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Theme
Women: New
Information Communication Technologies and Socio-Economic
Transformation.
Background/Introduction
For women today, the greatest
opportunity is in the windows that open into the virtual world,
bringing new spaces for connecting and new platforms for solidarity
(Anita Gurumurthy) in a global village ruled by knowledge and
information; key resources that are critical determinants of
socio-economic realities in the twenty first century.
No doubt, there is a wide
consensus that new information and communication technologies (ICTs)
can play an important role in reducing poverty, improving education
and healthcare, enhancing political participation and empowerment,
and promoting sustainable development. This role of new ICTs as
tools for development and socio-economic transformation attracted
the sustained attention of the United Nations. In 2000, the Economic
and Social Council adopted a Ministerial Communiqué on the role of
information technology in the context of a knowledge-based economy.
Later that year, the Millennium Declaration underscored the urgency
of ensuring that the benefits of technologies, especially new ICTs,
be available to all. The World Summit on Information Society and the
World Telecommunications development conferences are charting the
course,
However, the positive
opportunities are undermined by the prospect that new ICTs will
remain accessible only to the elite and will not contribute to
achievement of fundamental human development. The majority of the
world population still lives in poverty and remains untouched by the
benefits of new ICTs. While critical disparities exist between and
within countries and among groups within countries and regions, the
most overlooked and ignored disparity is the one that exists between
men and women. The unequal power relations between men and women
contribute to differential access, participation and treatment for
men and women in the Information Society. For instance, the great
majority of women have no buying power, no access to modern means of
communication and are further excluded from the mainstream of ICT
development on account of certain challenges that impede their
integration into the Information Society. Such challenges include
literacy and education, the language barrier, time constraint, as
women are involved in time-consuming activities in the care economy,
the cost of accessing ICTs, certain social and cultural norms that
prohibit women from using public access points and the urban bias in
connectivity.
These inequalities in access to
and control of new ICTs between men and women limit the potential of
an information Society to make the most valuable contribution to the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Without women’s
participation in decision-making in all spheres of life and all
levels of society, poverty will not be eradicated nor will inclusive
information societies emerge.
Therefore, African women’s
informed participation as ‘knowers and creators of knowledge within
their communities’ (Akina Mama wa Afrika, 2003) in the global
information society and evolving African information society is
crucial for the much needed socio-economic transformation, the
actualization of the millennium development goals and sustainable
development on the continent.
The
Forum
The forum is a strategic,
regionally inclusive and cascadable programme of engagement
activities with grassroots women organizations, women’s regional and
national level organizations as well as in groupings that parallel
Africa’s hugely marginalized constituency. The media, civil society
organizations, parliamentarians, policy makers, ICT institutions,
international development agencies and donors as well as the private
sector would be invited as interested stakeholders to heighten
awareness on the critical need for the inclusion of African women in
the information society cum emerging knowledge economy that would
hopefully foster equitable and sustainable development as well as
socio-economic transformation in Africa.
The forum aims at catalyzing;
identifying and facilitating heightened proactive participation of
grassroots women organizations, women’s regional and national level
organizations as well as in groupings that parallel Africa’s hugely
marginalized constituency as key stakeholders in Africa’s evolving
inclusive information society cum knowledge economy.
Objectives
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To address the status of African women in the evolving
African information society and the global information
society with the aim of voicing out gender concerns in the
information society in Africa so that the benefits of the
information society cum knowledge economy accrue equitably
to men and women. |
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To
strengthen up the capacity and knowledge base of women on
ICTs
as enablers of socio-economic transformation and
sustainable development. |
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To
generate broad based discussions on and support of women’s
participation in the global information society process,
noting in particular the words of the WSIS gender caucus
that if appropriate attention is paid to gender equality and
women's perspectives, the World Information Society will
benefit by facilitating the inclusion of women's leadership,
communication styles and values. These perspectives will
add richly to the concept of a World Information Society and
enable the achievement of operational goals. Without a
gender dimension, ICTs will not serve human development
needs. |
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To
sensitize and mobilize African women at the regional level
to be actively involved in the implementation and monitoring
of the Geneva Plan of Action. |
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To
launch the
African
Women’s
Network on ICT for Development as a complementary body to
the WSIS Gender Caucus. |
This platform would facilitate
African grassroots women organizations, women’s regional and
national level organizations as well as groupings that parallel
Africa’s hugely marginalized constituency as key stakeholders in
mobilizing communities/people participation in prioritizing,
influencing Africa’s inclusive information society that benefits the
entire Nigerian citizenry. It will also promote regional
co-operation and exchange to address gender disparities in the
development of ICT through research.
Forum Content
The forum will address the status
of women in the information society noting in particular the
capacity gaps of women in access to; knowledge and use of new
information communication technologies.
The forum
will strengthen women's capacity
to engage in using new information and communication
technologies for development. There will be series of capacity
building workshops on
advocacy processes
for community access points, management of community access points
and the use of the new information communication technologies as
well as the circulation of
a handbook on Internet Use.
The forum will also
compile the aspirations, specific and appropriate needs of this
excluded constituency for inclusion in the global inclusive
information society processes as well as in the implementation
process of the Geneva Plan of Action. The forum aims at the broadest
possible inclusion of women from rural, peri-urban and urban areas
in the process to foster the identification and prioritisation of
appropriate needs and practices as well to voice gender concerns in
the process.
The forum will also review the
current evolving African information society vis a viz Africa’s
development challenges, the digital divide, using ICTs as tools in
achieving the millennium development goals.
The forum will also
serve as a platform to launch an African
Women’s Network on ICT for
Development
with the goal of sensitisation/consultation expected to serve as a
roadmap for sustained advocacy for the development of a gendered
information society that uses new ICTs as tools for socio-economic
transformation on the continent.
It will also in particular
generate discourse and recommendations on the way forward in
utilizing ICTs as development tools in rural Africa where the
majority of poor women are located.
Participation
Targeted
are women leaders and leaders-in-potential at the grass roots level,
women’s regional and national level organizations as well as in
groupings that parallel Africa’s hugely marginalized constituency.
One hundred women are expected at the conference. The media, civil
society organizations, parliamentarians, policy makers, ICT
institutions, international development agencies and donors as well
as and the private sector will further enrich discussions in
bridging the gender digital divide in Africa.
Date and Venue
The forum will hold from Friday 1st
to Sunday 3rd July 2005 between 9a.m to 6.p.m daily at
the Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
Expected Outputs
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The African
Women’s Network on
ICT for Development
inaugurated. |
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Capacity
building and strengthening of women delegates at the
conference on Internet Use and advocacy processes on women’s
participation in the information society |
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Circulation
of 1, 000 copies of a handbook on Women, ICTs and
Socio-Economic Transformation |
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African women and women
organizations sensitized and mobilized to participate in the
information society |
Agenda
word
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Women ARPM Registration Form
word
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