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COMMUNICATION: Online Women Say Nations Must Meet Their ICT Needs

Miriam Kagan

WASHINGTON, Dec 3 2003 (IPS) - Countries must do more to develop information and communication technology (ICT) agendas that take gender difference into account, while the international community must work harder to include women in decision-making, according to a just-ended online forum on the role of women in ICT.

‘Talk to Her’, a month-long World Wide Web discussion of women’s role in ICT, took place prior to next week’s United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sponsored by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the forum heard from participants in the developing world, who identified economic factors and access to technology as the main factors preventing women from getting online.

“The predominant obstacle to technology use among my peers tends to be less of intimidation by technology or their male counterparts, but more of access to the technology itself,” wrote Oreoluwa Somolu, one of about 150 women and men from some 45 countries who took part.

“I think one of the biggest challenges for many young women is grappling with the language of ICT for development policy processes. Many times, policy statements are written (and discussions conducted) using specialised terms which most people would only learn in university,” added Terri Willard of the IISD.

“Given that young women are still underrepresented in universities in many countries, there are simply fewer young women with the vocabulary to feel comfortable and confident in these dialogues,” she added.

‘Talk to Her’, where participants dialogued by sending messages on a weekly topic chosen by a moderator, also revealed that countries span a very wide spectrum of achievement in terms of creating gender-sensitive policies and providing their female citizens with an opportunity to learn about and participate in ICT.

Canada was lauded by several participants for its effort to achieve universal access.

Canadian Nicole Dobison wrote that in her country, ”this (ICT) technology is introduced and taught to kids in school à and made available throughout university campuses (which) has greatly helped to bring young women online”.

Some developing countries were also praised.

Indian participant Sonia Prahbu lauded her government’s Internet strategy and its efforts to empower low-caste village women by helping them to get online access so they could, “net information on everything from grain prices and cataract operations to the Iraq war, widening their horizons and wining them peer and social respect”.

On the other hand, several Nigerian participants decried their government’s lack of strategies to deal with the advent of online information.

“The Nigerian government, amongst other things, is yet to completely understand the need to implement a suitable strategy on ICT. It is very difficult being heard as a young person in my country; it is even more difficult being heard as a woman,” wrote Temitayo Etomi.

Participants agreed that governments must do more to develop programmes that appeal to women and help them to understand the relevance and benefit of technologies to their every-day lives.

Safaa Moussa argued that, “e- (electronic) awareness should not only be restricted to computer usage training but should be also extended to the effectiveness and benefits brought about by using ICT for productive projects”.

Rania El Keiy described a project in India that has “tailored the content of the (computer literary) course to suit non-career women, housewives and elderly women”.

According to Keiy, authorities understood that women might need different skills and have different goals when using information technology, and so developed a programme to suit the needs of that particular population, rather than a ”one-size-fits-all” agenda that could leave underprivileged populations behind.

Nigerian participant Onuinye Ndubuisi Belinda suggested, “using the community-based initiative (CBI). This strategy involves working with communities, establishing CBI learning centres through committees elected by the people”.

According to Belinda, “when women are sensitised, mobilised and conscientised, they will be ready and eager to probe deeper and learn more”.

At the international level, the WSIS in particular, participants suggested changing the agenda to include topics that are of particular interest to women.

The WSIS will bring together heads of state, business and industry leaders, media and civil society to discuss the burgeoning information society.

“The problem with the WSIS à is that too much focus is put on topics like security or intellectual property rights. Other topics à or other social issues are on the other hand barely discussed,” wrote Franziska Seel, who has been involved in the WSIS process in Germany since the beginning of the year.

“I think a step forward would be to broaden the topics discussed in ICT policy making,” she added.

Added Belinda, “human development is impossible without gender equality. As long as women are excluded from the development process, development will remain lopsided and weak”.

The online discussion ended happily, with an announcement that funds had been secured for a participant from India who had organised WSIS youth activities in her homeland, to fly to Geneva for next week’s conference.

(NOTE: The version of this story moved earlier today incorrectly named the sponsor of the forum. It has been corrected in paragraph 3.)