ICTs for EMPOWERMENT
Vanasthali Rural Development Centre (VRDC)- India
Success Strategy: Established in Pune, India
in December 1981, Vanasthali Rural Development Centre (VRDC) offers a
6-month teacher training programme to semi-educated village women in 8
districts of Maharashtra, India. The purpose of VRDC is to enable trainees
to open balwadis (nurseries) in their villages, taking education to the
doorsteps of rural children. The ultimate aim is to make it possible for
these children to begin school or to deter them from dropping out. In
addition to providing basic educational facilities to those living in
remote areas, the programme is an effort to build up a pool of trained,
self-confident women who can become role models and change-makers in their
communities.
The programme goes beyond training rural women to become teachers; it
also functions as an empowerment tool for women as mediators in their
villages. Organisers strive to help these women have the confidence,
through education, to take over a new role of village focal points and
facilitators inspiring others to pursue literacy and who deal with local
governing bodies.
So far, VRDC has trained more than 10,000 women.
Target group: Women
Partners: Vanasthali Rural Development
Centre (VRDC)
Source: The Communication
Initiative and InfoChange
News & Features
Empowering Mayan Women
Success Strategy: In 1997, Padma Guidi, an
international advocate and trainer for empowering women, launched the
Centro de Mujeres Communicadoras Mayas (CMCM) to help bring ICTs to the
remote village in Solola, Guatemala. The project, known as Nutzij
(“my word” in Mayan), empowers indigenous women by providing them with
hands-on training in video production and using the internet.
Specifically, Nutzij, which is run by a collective of young Mayan women,
seeks to help women develop the skills to preserve their community’s
cultural heritage on video and market the content to the world via the
internet. Nutzij offers culturally relevant information relating to
education, agriculture, health and the environment.
From her past experience of helping women in India and Czechoslovakia,
Ms Guidi understood the effectiveness of using video and the internet to
preserve the uniqueness of marginalized communities in an era of
globalization. Given the lack of attention paid to the educational
needs of the Mayan population, particularly those of women, Ms Guidi saw
video as a way to allow women to contribute to the social and economic
evolution of their communities. She said, “seeing is believing, and
videos made by the indigenous community can bring information in people’s
own languages and in images they can recognize and relate to.” This was
her vision for Nutzij. By capturing stories from the community on
video, Nutzij has made women a central component for preserving cultural
knowledge for future generations.
Although the widespread benefits that it brought to the Solola
community, Nutzij has consistently ran into funding difficulties
throughout its implementation. To address this obstacle, the
administrators created co-production workshops for foreign communication
students who would pay for their participation to help supplement the
project’s operations. Beyond funding, Nutzij also faced linguistic
(most websites are published in English), electricity and infrastructure
hurdles. Moreover, women are also restrained by the social norms
that inhibit their involvement in training and other group
activities. Despite the social, infrastructure and economic hurdles,
the project has proved to be an effective mechanism for helping to
cultivate the human capacities of Mayan women in this remote, isolated
community. Perhaps most importantly, Nutzij has helped to demystify
ICTs, while also offering a replicable and sustainable method for cultural
preservation and social development. Information was gathered from
the Rockefeller Foundation’s comprehensive global study on Participatory
Communication for Social Change.
For more information: see the
Rockefeller Foundation website
Conflict Prevention and Integration Program - Georgia
Success Strategy: The Conflict Prevention
and Integration Program in Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia is designed to
reduce tension and prevent conflict through activities related to language
education, information flows and media development, legal assistance and
legal information and management of inter-ethnic relations. The program’s
objective is to strengthen the public's access to legal information and
policymakers' skills in minority legal issues, by improving the
professionalism of journalism and the availability of Georgian news
programmes in Samstkhe-Javakheti.
Partners: Canadian International Development
Agency - CIDA
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database
Local Radio Stations in Mali
Success Strategy: Although there are a
variety of ICT-related development initiatives currently under way in
Mali, the most successful medium to date has been the radio. By
creating local radio stations throughout the country, everyone,
everywhere, whether literate or illiterate, can listen to broadcasts and
learn about their community and the world.
For more information: see http://www7.itu.int/itudfg7/fg7/CaseLibrary/ShowSummary.asp?contrib=45
Sexual Abuse Centre in Christchurch – New Zealand
Success Strategy: The Sexual Abuse Centre is
a Not-for-Profit organisation supporting Rape and Incest survivors, both
female and male, throughout the Canterbury, New Zealand region. It is an
established entity of the not-for-profit sector since 1991. Developing a
website has brought many unexpected benefits for the Sexual Abuse Centre
in Christchurch and has made them part of a global network of service
providers to survivors of sexual abuse. The Sexual Abuse Centre is a place
of counseling and support with a focus on healing and thriving and the
website reflects this vocation. It reveals as a mainstream tool to access
information by people and for the centre as a quick, efficient and
effective tool with important potential to disseminate written material
quickly and to a wider audience.
The website has a feedback page to ascertain that provided information
is useful or not to people. It showed that it has been well utilized, not
only by New Zealanders but by survivors and other allied professionals
throughout the world. Throughout the working process, a need occurred to
establish relationships with other professionals in other parts of the
world. The Centre is involved closely with the FBI around child protection
and child abuse issues and have had a number of US survivor’s cases
resolved by the FBI’s intervention. The competent staff has worked with a
number of people around legal issues pertinent to their country,
particularly in the UK, and has contacts to help them do that. The website
has also helped and assisted allied professionals with information and
support in setting up survivor based programmes & groups in such areas
of the world as Indonesia, Africa and Europe. The website has been
assessed by the centre people as an incredibly useful tool for their work.
“ … it has made our small world here in Christchurch truly part of a
global community providing the highest quality services to survivors of
sexual abuse and rape no matter what part of the world they are in.”,
ascertain
the centre staff.
Target group: Victims of sexual abuse
Partners: Sexual Abuse Centre
Source: the website of the activity and
CommunityNet
Aotearoa website
eHomemakers Network - Malaysia
Success Strategy: eHomemakers is built on
the premise that marginalised Malaysian women can use information and
communication technologies (ICTs) to generate income from home, supporting
their active participation in the information economy. Designed to enable
homeworkers and homemakers to teletrade, network, and support each other
through creative problem-solving and idea-sharing, an trilingual
e-community offers services such as a platform to enable online product
marketing. On-the-ground activities geared toward those who do not have
easy access to ICTs include training sessions and conferences for lifelong
learning and community outreach and contests for home-based business
ideas. eHomemakers promotes working from home as a means to balance work
and family life and conducts research projects such as "Empowering
Homemakers to become Homepreneurs and eHomemakers through a Gender
Governance Framework".
Initially, a static website (www.mom4mom.com) was built to meet the
needs of mothers and homemakers by providing them with a platform to
access information and to network. Over time, the network realised that
the static website could not support the growing needs of members who
wanted a more dynamic platform with interactive features. Thanks to the
Grant, eHomemakers
website was developed.
This trilingual portal was created to link homemakers and homeworkers
all over Malaysia into an e-community, bound together by common interests
in parenthood, homemaking and issues related to economic, social, family,
and gender development. Designed to enable homeworkers and homemakers to
teletrade, network, and support each other through creative
problem-solving and idea-sharing, the portal offers services such as a
forum, chat room, e-cards and a platform called Home-based Xchange for
homemakers and home workers to market their products and services. All of
these services are provided free of charge to members. These e-activities
are complemented by on-the-ground activities geared toward those who do
not have easy access to ICTs. These initiatives include training sessions
and conferences for life-long learning and community outreach, annual
Mother's Day contests, and contests for home-based business ideas.
Partners: Ministry of Women, Family and
Community Development; the Ministry of Science, Technology and the
Environment provided a one-year grant.
Grant: Demonstrator Application Grant from
the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, 2001
Source: the eHomemakers website and The
Communication Initiative website
Women's Pirate Radio
Success Strategy: In the mid-1970s, the
women's movement, particularly in Western Europe, used pirate radio (low
power unlicensed broadcasting) to strengthen the visibility of women's
issues. Feminist groups in several European countries became forerunners
in the development of "free radio".
Radio Donna in Rome, Les Nanas Radioteuses in Paris and Radio Pleine
Lune in Ferney-Voltaire in France along the Swiss border, were some of the
earlier experiments with local radio.
Radio programmes were made on a variety of issues seldom considered in
conventional radio programming. Abortion, for example, then virtually a
taboo topic, was raised by the female radio pirates.
Women's sexuality, prostitution, migration and trafficking were also
raised in community radio. Programmes produced on these themes would not
otherwise be broadcast by government or commercial stations. Or, if they
were, the coverage was distorted in ways that put the blame on the women
themselves.
Source: Mail from John Lawrence to the bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
mailing list and the Gender and ICT
Report, by Anita Gurumurthy (BRIDGE)
Women to Web - Germany
Success Strategy: In 1998 Brigitte, a
women's magazine decided to go online. However, a survey revealed that
less than 20 per cent of internet users were female.
The publishers at Brigitte and the other stakeholders decided to
introduce internet courses for women. The internet course campaign was
named Women to Web.
In 1998, the pilot project began in four business centres of the
Deutsche Telekom. Female internet trainers from Women Computer Schools
provided the capacity building.
Targets were set as follows:
- to increase the quota of women using the internet to at least 50 per
cent;
- to introduce internet at a low cost to those with no access to this
technology;
- to provide a relaxing environment in which women can access the
internet;
- to show women how much fun the World Wide Web can be and how to use
it for communication, entertainment purposes, information
and further education;
- to motivate women to discover the usefulness of the internet for
their daily life and to participate in the information society.
Since the project's inception, 15,000 internet courses held in over 300
cities and villages had benefit to 130,000 women. These opportunities
have been extended to rural areas, and especially to parts of the former
East Germany. The most obvious impact of the project is that the number of
female internet users has doubled from under 20 per cent to over 40 per
cent.
With more women using the internet, local companies with websites of
their own have acquired new customers and this has contributed to the
local economy. The courses and introduction to the internet helped many
women set up businesses or to find self-employment.
Most of the women who benefited from the project were found to be
multipliers for other women. This has helped in the empowerment of more
women.
Target group: The target group included
local computer schools, technology centres, adult education centres, equal
opportunity representatives and female founders of new businesses.
Beginners were provided courses for free while advanced internet courses
were made available for a minimal fee. The campaign has in particular
benefited disadvantaged women, elderly women, women in rural regions and
unemployed women.
Partners: Brigitte, Women's Department of
the former Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology
and Women Give New Impetus to Technology Association
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (National/Local)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website
Empowering African Women to Manage 100 Multipurpose Community
Telecentres (MCTs) in 20 African Countries
Success strategy: The MCT Network for
African Women project has involved construction of a network of at least
100 MCTs in 20 or more African countries, owned and managed by women,
providing public telephone, fax and internet connectivity and e-mail as
well as basic information. These are to be owned and managed by women in
order to enable them to actively participate in the development process of
the African continent and expand women’s role in ICTs.
The bottom-up initiative was requested by a number of African countries
including Benin, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of
Congo, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania,
Zambia and Ethiopia. In cooperation with the African Ministries of
Communication and other local partners, ITU has established 4 MCTs in
Tanzania and Guinea Bissau. These are now already providing basic training
in the use of computers, and will soon supply other services such as
public telephone, fax and internet connectivity as well as basic
information to meet specific community needs.
These services will enhance the development of sectors like education,
health, e-commerce, agriculture and the informal sector of business
traditionally operated by African women. The project is estimated to cost
approximately US$ 1.0 million.
The shared IT facilities are also used for training in computer
literacy, use of computer applications, internet and e-mail. The educators
involved provide also support in the use of the MCT services for access to
trade services (access to market information), radio and television,
advertising and announcements.
The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the creation
of an enabling environment where women will actively participate in the
development process of the African continent and expand women’s role in
ICTs and its new technologies and services. The improvement of the basic
economic conditions and lifestyle of the population and the facilitation
of affordable and easy access to basic telecommunications and information
services is aimed by ensuring that the benefits of telecommunications
applications and services are available to all; to guarantee immediate and
easy access to telecommunications services during emergencies for all and
to encourage women’s participation in ICTs. By enabling women to manage
and control the telecentres, ITU is encouraging women’s participation in
ICTs, as stipulated in the World Summit on the Information Society’s
Declaration and Action Plan.
Target group: African women
Partners: ITU (International
Telecommunication Union)
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and background
materials
New Home, New Life - Afghanistan
Success strategy: The Canadian International
Development Agency supports this radio soap opera on everyday Afghan life,
by contributing to the expenses in drama broadcasting and production,
monitoring and evaluation, educational features and published
materials.
Partners: Canadian International Development
Agency - CIDA
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database
Economic Empowerment of Minority Muslim Women in India
Success Strategy: Datamation Foundation ––
an NGO promoting Gender empowerment –– developed the Community Multi-media
and ICT Center concept in mid-2002. Seelampur-Zaffarabad, a predominant
minority ghetto located in North-East Delhi – was chosen for the pilot
project. Very low per capita income as well as community violence and lack
of personal and professional development perspective were strong
motivation to proceed to concrete targeted action.
The project looked into the needs of the minority women of Seelampur
and set four priority areas:
women empowerment through communication (including promotion of women’s
potential to get integrated in the society outside the "ghetto")
- localisation of appropriate communication and information networks
- linking of resource-poor women and youth to the information and
tools for knowledge management
- establishment of buyer-seller linkages on the web towards
eradication of absolute poverty.
Alongside the ICT training was
capacity building, and participants were able to broach taboo subjects
such as women's reproductive rights, health issues apart from life-skills,
marriage rights and obligations. These are covered extensively in the
multimedia courseware developed by the Datamation Foundation.
As more women benefited, other women, who had not ventured out of their
homes and also out of the ghettos unaccompanied, have been enrolling
themselves into the ICT Centre. To date, more than 500 women have been
trained in a large number of skills-development and income enhancement
vocations.
Women who have not engaged themselves in any form of work or income
generating activity, have felt motivated to start their own businesses,
enabled by ICT. It has given women a mechanism to express their creativity
and inherent talent. Their enterprises have already borne fruit, with
several women already receiving orders from the buyers directly through
the buyer-seller linkages.
The women who have been ICT trained, have been found to encourage their
families and children to learn computing and start using them in their
day-to-day work.
Target group: The minority Muslim community
was specifically targeted for this project as historically, they have been
one of the most backward, poor and marginalised communities in India.
Partners: Datamation Foundation, UNESCO
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (National/Local)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website
Digital Teaching Units for Gender in History - USA
Success Strategy: While web-based learning
objects are sufficient and affordable supplements to textbooks, the
University of Oregon's Centre for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)
found that feminist-inspired content was under-represented.
CSWS thus began a sustained effort to build web-based digital teaching
units on an array of topics concerning women in history. Their goal is to
help provide teachers and students with feminist curricular materials of
high standard at no cost.
Digital Teaching Units (DTUs) for Gender in History puts primary and
secondary sources, images, sound files and video clips at the finger tips
of students and teachers with access to computers and internet
connections. This enables them to supplement or replace standard textbooks
that are costly and provide inadequate coverage of new research on
evolving gender roles and status across history. The DTU materials are
designed so that they can be woven into mainstream courses where they
reach students with many different interests and backgrounds, rather than
just those taking up gender-related courses.
The CSWS hopes that access to the DTUs will give students a broader
understanding of the roots and causes of unequal power relations, which is
a necessary step if things are to change. Beneficiaries of the programme
are students aged 14 years and above, from all income levels, and from
both urban and rural backgrounds.
To date, CSWS has produced 25 different DTUs. These have been used in
over 70 university classrooms, reaching 2400 students. They have also been
used in an unknown number of high school classes as well as in community
lectures.
Partners: University of Oregon's Center for
the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (National/Local)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and CSWS website
Governance Programme - Nigeria
Success Strategy: Initiated in 1997 and now
in its fourth stage, this USAID-funded programme is geared toward Nigerian
women and women's groups. Recent political empowerment activities
encompassed a national mass media campaign, media advocacy, capacity
building, and non-government organisation (NGO) networking, inter alia
through radio broadcasting. This multiphase project aims to address three
main issues. These included increasing women's political empowerment,
education and information on the values and practices of fundamental human
rights as well as civic responsibility against increasing democratic
participation. The impact of the project was measured through
quasi-experimental design involving the measurement of pertinent
indicators such as knowledge, perception and action before and after the
intervention.
The impact data shows that at follow-up, slightly more respondents
(85.9%, as compared to 84.5%) believed that "women should be given the
same opportunities as men". Those who believed that "women should be able
to compete with men in politics" increased from 79.5% to 86.8%. The index
of positive Women's Political Empowerment Attitudes increased from 3.3 to
3.8; the Women's Cultural and Economic Empowerment Attitudinal Index
increased from 3.34 to 3.53.
Partners: Johns Hopkins University
Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS), United States Agency for
International Development (USAID)
Source: The Communication Initiative
website
APC-Africa-Women - Africa
Success strategy: The Association for
Progressive Communications (APC) African Women’s Programme Africa-Women
(AAW) is a network of organisations and individuals that work to empower
African women's organisations to access and use information and
communication technologies (ICTs) to promote equality and development. The
association is the African regional programme of APC's Women's Networking
Support Programme (APC-WNSP).
The programme Works in partnership with women’s organisations and with
women in Africa focusing on women's empowerment through:
-
providing
information to women about gender and ICTs and access to tools and
resources that facilitate women's ease of access to key information;
-
providing
regional support to women's organisations through developing their
ability to network by using ICTs strategically;
-
lobbying
and advocating around gender and ICT policy at a regional and global
level including media-related global meetings and via partnerships with
civil society organisations;
-
delivering
ICT training to African women's organisations, networks and initiatives;
-
conducting
research in the area of gender and ICTs;
-
participating in
regional and global events and with our global partner APC
APC-Africa-Women aims to promote gender equity in the design,
implementation, and use of ICTs. They focus particularly on inequities
based on women's social or ethnic background by providing research,
training, information, and support activities in the field of ICT policy,
skills-sharing in the access to and use of ICT, and women's
network-building. It also aims to:
-
promote
the consideration and incorporation of gender in ICT policy-making
bodies and forums;
-
initiate
and implement research activities in the field of gender and ICT;
-
advance
the body of knowledge, understanding, and skills in the field of gender
and ICT by implementing training activities;
-
facilitate
access to information resources in the field of gender and ICT;
-
create and
sustain a forum in which African women and women's organisations can
discuss issues of common concern and develop common actions towards the
other goals.
Members of the network are Africa-based women and women's organisations
working to empower African women in media and ICTs. Women can join as
institutional or individual members and membership is free.
Partners: Humanist Institute for Development
Co-operation (HIVOS)
Source: APC-Africa-Women website and The communication Initiative
website
Women's Experiences in Situations of Armed Conflict -
Uganda
Success Strategy: "Women's Experiences in
Situations of Armed Conflict" was carried out using different ICT
applications. This included use of tape recorders, video recording,
photography and face-to-face interaction through meetings, focus group
discussions and validation workshops. Their research results are available
for download on their website. The major focus of the project was to
highlight women's experiences in situations of armed conflict, the roles
they play, the effects and how they are coping in post conflict
situations.
The project targeted areas that have experienced or are experiencing
armed conflict in Uganda. The documentation was accomplished with the full
participation of women war survivors and local leaders. All the
respondents were based in affected rural areas.
This project has resulted in six research reports, two video
documentaries, photographs and pictorial posters. Such a comprehensive
package of information has been useful to a cross section of development
workers and policy makers in lobbying for peace-building as well as a
support of the community memory. This outcome is powerful tool in raising
awareness amongst communities on the need for peaceful resolution of
conflicts and peace-building. It enables both women and men, educated and
illiterate to understand the causes of conflict, the physical and
psychological effects on women and men, as well as the need for harmonious
and peaceful living.
The documentation enabled Isis-WICCE to recognise the animosity that
prevailed among the various affected ethnic groups. As a result, it was
able to initiate women's initiatives that have effectively contributed to
the peace-building processes in the affected communities.
The research findings were used to influence the Ministry of Gender and
Community Development to incorporate the issue of peace as a cross-cutting
issue in the National Action Plan.
Partners Isis-Women's International Cross
Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), media crew, professionals and technical
experts from different fields, medical staff, the Heinrich Boll Foundation
and UNIFEM.
Awards GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Winner: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (National/Local).
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and the website of the activity
'Where Women Want to Work' (www2wk) - UK
Success Strategy: 'Where women want to work'
(www2wk) is a free one-stop shop for women around the world to
independently research and compare the best organisations to work for,
based on their own needs and preferences. www.www2wk.com is a
real-time, interactive, online, independent e-tool for women. It
encourages women to use ICT and to research independently.
Importantly, the www2wk e-tool encourages women to harness the strength
of their collective voices by using the internet to share and advise other
women about the best places to work. Whether they are looking for equal
pay, a fast-track career, a progressive work environment, or even an
on-site crèche –– www2wk provides interactive resources for women, whether
female graduates, unemployed migrants, or those returning from maternity
leave.
Conceptualised in September 2002, the project was piloted in 15
multi-national organisations and is now sold to companies around the
world. As a result, industry organisations are now using the tool to
develop, measure and benchmark their gender capital (i.e. performance in
attracting, retaining, developing and promoting women).
Government organisations are able to access data on employment
preferences of women. Academic institutions are eager to use the research
and statistical data collected through the e-tool.
It has also forced organisations to be more transparent and accountable
about how they attract, retain, develop and promote women. With more and
more users, the www2wk e-tool provides a constantly current, reliable,
authentic and valuable reference for women.
It has reached women across cultures as the software is in multiple
languages and character sets (e.g. Cyrillic's, Arabic, Asian characters,
etc).
This is the first time globally that such current and in-depth
information has been made available about women's career needs, choices
and preferences. The www2wk e-tool has saved women valuable time by
helping them with important decisions about where to work.
Partners: multi-stakeholders partnership
initiative
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (Global/Regional)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and the website of the activity
A Protesters Dream
Success strategy: In the fall of 1999, over
40,000 free-trade protesters descended on the city of Seattle, Washington
in the United States during the now infamous World Trade Organization
meeting. Despite the fact that local businesses lost over USD 12
million in sales as a result of the riots, the event was a potent example
of how the internet has leveled the playing field for all stakeholders in
international policy debates. Beginning a year prior to the WTO
meeting, over 1,000 non-governmental organizations from almost 100
countries used the internet to coordinate their efforts for what has
become the benchmark for global protests. Although the media focused
on the mayhem that engulfed Seattle, behind the scenes actors from
developed and developing countries alike used e-mail alerts, Listservs and
chat rooms to coordinate their collective actions. Moreover, the
internet also gave marginalized groups, such as the Third World Network, a
voice in the ongoing dialogue about globalization and international
agreements.
For related stories: see CNN
website and ABC
News website
Public Domain Information Centers
Success Strategy: The Public Domain Information
Centers Programme (united and extended Public Legal Information Centers
Programme and Public Business Information Centers Programme) is aimed to
create the network of community centers for free public access to the
different kind of public domain information, e.g. legal, consumer,
business, ecological, educational, etc. across the Russia and CIS
countries. The website of the programme has till now connected more than
1350 telecenters throughout the CIS region and provides useful information
about ongoing and forthcoming initiatives related to the dissemination of
legal information concerning all aspects of life.
Partners: UNESCO IFAP National Committee of
Russia, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Russia, Ministry of
Culture and Mass Media of Russia, Special Communications Service, Garant
Co., Ltd, Kodeks Co., Ltd, Konsultant Plus Co., Ltd
For more information: see IFAP website and the website of the activity
Association of Computer Technologists in India (ACT-India)
Success strategy: This project is intended
to promote IT education in remote areas worldwide. Presently this action
has been implemented in India and some African countries. Free IT
education, tech seminars and IT end user organising are its peculiarities.
Empowering the women community with IT education is also in the
highlighted topic.
Under the project’s umbrella, the organisations involved as well as
many individual members are making efforts to bring IT education to the
poor communities in remote districts. Alternative approaches to knowledge
management & sharing have been studies in order to adapt these
disciplines to underdeveloped rural reality in Indian villages. An overall
IT campaign is also launched working to mobilize more and more people to
get involved in similar programs and contribute thus to the increase of
the computer literacy rate and the skills potential of citizens throughout
India.
Target group: Remote rural communities
Partners: TakingIT Global, ACT
India(Association of Computer Technologists in India)
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the website of the
activity
Project Sushiksha - India
Success Strategy: Project Sushiksha,is a
functional literacy program for the illiterate section of the Society who
fall easy prey to the allurements of the crime mongers against money. As
illiteracy is coupled with vulnerability the program is inclusive of local
spiritual practices so as to infuse mental strength to fight back
allurements and seize resources righteously for enhancing material
development and improving the mental power to establish ethical life style
in their family life.
Sushiksha is an educational program, especially for Women from
disadvantaged backgrounds with no accessibility for the light of knowledge
and self-reliance. The curriculum includes basic reading and writing of
the local vernacular (Bengali) and basic arithmetic for accounting.
Besides, gradual awareness on environmental development for a sustainable
better quality of life is also carried out. Participants were also trained
to make handicrafts using various internet resources and thus acquire
commercially applicable skills.
True education at the primary level should have a, according to project
developers, flavour of spirituality and should be irrespective of age,
cast and creed. The activities are focused on enhancing community members’
moral power by various means including ICTs urging them to be more
beneficial to society and use resources very judiciously. The concept of
the programme is based on the goal to help local communities help
themselves to become self reliant rather than dependent and constantly
demanding.
Started for the first time in 1996, the project has effect on a
population of at least 50,000 slum dwellers of Tollygunj slum in
Kolkata followed by 1,000 people from the remote Bhitargarh
village, Mecheda in Midnapore district of West Bengal, India. The Centre
for Adul women established in the village of Bhtaragarth, Mecheda,
Midnapore district in 2000 initiated a regularized cycles of continuous
education and knowledge certification contributing to the cultural and
valuable content orientation of the Indian citizens form the area.
Following the encouraging experience of this first phase, 'SUSHIKSHA'
was launched in 2004 at the VIP Enclave complex. Prior to the beginning of
the project, a survey of more than 150 residents have indicated that to
minimise domestic exploitation and mismanagement of finance due to lack of
knowledge in arithmetic. The Programme to the Domestic help is expected to
restore fearless freedom of expression through written complaints to the
local authorities. Under the programme could be followed trainings in
various other part-time income-generating activities. Particular courses
in time management and better performance in domestic services have been
also given.
The concept of this particular project has evolved and the crucial
importance of social emancipation has been stressed through coherent
activities. The programme has been raising social and awareness on
value-based life style respectful to moral values and ethics rather than
simply improved living standards. Health and education for all are
promoted as universal goals.
From the beginning of the project in 2004, in Bhitaragarh Village this
project has enlightened directly 60 women and effectively this has
improved the social awareness of 60 families with membership strength of
500 people approximately. The program has its impact on the residents of
this village and the surrounding rural areas. The members of the Sushiksha
family are more and more self-reliant and now capable enough to protect
their rights and render their duties for better living.
Target group: Illiterate population, with
special focus on women and young people
Partners: Institute for International Social
Development, Morning Glory Montessori for the domestic Help of the
complex residents
Source: see WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the website of the
activity
« Capucine » Citizen’s Chip Card: capucine.net -
France
Success strategy: “C@pucine” (Carte à
puce citoyenne) is an identity card associated with an electronic wallet
created by and for the citizens. It is designed to be a multi-functional
card with dynamic audio signature. This unique solution is facilitating
citizens’ communication with public administrations, health, justice and
other institutions as well as electronic payments for various products and
services. “C@pucine” is developed accordingly to international standards
and allows identification of the user thus giving the possibility to
safely access, interact with and modify personal files at public services.
The card is enabled to provide also facilitated free internet access
all over the world. The user would have the security options allowing him
to stay anonymous while using internet services or fully reveal his
identity when needed (for payment or security sake.
The concepts innovative idea is to detain a marginal percentage (about
1 %) from current transactions in an Ethical Solidarity Fund. The Fund
would be managed by NGOs members of C@pucine.net and contribute to the
lessoning of the internal digital divide by “sponsoring” the purchases of
disadvantaged people. An additional advantage of the project is that the
management of the Solidarity Fund could be consulted by means of the
c@picine card assuring the transparency. The national government is also
involved but mainly as a “night guard”
monitoring the transactions and taking action in case of malfunctioning or
abuse.
The project is yet in an experimental phase. Since its first version in
2001, more than 3000 cards have been delivered at the price of about 36
euros.
Partners: French Government and NGOs
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the
website of the activity
Making Civil Voices Heard - Communication for Development
Programme 2005 - 2008
Success strategy: The programme Making Civil
Voices Heard is a media, information and communication for development
program willing to empower citizens in developing countries to express
themselves and make their voices heard, with special focus on deprived and
marginalized people. The programme will enable equitable and appropriate
access to information and communication resources that can help improve
livelihoods and stimulate other development opportunities. The programme
will also open up and broaden opportunities for a free flow of
information, for networking and sharing knowledge and for public and
democratic spaces for political debate and participation.
The intended beneficiaries and partners of the programme are the Hivos
network of some 800 partner organisations, with special attention for
micro-finance and HIV/AIDS, ICT and media partners. The joint efforts aim
at enhancing capacities, innovation, development of participative tools
and lobbying. The strength of the partners is based on knowledge sharing
and mutual empowerment. An extra focus is set
forward to bring access to ICT capacities `beyond the boss desk’,
affordable and appropriate access in rural areas and women& women’s
organisations.
Target group: disadvantaged individuals
& communities
Partners: Hivos (Humanist Institute for
Development Co-operation) - Netherlands
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the website of
the activity
Baldati (My Village) - Lebanon
Success Strategy: Baldati is a patriotic
environmental & heritage preservation oriented resource promoting
national development, cultural solidarity and tolerance and local
empowerment. Once the platform was set up, members organized in groups
build on new content to develop the website. Baladati members aim at
developing simple and practical methods by which to revive Lebanese
villages, reunite their communities, support their institutions, and
encourage dialogue at all levels. Baldati - The World Villages
was brought up by the awareness of the need of finding a simple and
practical way to empower communities. An initiative was launched to create
a virtual network of villages and community members through the Internet
believing that communication is the first step in solving the social
problems of villages, since these problems are aggravated by the solitude
and isolation of village societies. There are two possible memberships.
Club & hobby fellows could exchange opinions, useful links or explore
detailed local geographic maps. The second “plan” offers the opportunities
to get involved in several activities including training, promotion and
eco-tourism. The site is not purely informative and goes interactive in
order to raise awareness and incite peoples to get in touch with other
members with the same origins or similar interests. Different discussion
and action groups are mobilized through the website. Hyde Park, the
Lebanese Parliament forum offers to members numerous information and
analysis on hot political issues such as elections, parliamentary debates
and projects for new lows. Ecology and heritage preservation are promoted
through a comprehensive set of thematic data, picture gallery and
historical highlights. Clubs on health issues, photography, architecture,
music, sports and leisure are structured and vehiculed by electronic
means. Events organisation, registration and payments are online.
The concept of the website was driven by the idea to connect Lebanese
villages, local communities and diaspora inside or outside Lebanon on the
net so people could share visions, thoughts and concerns. Thus, Baldati
reveals as a framework for virtual community life without borders. As a
virtual place of socialization, intense communication and genesis of
social consensus and mutual understanding, Baldati is a social facilitator
and grassroots resource. We could regret therefore the lack of important
facilities in Arabic. Baldati.com is a portal containing at present
links among and to more then 1468 Lebanese village, 20 club, 192 Diaspora
countries. The project is currently covering Lebanon but there are ongoing
efforts of making it regional. The concept of accessible and open to all
virtual community is likely to answer to social development imperatives in
the Middle East area.
Target group: Local communities, all
citizens Partners: Baldati Founding Commitee
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the website
of the activity
FIRE - Feminista International Radio Endeavour - Costa Rica
Success Strategy: Feminista International
Radio Endeavour or FIRE is the first international internet radio produced
by women. Set up in 1991, it was originally created as a resource to
amplify the voices of the women worldwide.
Based in Costa Rica, FIRE was broadcast originally on short wave. In
1998, it merged its traditional radio service with the internet. This has
enabled diverse formats of communication, through re-broadcasts in local
radios, international short wave radio, magazines, newspapers, electronic
networks and web pages. internet provides the possibility of converting
the computer into a transmitter of high frequency, more economical than
traditional radio.
FIRE's main objectives include developing new forms of communication
and contributing to change in the world order, giving women voices the
opportunity to be heard, especially voices from the Global South, are
often ignored in global media.
FIRE is not 'for' women; it is by and about women and their thoughts on
various issues. While it is international in scope and reach, it is mainly
produced by Latin American and Caribbean feminists.
In addition, it seeks to generate individual and collective commitment
to movement building and action. It also wants to produce high quality,
non-sexist, activist programmes in Spanish and English for radio and the
internet.
Activity-wise, FIRE conducts special coverage of events and organises
and produces web cast marathons on special occasions. It also produces
women's PEACECASTS, which help create awareness and mobilise
participation. Training in web casting is conducted to build women's
capacities with new information technology.
FIRE also produces programmes that invite women to come to the
station or call in. In addition, journalists are invited to listen to the
live broadcast from their own countries to produce material for their own
stations or re-broadcast the sound files. Radio stations and other web
casting initiatives are invited to link live. The internet audience is
also invited to both listen in and write to FIRE.
Partners: multi-stakeholders partnership
Awards GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (Global/Regional)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and the website of the activity
The Church and the Internet
Success Strategy: Given that four-fifths of
the Philippine population is Catholic, the Church wields considerable
influence. The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) aims
to connect each of the 79 dioceses and almost 3,000 schools to one another
and the internet over the next five years. The CBCP also intends to
provide content, e-mass services via streaming video and IP telephony to
enable Filipinos to stay in touch with family and friends abroad.
With the underlying goal of protecting society from pornographic materials
online and spread the Catholic gospel, the CBCP intends to use ICTs to
usher in an era of “e-vangelism” in East Asia. CBCP is also
involved with the private sector to provide cybercafés to disadvantaged
neighbourhoods and to develop e-commerce services for Filipino
farmers.
Background materials: see the
ITU website
Achieving E-Quality in the IT Sector - Jordan
Success Strategy: This project towards
"Achieving E-Quality in the IT Sector" is targeting to lessen the gender
gap existing in the ICT Sector by teaming efforts to build women's
technical and professional capabilities. The intention was to give women
enough of an edge to compete effectively in a male-dominated ICT market,
and to enable them to secure stable, well-paying jobs.
The project had five strategies:
- Explore opportunities and challenges in the ICT market and policy
environment
- Sensitise existing policies
- Build women's capacity
- Link participants to the local and regional ICT job market
- Raise awareness on the importance of ICT
In the awareness-raising component, the project succeeded in creating
exposure to the project activities and objectives and raised awareness on
the importance of including women in the ICT sector.
The project's success has attracted interest from NGOs and women's
organizations in other countries in the Middle East. As a result, this
Jordanian pilot project will be replicated in Egypt and Lebanon in
addition to other countries in the region.
Target group:Women from low-income groups,
Government and public institutions, NGOs, schools, universities and the
private sector
Partners: UNIFEM, Jordanian government,
Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (Global/Regional)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and the website of the
activity
Palestine Women’s Resource Center
Success strategy: UNESCO and the Palestine
Ministry of Women’s Affairs, aware of the importance of women empowerment
and capacity building as a whole have agreed on the establishment of a
Palestine Women’s Resource Center (PWRC). A Memorandum of Understanding
concerning its creation has been signed in May 2005 and the official
inauguration of the Center is foreseen to take place in November 2005.
Located in Ramallah, the Center will serve as an observatory and
clearinghouse on information related to women’s issues in the Palestinian
National Authority. In addition to its function as a resource and
documentation center, it will carry out networking, advocacy and
policy-oriented research for gender equality and the human rights of
Palestinian women. Research priorities will be legislation for women’s
rights, causes and consequences of women’s poverty, violence against
women, and women’s political participation.
The Center is the first of its kind to be established in an Arab
country outside the Maghreb region. Through on-line databases, reference
materials, research projects, policy briefs and internships, it will help
build human and institutional capacities in governmental and
non-governmental women’s organizations, and facilitate communication flows
and networking as well as advocacy of gender-sensitive issues within
Palestinian society. It will also promote awareness-raising campaigns,
particularly in regards to the enforcement of existing laws that protect
the rights of women.
UNESCO will allocate a budget of $200,000 to the establishment of the
PWRC and an additional $150,000 to cover staff and operational costs and
research activities for the period 2006-2007. The Ministry of Women’s
Affairs will provide office space for the Center. UNESCO will seek to
mobilize extra-budgetary funding for the Center to allow the hiring of
additional experts and researchers. Target group:
Palestine's women
Partners: UNESCO and the Palestine
Ministry of Women’s Affairs Source: the Unesco
website
For more information: see the UNESCO website
The Acacia Initiative - Africa
Success strategy: The Acacia Initiative:
Communities and Information Society in Africa, is an initiative of the
Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to empower
sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and
communication technologies to their own social and economic
development.
The Acacia programme is commencing its second phase (2001-2005), which
will look to build on the first one, notably by focussing on disseminating
findings widely, learning from its initial projects and developing new
types of projects. The objectives of Acacia II are:
- To enhance the understanding and knowledge of the innovative,
transformative or dysfunctional effects of ICTs in poverty reduction and
human development in Africa
- To improve African countries capacities to formulate and implement
national ICT policies promoting equitable access to ICTs and information
doe socio-economic development
- To contribute to research in appropriate ICTs that support the
development and adoption of affordable and functionally relevant
technical solutions for Africa
- To support research that enhances African content through software
development for the effective application of ICTs for development
- To learn from Acacia's community-based research and experimentation
and to widely disseminate this knowledge.
Activities include regional and sub-regional convening to garner broad
participation of stakeholders in debates about ICTs and development, as
well as recognition of the need to address a broad spectrum of policy
issues. There are projects to develop local content needs to meet
educational, business, and environmental needs and a variety of community
access mechanisms (such as telecentres). Acacia activities also include
stimulating private sector participation and supporting sectoral
initiatives such as school networking to support formal and informal
learning.
Under the Acacia Initiative, several big-scale projects are underway,
including: SchoolNet South Africa Programme - to test various connectivity
models and to develop an understanding of the educational processes,
benefits and constraints relating to the use of ICTs in education.
Mozambique Pilot Telecentres in Manhica and Namaacha - The telecentres
will offer various services from photocopying to e-mail, but the main
focus of the telecentres will be to provide educational resources to the
most disadvantaged groups in the two communities.
Application of ICTs and Decentralization of Health Services - Phase I:
Telemedicine Pilot Project - to introduce new information communication
technologies and enable the control of such technologies with local health
practitioners. The telemedicine facility will service distant and
underprivileged communities outside Dakar.
Economic Empowerment of Women through ICTs in Uganda - Online and
offline databases and other information sources on a variety of issues to
increase women entrepreneurial opportunities are combined with ICT
training for women and technical assistances for using these
databases.
The Evaluation and Learning System for Acacia (ELSA) constituted a very
significant element of the entire first phase of Acacia (Acacia I).
Perhaps the most important lesson learned from the first generation of
Acacia was how challenging it can be to mount this type of program.
Partners: IDRC was a founding memeber of
PICTA and has partnered broadly with the principal agencies involved with
ICTs in Africa (through, for example, the African Information Society
Initiative and the African Networking Initiative). Partners include the
UNECA, UNESCO, ITU, NORAD, European Commission, Open Society Institute,
Worldlinks, IICD and many others. Among its developing country partners,
just to cite a few, there is APC, ENDA TM, GEEP, Wits University, Makarere
University, Eduardo Mondlane University, Université Cheikh Anta Diop,
OSIRIS, SADC, INIIT, ITIGEO, etc.
Source: The Communication Initiative
website
From Dakar to Dhaka: Connecting Communities Radio Programme -
Senegal and Bangladesh
Success strategy: The BBC World Service
Trust and the Department for International Development (DFID) are
currently working on a radio project to address the issues of information
communication technology (ICT) and poverty reduction - particularly
focusing on Senegal and Bangladesh. The outcomes of the project will be
three radio series (in French, Bengali, and English), a video, and a
website.
Through visits to grassroots projects in Senegal and Bangladesh, the
radio programmes, which are entitled "From Dakar to Dhaka - Connecting
Communities," will explore the uses of ICT in alleviating poverty.
Organizers seek to explore the question of what use ICT can be to people
who lack basic healthcare, are illiterate, and do not have enough to eat.
Another focus of the programmes will be the obstacles to development in
this area, including political, economic, and technical barriers. The
radio programme have been broadcast as part of Go Digital on the BBC World
Service, found at the BBC's On Air magazine or at BBC World Service site
starting in October, 2002. The BBC
Newsonline site features stories gleaned from the broadcasts.
Partners: BBC World Service Trust, DfID
Infrastructure and Urban Development Department
Source: The Communication Initiative website
and BBC
World Service site
Afro@Digital: A documentary on Africa’s digital revolution
Success Strategy: In an effort to
demonstrate the effectiveness and creative uses of ICTs in Africa,
Congolese filmmaker, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, has sought to capture
Africa’s digital revolution on film. The documentary shows how
Africans from eight different countries are using the internet, digital
cameras, mobile phones, and other ICTs to join the global community.
Cybercafés are probably the most popular form of access for the majority
of Africans, and the film highlights the creative ways they are using
these public access points to gain access to world markets and the global
knowledge pool. For example, in Bamako, Mali, the number of internet
cafés has increased from one to 100 in just one year.
For more information: see UNESCO
website
Telecenter Manager Software - Uganda
Success Strategy: In 2002, UgaBYTES
Initiative introduced a software package that is aimed at making the work
of project managers in community ICT programmes easier. Telecenter Manager
is designed to help managers at telecentres in Uganda track users'
activities each time they use telecentre services. The software is
designed to help managers make informed decisions.
The user must remember his or her user ID number, which allows the
Telecenter Manager to generate an "auto user registration report" and
"auto daily user report". This ID number enables managers to track usage
without having to acquire any further information about telecentre
users.
UgaBYTES Initiative is a Ugandan NGO that works to support the
integration of ICT into Uganda's development efforts. The telecentre
manager software was distributed free of charge and free training was
provided in 2002.
Target group: Tmultipurpose Community
Telecentres Managers
Partners: UgaBYTES Initiative
Source: The Communication Initiative
website
Cyber Institute for Women's Empowerment and Leadership (CIWEL)
Success Strategy: In the Middle East, only 6
per cent of internet users in the region are female; the women leaders
felt this was the main cause of inequality and lack of development there.
The goal of WLP's CIWEL initiative found in 2000 is to ensure women's
equal access to communication technologies and training. The expected
outcome of this is their full participation in social, economic and
political leadership. The CIWEL project uses a combination of
technology and communication tools: radio programmes; video programmes;
live internet radio web cast and CD and web archives of the web casts;
multimedia packages consisting of CD-ROMs, videos and training manuals;
and online e-mail.
In addition, web-based distance learning courses and an eLearning
centre for women were established. The project also created roaming
institutes for the training of trainers; multi-lingual websites; and
provided training and capacity building for partner organisations. Each of
these tools is adapted to the linguistic and cultural needs of target
constituencies.
More than 3,000 women and girls have participated in WLP's CIWEL
initiative in Afghanistan/Pakistan, Cameroon, India, Jordan, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and
Zimbabwe.
Women in Cameroon are organising radio shows focusing on women's issues
and WLP's partner organisation in Zimbabwe is establishing a technology
training centre for refugee women from Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania to increase their technical and
capacity-building skills. As a direct impact of the project, women in the
region have become more aware of their rights and are better able to
participate in governance, decision-making and organisational
transformation.
Partners: the Women's Learning Partnership
for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) organisation and women's
organisations in Afghanistan, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, and Palestine
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (Global/Regional).
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website
Wi-Fi for favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro
Success Strategy: A pilot project is being
implemented in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to open high–speed academic
networks and provide, through a broadband wireless link (Wi–Fi technology)
connectivity to nearby favelas (slums). The initiative will link local
Universities to currently unconnected community computer centres. This
project is being implemented in partnership with the Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the State of Rio
de Janeiro and two local NGOs (Vivario and CDI). The project aims to
demonstrate how high-speed networks can be twinned with wireless
technologies (in particular, Wi-Fi) to serve low-income communities within
large metropolitan areas. Given that the majority of the Latin
American population live in urban areas, and a high percentage of those
inhabitants are unconnected, the impact of the project can be quite
significant.
For more information: see www.ICAmericas.net
Rusape Girls Empowerment Village - Zimbabwe
Success Strategy: The Rusape Girls
Empowerment village is a 'safe village' founded in 2001 by its current
director, Betty Makoni. Located in Zimbabwe, the village was established
in response to a felt need to empower rural girls. The centre serves as an
information dissemination centre as well as a service provision and relief
centre. Its goal is to give a sense of hope to abused rural girls.
Organisers believe that the village's activism can contribute to respect
for girls' rights on a broader scale.
This project is based on the premise that the "rural girl can reach
greater heights if she is brought in close contact with technology." Using
technology, the project hopes to address issues related inter alia to
exploitation of rural girls as a source of cheap labour in urban areas and
farming communities, sexual harassment and abuse of rural girls, hostile
school environments where teachers perpetrate sexual violence.
Specifically, girls are provided with 3 months of training on the use
of email and the internet. The village has a computer lab with a
photocopier, email access, and an internet-connected computer. The girls
produce brochures and referral materials there. "They have been motivated
and greatly inspired by this development and also the latest information
on HIV/AIDS has been very helpful. The girls have started the pen pal
programme which has linked them with other girls for information
exchange.
Partners: Girl Child Network Trust (GCNT),
Firelight Foundation, IDEX, Department of Social Welfare, health
institutions, police, and local organisations of Zimbabwe+
Source: The
Communication Initiative website
The Virtual Women's University (VIFU) - Germany
Success Strategy: The Virtual Women's
University is an outcome of the International Women's University (IFU),
which offered a 3-month postgraduate course in Germany in the year 2000.
During the course, 700 participants – half of whom were from developing
and transitional economies – researched global challenges such as water,
information, migration, city, work and health.
The 700 participants were made up of researchers, journalists, NGO
activists, artists and others. In order to allow the participants to
continue networking after the end of the course term, the web server
www.vifu.de was created. The server consists of a virtual community, an
electronic network and a virtual library.
This site provides extensive online resources on work and academic
matters, politics, global and local conflicts and activism –– all with a
gender perspective. One is even able to find job offers and conference
announcements and post messages on the message boards. This has allowed
activists, journalists, students, scholars and politicians to continuously
exchange knowledge, ideas and perspectives from all over the world.
VIFU's goal is to network among women internationally, to offer gender
specific information, and to provide and strengthen IT competencies.
Capacity building for women in the IT field is given particular emphasis
as women users are often marginalized on the internet by mainly male
content. VIFU offers female users the opportunity to create and find
content relevant to themselves, so that they may be empowered actors on
the internet and in IT-related fields.
Partners: multi-stakeholders’
partnership
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (Global/Regional)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and the website of the activity
Not Just Gumboots & Scones – New Zealand
Success Strategy: Not Just Gumboots &
Scones is an empowerment gender and grassroots initiative. It
represents an extensive collection of resource intended for women in rural
communities throughout New Zealand with a particular focus on the South
Canterbury, Otago and Southland regions. The multi-layer website has the
ambition to improve communication, provide opportunities, both social and
economic, and ensure that people are aware of issues that any of us feel
are important. The site is based on contributions from people with an
interest in rural issues. The concept of the resource shaped up thanks to
the possibility of cheapest, quickest and most exciting type of
communication through internet that it offers. Some of the limitations of
access to the internet were overcome by placing modems in four resource
centres throughout the south of the South Island of NZ: Middlemarch,
Fairlie, Nightcaps, and Waimate.
Not Just Gumboots & Scones is a comprehensive information
network for rural women. It includes useful thematic New Zealander
websites focused on rural issues such as agriculture and horticulture
information and news about livestock, forestry, fishing, and crops but
also about rural work equipment, services and stock indexes. Specific
highlights on water, environment, injury& disaster prevention are also
elaborated in order to provide a wider range of useful services for rural
communities members. Education & training opportunities in the field
are updated on a regular basis constituting a solid reference work for
interested people. A reasonable number of publications on related issues
allow getting additional information and different points of view.
The website provides as well a very wide range of knowledge resources
in an easily readable and comprehensive form. Political institutions,
national history, legal points are explored in depth and relevant facts
are stressed. Legal issues are particularly taken in consideration to
provide exhaustive feedback on employment law, health rights &
legislation, parental leave, family trust, employment rights for children,
how to choose lawyer services and many related websites.
A rich collection of children’s pages is also developed. Links to other
websites dealing with children’s education, training and upbringing are
available. Features such as environmental education through interactive
play and writing thesaurus for students and kids are helpful sources of
inspiration for parents and teaching professionals. Professional advice
services and childhood institutions could be easily spotted and contacted.
Interactive forums for questions are open to any concern related to
children.
In addition, each month the site brings new and topical resources.
Miscellaneous events - dance, science, environment, gender, empowerment -
are posted in due time to urge attendance.
The overall vocation of Not Just Gumboots & Scones goes
beyond the role of information resource and useful tool. The website helps
to reconcile the status of woman as a mainstay of rural community life and
her ambition to have a say in ubiquity of social and professional life.
Fully assuming the role of mother and labour force, women have been
carrying out important social and cultural enterprises and continuously
emancipating through the mastery of new technologies and innovative
solutions. The awards nomination procedures in different domains promoted
on the website witness of that more and more tangible trend.
Target group: women, rural population, all
community members as a whole
Partners: New Zealand’s Civil Society
Organisations
Source: WSIS
Stocktaking Database and the
website of the activity
Aprendiendo Juntos (Learning Together) - Chile
Success Strategy: This project was carried
out in the framework of the action lines of the National Meeting of
Kindergartens (Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles - JUNJI). JUNJI is a
private initiative launched in 1970 with the objective of creating,
planning, promoting, stimulating and supervising the organisation and
operation of kindergarten classrooms. The company relates to the Chilean
government via the Department of Education.
The general purpose of the project was to contribute to the achievement
and improvement in primary education, especially of girls under the age of
six - through the implementation and validation of an educational model
based on strategic use of radio, in-person training, distance education
and educational booklets.
The radio programme "Aprendiendo Juntos" initiated in 1997 has been
implementing targeted actions for rising awareness among adults about the
different processes of learning in boys and girls as well as about how to
facilitate learning process for both. The National Technical Department
produced a weekly 20 minutes radio programme, which was openly broadcast
to assure accessibility to all social groups. At the same time, a hotline
was opened to receive calls from the public. In order to offer an
interesting and flexible programme, various formats were used including
music, narration, interviews, etc.
In terms of content, each radio programme had a special thematic focus:
culture, language, socialisation, body awareness, creativity and
self-reliance. Aspects related to quality of life were considered as well
as children’s rights and girls’ rights in particular. In addition,
suggestions were presented for activities to be carried out at home.
In 1998 the programme "Jardín Infantil a domicilio" (Kindergarten at
Home), a complementary 10-minute television programme broadcast weekly and
addressed to adults, was launched.
The programme was first developed in the community of Pintana, one of
the poorest communities of the Metropolitan Region. Subsequently, the
programme was spread in five regions of Chile, reaching a total of 4,000
families. Consequently, during 1998, the project was expanded jointly with
the television programme "Jardín Infantil a domicilio" implemented
simultaneously in the five regions to reach 2,000 additional families.
Partners: Junta Nacional de Jardines
Infantiles – JUNJI
This project forms part of the "Multilateral Project of Improvement of
the Quality and Equity of the Basic Education", with funds from the
Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA).
Source: The Communication
Initiative and Aprendiendo
Juntos" page of the Proyecto Multilateral de Mejoramiento de la Calidad y
Equidad de la Educación Básica website [Spanish only]
Strengthening Cyberela Network - Brazil
Success Strategy: The project conceived by a
Brazilian NGO seized the opportunity to integrate community radio with the
internet as the means to empower women. As access to the internet was
becoming cheaper in Brazil, it proved to be a suitable "marriage partner"
for the main mode of communication: radio.
"Strengthening Cyberela Network" was formed to facilitate this union.
The initiative had three objectives:
- improve the quality of radio content by equipping producers of
women's radio programmes with access to a broader spectrum of
information through the internet;
- make internet access available to the communities through the
creation of community radio-telecenters;
- have a defined area in cyberspace with gender content.
A website, www.radiofalamulher.com, was set up to allow women to access
radio programmes with gender content, through the internet. The initiative
gives women experience with the internet while they access something
familiar (radio programme) as well as specific to their needs (gender
content). At the website, visitors can download audio-files that contain
radio programmes with gender content.
Two public contests were held to select women producers. Popular female
radio communicators participated and have become committed key people in
the Cyberela Network. These women were trained to use ICT for radio
production: how to download and upload files, how to use the internet for
research, exchange audio files, e-mail and interact with listeners.
Finally, telecentres were created to make the internet available to the
community.
The best evidence of the success of this project is that it has been
recognised throughout Brazil and is gaining recognition overseas as an
example of best practice. In 13 months, they have averaged 100,000 hits on
their website. Partners: Communication,
Education and Information on Gender – Brazil (CEMINA)
Awards: GKP Gender and ICT Award 2003
- Finalist: Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (National/Local)
Source: The
Global Knowledge Partnership website and Radio Falamulher website
World Schoolhouse Project - Dir, Pakistan
Success strategy: Since 2002, the World
Schoolhouse Project is committed to ensuring that girls and women in
Pakistan rural areas learn to read. In order to help underwrite schooling,
new schools are established and equipped, and various facilities for
boosting the teaching competencies of the school personnel are made
available. Target subject matters are basic mathematics and English.
Recently, ICT basic skills have been also integrated in the training
modules after rise of awareness of the importance of the empowerment
resources available through internet. The initial programme ahs broaden
its focus from increasing access to primary education to effective
literacy, including e-literacy.
For people living in Dir communities, the success of the project is
obvious. Before its beginning, by lack of awareness and monopoly of the
traditional law, in the area there were no schools for girls, and a
tremendous majority of autodidact teachers were practicing. At present,
the schoolgirls ratio is continuously growing and trained educators
provide pedagogically consistent learning programmes, inter alia through
the use of ICTs. A special attention is given to the quality of schooling.
The project has been implemented by the Developments in Literacy (DIL)
and Khwendo Kor (KK) under the auspices of NetAid. Due to the highly
satisfactory outcome, the project concept has been replicated in many
other provinces of Pakistan as well as in other emerging countries as
Afghanistan, Peru, Colombia, Zimbabwe and Haiti.
Partners: Developments in Literacy (DIL),
Khwendo Kor (KK) under the auspices of NetAid
Source: NetAid and The Communication
Initiative
Indira Soochna Shakti (ISS) - Chhattisgarh, India
Success Strategy: The project was launched
in 2001 to increase access on the part of 250,000 girls in all 1605 state
high schools to information technology (IT) education. Young volunteers,
having been empowered with IT education, then lead a broader state
initiative to bring locally relevant information and IT to all citizens.
In the process, girls emerge as technology resource persons and community
leaders.
Indira Soochna Shakti (ISS)'s central strategy is using private-public
partnership to bring IT education to high-school girls in a cost-effective
way. The government-affiliated Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society
(CHiPS) selects a private partner through open-competitive-transparent
bidding for a 3-year period (as of this writing, the partner is AISECT, an
IT education society). This entrepreneur is provided space in the schools
and permitted commercial IT use outside school sessions. In return, the
government pays a cost-competitive fee of US $1.1 (Rs. 54) per girl per
month. In the first project year, the government paid for the IT education
of girls from disadvantaged segments of society. Beginning in July 2002,
the government paid for the IT education of girls from all segments of
society. Boys were to pay their own fee.
Forty-four percent of the schools reached by ISS are in forest areas;
many of these schools had to be connected to electric lines before
computers could be installed. In other schools, extra rooms had to be
constructed. Suitable instructors were not available locally in remote
villages, so teachers were brought in from cities. The National Centre for
Software Technology (NCST) helped identify a local language solution
providing integration of data with a platform-independent end-to-end
scaleable model. This approach is designed to solve the problem of
diversity of incompatible local language solutions.
While an end in itself, this education is also meant to equip ISS girls
to take part in the Chhattisgarh Online information for Citizen
Empowerment (CHOiCE) Project, which reflects the government's vision of
ensuring access to information on the part of all citizens. The key
strategy here is building a human network to support the development of a
technological network. Specifically, as part of CHOiCE, ISS volunteers
share networked handheld community computers in villages, routing
information and information-enabled services of local relevance. The goal
is to network all Village Councils. The pilot phase of the project is
under implementation in 246 villages; ultimately, all 9,129 Village
Councils in the state will be covered. ISS volunteers will also assist in
the creation of a Citizen Database and Village Resources Database for
CHOiCE as part of the People's Reports initiative (in association with the
UNDP and the Planning Commission of India).
Partners: Indira Soochna Shakti (ISS),
CHiPS; a private partner (currently AISECT); NCST; local government
(Mahasamund, Bagbahra and Fingeshwar Blocks); National Informatics Centre
(NIC); Planning Commission of India; UNDP; Village Councils
Source: The
Communication Initiative website and ISS
site
Meeting the Development and Participation Rights of Adolescent
Girls - Malawi
Success Strategy: Meeting the Development
and Participation Rights of Adolescent Girls is an effort to increase
gender equity and equality through skills development. The project focuses
on "the life situation of adolescent girls in a holistic manner with the
purpose of creating an enabling environment for adolescent girls' equal
participation in leadership and decision-making processes in all spheres
of society."
The project identified 5 barriers to girls' obtaining equality - they
included low participation of girls in development activities in the
communities, poor education attainment, poor reproductive health, lack of
vocational skills training, and low socio-economic status. The project's
strategy is to address these barriers through different channels
(education, computer literacy, rising awareness) and in a manner that
includes the whole community. The aim is to facilitate positive changes in
attitude and behaviour on the part of the community.
Partners: UNF/UNAIDS, Department of Youth
(DOY) of the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Community Services (MGYCS),
National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM), and Banja la Mtsogolo (BLM).
Source: The Communication Initiative
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