A small team of the APC women’s programme is in New York from 1-12, blogging and twitting from the UN headquarters. While governments are busy reviewing the Beijing Platform of Action, civil society organisations are struggling to participate in the process, and are being kept at bay. Yet they are still managing to keep busy by organising side events, networking, and advocating for the inclusion of a women’s rights perspective in all the discussions. APC is closely following the discussions about communications rights and the role ICTs play within this. Read GenderIT’s coverage.

“As feminists, we are creating our own media and disrupting and challenging mainstream notions of identity and what women are or should be. We are self-representing, to recast ourselves and challenge stale notions of what women are or should be. We are demonstrating the multiplicity and diversity of who we are”, writes APC women’s programme as a prologue to the Beijing+15 review process that is starting on March 1st in New York.

Is porn harmful? Does it contribute to violence against women? Should it be censored? Is it misunderstood? Are there many types of sexual expressions that get clumped under one category of "pornography"? Does the internet actually provide opportunities to allow for more diverse expression of sexualities? Does it have benefits instead? What kind? Who should regulate it? The user of porn? The makers of porn? The gatekeepers of the internet? The government? The consumer association? No one? What's your take? Share your opinion and stories on the Take Back The Tech! Great Debate on Online Pornography.

From 25 November to 10 December, get ready to click your mouse, flex your SMS fingers and engage full energy to take control of technology to end violence against women. APC calls on all of us who use radio, television, internet, emails and mobile phones to Take Back the Tech!

APC women’s Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is training a key group of women’s rights advocates particularly those living in the developing world in essential internet, audio and other technical skills to enable them to use technology to most effectively document abuses, build knowledge, disseminate information, mobilise support and amplify pressures for change.

The APC women’s programme looks at the current climate internationally regarding “harmful content” on the internet and explains the raison d’etre of their current exploration into the world of sexuality online.

Whether its through community radio, posters, sms, emails, audiocasts or websites, creative and informed use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) helps get the word out on violence against women (VAW). We have to know about technology to best use it for our activism, we have to understand it to protect ourselves and others, and to keep shaping an internet for all. From 25 November to 10 December it’s time once again to “Take Back the Tech!” and use ICTs to end violence against women.

Skill sharing sessions on wikis, web 2.0, a tech hunt, and webcasts marked the first day of the FTX (Feminist Tech eXchange) Hub as part of the Power of Movements forum, from November 14 – 17 2008 in Capetown. The FTX Hub is a place to put those skills into practice – and to share ideas around how critical communications rights are to women’s rights with over 2000 women attending this forum, organised by the Association for Women’s Rights and Development.

The Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society (GenARDIS) Small Grants Fund is delighted to announce that twenty projects have been short-listed as possible GenARDIS grantees. The short-listed proposals come from sixteen countries in Africa and the Caribbean, ranging from the Dominican Republic and St. Vincent on over the Atlantic Ocean to rock-skip throughout western Africa in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Congo. Eastern Africa and Southern Africa also have their share of representation with projects from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Read the entire announcement

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.