Net Gains – African Women Take Stock of ICTs

Description

This research, undertaken in 2000, looked at how African Women’s organisations are making use of information and communication technology.

Is the information revolution really a priority for the continent, when there are far more immediate challenges of poverty and malnutrition to confront? What relevance do information and communication technologies (ICTs) have to poor rural women whose most immediate priorities are food, shelter and basic health for their families?

In 2000, the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) commissioned GL to undertake research on how African Women’s organisations are making use of information and communication technology.

Great opportunity or greater divide? In the last decade, the information revolution has taken the world by gale force, leaving the industrial revolution looking like a gentle breeze in comparison. The figures on telecommunications in Africa are well known: there are more phone lines in New York than in the whole of Africa; and 70 percent of these are in South Africa alone. Is the information revolution really a priority for the continent, when there are far more immediate challenges of poverty and malnutrition to confront? What relevance do information and communication technologies (ICTs) have to poor rural women whose most immediate priorities are food, shelter and basic health for their families?

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which houses the secretariat for the African Information Society Initiative, and is a leading think tank on development issues, argues that information and communication technologies are indeed central to poverty reduction, which itself is key to the empowerment of women (see foreword by the Executive Secretary of the ECA, K. y Amoako).

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC)-Africa-Women and FEMNET that commissioned this research, working with organizations like the ECA, have played a key role in ensuring that the gender dimensions of ICTs on the continent are brought to the fore. These range from illiteracy and the absence of women from the scientific and technological fields to the way in which these technologies are applied which can either increase the alienation and disempowerment of women, or become a force for advancing gender equality.

The research forms part of a holistic APC-Africa-Women and FEMNET programme of activities related to the Beijing+5 process in Africa and internationally. More information about this process can be accessed at http://flamme.org/ The APC Women’s Networking Support Programme is involved in similar activities at the international level (http://www.gn.apc.org/apcwomen/projects/womenaction.html).

Great opportunity or greater divide? In the last decade, the information revolution has taken the world by gale force, leaving the industrial revolution looking like a gentle breeze in comparison. The figures on telecommunications in Africa are well known: there are more phone lines in New York than in the whole of Africa; and 70 percent of these are in South Africa alone. Is the information revolution really a priority for the continent, when there are far more immediate challenges of poverty and malnutrition to confront? What relevance do information and communication technologies (ICTs) have to poor rural women whose most immediate priorities are food, shelter and basic health for their families?

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which houses the secretariat for the African Information Society Initiative, and is a leading think tank on development issues, argues that information and communication technologies are indeed central to poverty reduction, which itself is key to the empowerment of women (see foreword by the Executive Secretary of the ECA, KY Amoako).

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC)-Africa-Women and FEMNET that commissioned this research, working with organizations like the ECA, have played a key role in ensuring that the gender dimensions of ICTs on the continent are brought to the fore. These range from illiteracy and the absence of women from the scientific and technological fields to the way in which these technologies are applied which can either increase the alienation and disempowerment of women, or become a force for advancing gender equality.

The research forms part of a holistic APC-Africa-Women and FEMNET programme of activities related to the Beijing+5 process in Africa and internationally. More information about this process can be accessed at http://flamme.org/ The APC Women’s Networking Support Programme is involved in similar activities at the international level.