News: Gender & ICTs, Global

GEM speaks to people, said Sarah Earl, an evaluation specialist attending a workshop to improve what’s been coined as the Gender Evaluation Methodology. More than an evaluation theory, GEM "is a development theory," commented Earl who, along with over 40 ICT practitioners from around the world, took part in a training exchange in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the end of July 2007. Read the full account on APC WNSP.

Through evaluations we can measure to what extent our work is contributing our bit, our grain of sand, in the struggle for a better world. The APC women’s programme took this premise to heart when it developed the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM). At the end of July women and men from around the world gathered in Kuala Lumpur to share their experiences with the use of GEM in particular and evaluations in general. One of the lessons learned was…

LAC-DROLET, Canada, -- “This prize will be of great help to us in building our capacity to promote the rights of women farmers through the demystification of new ICTs, and through gender advocacy,"

APCNews and GenderIT.org are building a pool of writers to contribute on a freelance basis. We are interested in working with writers from all continents. APC is a virtual network and in general most of our research and interviews are done online. Read the details and send your application before May 15, 2007.

The South Africa-based Media Monitoring Project has developed the first version of a software application which will eveluate gender-sensitivity in online media. "Media monitoring is relevant to all countries, both those with advanced and less advanced media sectors," claims project coordinator Sandra Roberts.

Another world is not possible without women who yesterday demanded for their rights at the ongoing World Social Forum in Nairobi. “We want our rights” chanted the women participating in the women’s rally organised by the Feminist Dialogue Coordinating Group. Over 500 people took part in the march around Kasarani Stadium.

Lamija Kosovic examines the country’s current ICTs situation in light of post-war reconstruction efforts, particularly to the need to integrate gender concerns by both the women’s national machinery and civil society organisations.

Artemisa is a Greek goddess that inspired two argentine communicators, Sanda Chaher and Sonia Santero, to promote the gender perspective in social communication. This “archetype" of the independent woman went from the Olympus to the internet through the Artemisa News portal. On November 16 and 17, Artemisa Communication organised the first national forum for journalists with a gender perspective in Argentina, during which the PAR network was formed. APCNews spoke to Sandra about this meeting where solidarity and empathy set the beat via e-mail.

How many hours a day do you spend using some kind of ICT tool? Have you ever wondered how it connects with violence against women? Can things like mobile phones, webcams, blogs and videogames transform power relations between women and men? From 25 November to 10 December, APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) invites you to take back the tech! For 16 days, this campaign engages you to think about how your use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can work to eliminate, or perpetuate violence against women (VAW).

Influencing gender and information and communication technology policies requires a lot of patience and perseverance. And above all, the conviction that it is possible to affect change. The women’s space from APC member Pangea has took on the arduous task of incorporating the topic into the Catalonian political agenda.

The book “The Gender Digital Divide in Francophone Africa, a Harsh Reality” written by Marie-Helene Mottin-Sylla has just been translated into English by APC, the Association for Progressive Communications. On this occasion, Sylvie Niombo, Deputy Coordinator of APC’s Africa-Women network, interviewed Marie-Helene on the content of the book.

GRACE is a group of 14 research teams working in 12 African countries focusing on Gender Research in Africa into ICT’s for Empowerment, supported by a research grant from the International Development Research Centre of Canada. This two-year research project will be completed in September 2007. Read the full March 2007 update.

Performing research can be challenging, especially when researchers turn to their own communities. In the GRACE project, researchers will meet to share their findings and develop their writing skills in early June in Durban, South Africa. Organised in fourteen different teams, the researchers live and work in twelve African countries and all are tackling a fundamental question: How do women in Africa use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for empowerment?

The Republic of Congo is located in Central Africa, with an estimated population of 2,854,600 in 2000. Telecommunications infrastructures are decrepit, limited to the two biggest cities of the country, Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Despite the existence of private telecommunications companies, only mobile telephony penetrates faster in rural areas. Telecommunications infrastructures are, thus, unable to meet the needs of the Congolese population, especially those of women who constitute 51 per cent of inhabitants.

From being a student activist to working with the word in the library, and getting involved in a wide range of campaigns, soft-spoken Mylene Soto has seen many things. Today, she’s part of APC member Women’sHub, a group that works for the promotion of gender equality amidst the alphabet-soup and geeky world of ICTs (information and communication technology). She joins Cheekay Cinco for this discussion on gender and ICTs in the Asian context.

“Francophone women are less likely to use the internet than Anglophone women (40.4% compared with 55.3%, respectively)" says a survey report released lately on the Womyn’s Voices website. In the spring of 2002, 50 women’s groups working in minority situations in Canada were surveyed on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The project’s scope is limited, looking at Francophone women’s groups working in minority situations. Also since statistics tend to change rapidly, especially concerning ICTs, the data presented may not be an accurate account of today’s reality. It remains a valuable assessment for APC, not only for better understanding its current projects and members in francophone Africa and Canada, but also in preparing its new website in French.

In this piece published in the March edition of the Development Journal, Chat Garcia Ramilo argues strongly for a feminist agenda on technology. Drawing on the discussions at the AWID Forum, she shows how within the framework of women’s rights technology is a determining factor in women’s sexuality, representation and exploitation, and has to be seen as one more facet of violence against women. She calls on the feminist movement to engage technologies as a site of feminist political struggle. Download the article in PDF format.

What does a director of a Paraguayan women’s organisation and a rural Colombian teacher have in common? For APC member in Colombia, Colnodo, the answer is clear. It is their capacity of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools to empower women. This is the reason Colnodo celebrated the Women’s Month, in March, with courses, workshops and seminars aimed at making ICT accessible to women from different regions and realities.

In between short gaps, and while waiting for the meetings – at the first APC-organised information and communication technology (ICT) policy workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh – to start, APCNews staff writer Frederick Noronha talks to APC’s women’s programme manager ‘Chat’ Garcia Ramilo about APC WNSP’s work, priorities and initiatives. ‘Chat’ took over the APC WNSP challenge in 2004 and works on the policy work of the Women’s Networking Support Programme.

Cheekay Cinco, member of APC WNSP, interviews Nancy Hafkin, woman pioneer of networking and ICTs development in Africa on her thoughts about the current gender and ICT policy environment. She reflects on the WSIS process and the recent Commission on the Status of Women, and articulates what is urgently needed to render visible the gender dimensions of ICTs at policy levels.