,” he added.

Chuck Lankester, organiser of the UN panel of technology experts, told reporters that the panel has called for the establishment of a post of Chief Information Officer and the creation of a forward- looking strategic plan of action on information technology for development.

Additionally, the 17-member panel of experts, drawn from government, business and civil society, has called for an international expert task force and also a contribution of about 500 million dollars to finance progress.

Lankester said he was very confident that donor contributions would be matched dollar for dollar by business and foundations.

Should there be any additional aid, he said, this could be matched by business funds and contributions from developing nations. This alone, he said, could generate some 2 billion dollars that could be mobilised to meet the goals of technology-based development.

Speaking on behalf of the 133 developing countries of the Group of 77, Chief Ebitimi Banigo, Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, called for the establishment of a Trust Fund, whose resources would come from the private sector, international financial institutions and global business associations.

“It is indeed in the interest of humanity to ensure that no one part is left behind in the unfolding revolution in the field of information and communications technologies,” he added.