Information for what?

As women worldwide use the new information technologies (IT) to stay connected around the gains and losses of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), many women in the rural areas still have no clue of what a computer is all about.

As women worldwide use the new information technologies (IT) to stay connected around the gains and losses of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), many women in the rural areas still have no clue of what a computer is all about.

Even the positive reports in many international conferences about how rural women can access the new technology through avenues such as tele-centres are in contrast to the stark reality on the ground.

Undeniably, some of these initiatives have helped women access information about good crop and farming practices, animal husbandry and other novel agricultural practices.

And while undeniably this information is useful, especially in regions like Africa where the majority of poor women are engaged in subsistent farming, IT has not been used as effectively to give them information that empowers them to make decisions to change their own lives and that of their families.

The information on farming practices also, at times, goes in one ear and out the other. For example, during a visit to some tele-centres in East Africa last year, women said that they had no money to buy the seedlings for crops or the chickens for a poultry business.

The challenge therefore lies in not just using the technology to provide women with access to information. Coupled with this, there have to be policies, laws, strategies, etc which pave the way for women to access the resources they need to make informed choices in their lives. Likewise, reproductive health information targeted at youth using ICTs, must be supported with interventions addressing the root causes of their problems.

What does one expect a girl who is unemployed and who is depended upon by her family for survival to do, if she is only given information and education on reproductive health minus the means to help her put food on the table?

The best way forward therefore, is to provide information, while at the same time assisting the youths with income generating activities. Similarly, how do you tell a woman to walk away from an abusive relationship, when she is not given alternatives for her survival?

These are the dilemmas we have to address as we push for gender equality and empowerment of women, using ICTs. What the Beijing +10 review needs to address with all seriousness before it comes to a close on Friday, is a multiplicity of solutions to the problems women face, and how to raise resources critical to implementing these interventions.

A variety of stakeholders have to be brought on board, especially the private sector whose role in helping realise women’s rights, seems not to be clearly defined in the Beijing Platform of Action.

It is clear that the new technology is advancing minute by minute. What are needed now are strategies to harness this technology — used daily to move billions around the world — to bring information wealth and power to women and girls.

Arthur Okwemba is a Kenyan journalist with the African Woman and Child Feature Service.

This article is part of the GEM Opinion and Commentary Service that provides views and perspectives on current events.

janine@genderlinks.org.za for more information.