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femLINKPACIFIC Media Initiatives for Women

ISIS Manila International

 

10 March 2008

Contact: sharon@femlinkpacific.org.fj

 

femLINKPACIFIC: Media Initiatives for Women in partnership with ISIS Manila International announces the Pacific launch of a 600 page publication and Regional Campaign PEOPLES’ COMMUNICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT (PC4D)

 

PC4D is the result of a three-year research on the use of effective
communication tools for grassroots women's empowerment in five
countries - India, Philippines, Thailand, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

 

The three year research project, coordinated by ISIS Manila International, linked together likeminded NGOs - Aalochana Centre for Documentation and Research on Women (India), Civil Media Development Institute (Thailand), FemLINK Pacific: Media Initiatives for Women (Fiji) & HELP Resources, Inc. (Papua New Guinea) to review how intermediary groups (NGOs/CSOs) use communication tools for grassroots women’s empowerment.

 

According to femLINKPACIFIC Coordinator, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, the publication and campaign launch links in well with the staging of the annual “My Life, My Issues, My Peace and Security” rural broadcast campaign which commenced in Labasa on March 7 and 8: “The March 11th launch was an interactive presentation that demonstrated the linkage between the use of information and communication technologies which for too long have only been regarded as access to and use of the internet.”

 

 

The Peoples Communication 4 Development Research Project Reinforces Radio and Face to Face Interaction as Appropriate and Accessible Info-Communication Tools. 

 

Over the last three years, ISIS Manila has coordinated and participated in this collaborative research project in partnership with femLINKPACIFIC in Fiji, the HELP Resources Centre in Papua New Guinea, Aalochana Centre for Documentation and Research on Women in India and Civil Media Development Institute in Thailand.

 

People’s Communications for Development is a groundbreaking study that chal­lenges the notion that access to new information and communication technologies (ICTs) will lead to the empowerment of women. This notion is axiomatic in the international development community, which subscribes to the idea that ICTs will enhance the pace of development and even lead to the empowerment of the poor and the marginalised. It has been pointed out time and again that there is a wide gender gap in the access to these ICTs. Much attention has therefore been given to bridging this “gender digital divide.” Women are organising on many different levels, in their own organizations and within develop­ment communication organisations, to ensure that women have access to and benefit from ICTs.

 

Isis International is one of the organisations that have played a significant role in promoting the use of ICTs among women’s and other social movement organisations, especially among those working with grassroots and marginalised people. It contributes to this task in many ways, from participation in policy discussions, to critical analysis of corporate control of ICTs, to capacity building and training for grassroots and intermedi­ary organisations in the use of communication technologies.

 

At the same time, Isis International is also questioning the primacy of ICTs as the best medium, always and everywhere, of communication for development. This criti­cal stance follows Isis International’s solid tradition of questioning the unquestionable in the realm of development and communications, whether it is the concept of “integrating women in development” or “mainstreaming gender” or basic assumptions about develop­ment media and communications.

 

This study on People’s Communications for Development (PC4D) builds on much previous work of Isis International. As early as 1985, the editors of the Isis Interna­tional publication Women and Media, Analysis , Alternatives and Action, Bina Agarwal and Kamla Bhasin, admonished us not to lose sight of the fact that people, not technology, are the main medium of communication.

 

In 1986, Isis International,in the book Powerful Images, presented articles and resources from women worldwide, including women from the grassroots, in creating our own alternative communication media for em­powerment. The Women Empowering Communication Conference (WEC), co-sponsored by Isis International, the International Women’s Tribune Centre (IWTC) and the World Association for Christian Communication (WAAC), held in Bangkok in 1994, brought to­gether over 400 women from communication organisations to share their views and expe­riences not only on how communication can empower women, but also on how women are empowering communication.

 

At this conference, women also examined how mainstream media are used as tools by those in power. Since then, Isis International-Manila has deep­ened its critical analysis of corporatised media and ICTs, particularly at the World Social Forums.

 

This publication represents a new and major step by Isis International in the exploration and critical analysis of issues relating to women, communication and ICTs. It is the culmination of a three-year, five-country collaborative study conducted by Isis International-Manila with Aalochana Centre for Documentation and Research on Women of India, Civil Media Development Institute (CMDI) of Thailand, the FemLINK Pacific: Media Initiatives for Women (FemLINK Pacific) of Fiji, and Health, Education, sustain­able Livelihood and Participation for all (HELP Resource, Inc.) of Papua New Guinea. It examines how intermediary groups use new ICTs and traditional communication tools for grassroots women’s empowerment, how grassroots women’ understand empowerment, as well as their views of the effectiveness of different communications tools.

 

As a result of this study, the five collaborating groups are proposing a People’s Communications for Development (PC4D) agenda. Isis International will contribute to carrying forward this agenda in the future, including through popularising these research results and organizing a People’s Communication for Development Conference.

 

Working with organisations involved with grassroots women across these five countries, the study analyses extensive interviews and focus group discussions in order to examine the relationships between communication tools and empowerment within the lives of grassroots women in the developing South.

 

Rather than dividing these tools into “new” and “old” technologies, the project views communication broadly, taking account of traditional means of communication such as theater and face-to-face discussion alongside newer tools such as radio and television, as well as new information-communication technologies such as cellular phones and computers.

 

For femLINKPACIFIC, the research project was an opportunity to delve into the realities of why “we do the work we do” and an important opportunity to link up with women undertaking similar work in the project countries as well as contribute to a substantive study of the reality of women and communications.

 

As femLINKPACIFIC Coordinator says, the research project has been a critical way to identify the most appropriate means of information and communication to support the empowerment of rural communities, with a special focus on women’s access to information and communication:

 

“What is important is that there is greater appreciation of the gender power relations even in the context of how a woman, especially in our rural communities, is or is not able to access information and that her own personal empowerment is closely linked to the availability of such information; is the information, for example, available in a format that she can understand or share further. There is also a need to also consider infrastructure issues when planning developments relating to new ICTs and whether or not communities are able to contribute to local programming as well.”

 

This reality also includes the critical role of interpersonal or face-to-face communication with rural women’s group. This means the delivery of information directly to women in their communities, and the development of community media initiatives to document women’s issues, their stories, such as femLINKPACIFIC’s campaign, “My Life, My Issues, My Peace and Security”

 

In Fiji, a total of 16 organisations were key research informants, identified during the initial stage of the research project in 2004. These included the Ba Senior Citizens Centre, Citizens Constitutional Forum, Catholic Women’s League, Ecumenical Centre for Research Education and Advocacy, Fiji Disabled Peoples Association, Fiji Human Rights Commission, Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprise and Development, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Interfaith Search Fiji, National Council of Women Fiji, Partners in Community Development Fiji, Pacific Islands Association of Non- Governmental Organisations, Poor Relief Society, Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team, Women’s Action for Change, Women’s Information Network

 

In general, intermediary groups in Fiji viewed oral communication as most empowering for grassroots women. The key in empowering grassroots women was “to go and sit down with them.” Most empowering as well was print media given its accessibility and suitability to Fiji’s reading culture. Also most empowering was the radio given its reach and popularity among women. Theatre and performing arts and film were also considered empowering whereas TV and telecommunications were considered not empowering.

 

Intermediary groups in Fiji believed that new ICTs, particularly the Internet, could be potentially empowering for grassroots women. However, new ICTs are largely inaccessible given infrastructure problems. Using the cellphone is a problem as well. At the moment, only intermediary groups find new ICTs empowering for their own use. As such, traditional communication tools are more empowering for grassroots women compared to new ICTs.

 

A total of the following nine organisations from Papua New Guinea were interviewed for this study coordinated by the HELP Resources Centre:

 

Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency (BOUGAINVILLE),

Meri I Kirap Sapotim and National Catholic Family Life Apostolate (GOROKA),

Kup Women for Peace (HIGHLANDS), Lae Catholic Family Life and Women and Children’s Support Center (LAE), Community Development Initiative (PORT MORESBY), HELP Resources, 9. Baua Baua Popular Theatre Foundation (WEWAK)

 

PNG’s Key Informant Interviews emphasized dealing with violence against women. In Papua New Guinea, gang rapes brought about by raskolism are common, and there are heavy cultural barriers against reporting these crimes to the authorities. In these situations, women’s groups take on the role of mediator, counselor and sometimes, legal aid and law enforcer.

Many of the feminist groups also viewed empowerment as deeply connected to peace-keeping, as Papua New Guinea’s women are also heavily affected by the violence inflicted on them and their families due to the conflict in Bougainville.

 

Many groups, like Kup Women for Peace, also see the interconnections among HIV/AIDS, violence and wars.

 

Like Fiji, some PNG women’s groups that are involved in networking, training, and community development, such as Lae Catholic, are also religious in nature.

 

Additionally, PNG is part of “Sixteen Days of Activism,” an international campaign for women’s rights. This is because, as Meri I Kirap Sapotim believes, it is important to also learn about events that are happening in other countries, connecting them locally.

 

Most PNG groups (37%) reported that they have broader services and take on different issues and concerns not necessarily among grassroots women. Only 25% have broader target beneficiaries and count grassroots women as only one their many beneficiaries. Also, 25% reported that they focused on women in general and only one group catered primarily to grassroots women. Majority of the organisations (75%) reported varied thrusts, such as promoting health, agriculture, environment, and sustainable livelihood. Many were also set for capacity building and training (63%), education and information dissemination (50%), and networking (40%). Majority of the groups (78%) mentioned that their strategy in communicating with their beneficiaries is through training and capacity building. This strategy is followed by advocacy and mobilisation (33%), education or consciousness raising (33%), and networking, linkages, and coalition building (33%). As for the uses of communication tools, the top uses were for training (89%), advocacy and mobilisation (78%), education and information dissemination (67%), announcements (44%), gender mainstreaming and service delivery (33%).

 

Mira Ofreneo, the Head Researcher of the project agrees that like for femLINKPACIFIC, the research offered an opportunity for women’s media or community media networks to not only justify the need for such work and also expand the broader understanding and appreciation of the need to address the need for community-centred information and media forms:

 

“From the point of view of ISIS when it proposed the research project, it was coming at a time where new ICTs seemed to be the priority area but we were not sure what would be applicable to work with grassroots women, “Do these communities also want these new ICTs? Do they want to use the computer or the internet or what is effective on the ground?” And so as the head researcher, I was very much amazed at how effective what we could call traditional tools viz a vis the new ICTs, and how radio was so important, how face to face interaction was the most effective way of communicating and yet people only talk about new ICTs today. So, for me, it was something we knew, perhaps, in our own circles, but not something we bring attention to, so that people are not (just) focused on the technology-determined kind of development and realize that we are all people here and we are all still communicating the way people have been communicating, years, decades, centuries ago – that is talking directly to each other; through communicating through radio, through theatre, through street plays, conversation and that is what works!”

 

One key aspect of the research was a review of related literature, which, not surprisingly, revealed that women or the gendered aspects of ICTs are not being included in current research, especially in the Pacific region:

 

“There is almost nothing about women in relation to technology,” says Ofreneo, “And that is why when we tried to write something substantial it was so difficult because people are not doing this kind of research and those working in the research field don’t seem to be interested, or are not working with grassroots women, and are not connecting it with communication, or with technology. So we have research on new ICTs perhaps, in terms of what kinds of jobs are being generated by technology, by the computer/internet, but nothing about communities, nothing about NGO or grassroots people’s organisations and how they use technology. So we found it very difficult to come up with some kind of baseline data from the five countries and even the new journals on the new ICTs they tend to just focus on how many computers per capita, or how many people use the internet and we don’t really hear about radio or television and newspapers or the other modes of communicating, it is almost as if everything else has stopped.”

 

The research was also an opportunity to address ICT accessibility issues for women with disabilities, although Ofreneo admits, that this was not necessarily a deliberate effort of the research:

 

“That was an issue particularly raised in Fiji and something that was not explicitly addressed in the other countries. (but) To me it was interesting that each country brought in specific issues, for example Fiji talked about peace more than the other countries; interfaith issues and religion and conflict/violence, so the issue of disability is something we have not addressed.”

 

Tesa de Vela, the Associate Director of ISIS Manila, clarifies that there was also a range of interpretations of the term “grassroots women” by the different research partners: “(we found) It was about women who are marginalized not necessarily in terms of class. So in India caste was also a form of marginalization, in the same way that in Fiji women with disabilities was very much seen as women who are very marginalized.”

 

According to de Vela, what emerges from the study is the urgent need to return to the fundamental principle behind gender and communications advocacy; the concerns of the people traversing multiple “information societies”.  This is all contained in a 600 page publication “PC4D – People’s Communications for Development”: “We need to counter this development paradigm that has come out as ICT4D (ICT for Development) with something that will return back to the people; let’s go back to the basics, let’s go back to our centre and go back to what people are saying on the ground (which is) ‘new ICTs are great but the traditional forms of communication are still the ones we are using to communicate with each other directly and with our immediate concerns, our every day concerns’”

 

However, de Vela points out that the research also shows the need for new ICTs especially to enhance advocacy for change, beyond the local level: “Let’s face it, there is a limit to the change we can make at the local level if we are not going to go into social transformation at national, regional and international levels, and so the research is actually calling for convergences (which is a point often raised by femLINKPACIFIC)”.

 

Convergence is a combined use of traditional communication tools with the new ICTs:

 

“The research is also talking about social movement building on this. That we are not just talking about communication tools as tools, we are talking about them having a politics within themselves and therefore it also touches on policies, and making policy changes,” adds de Vela

 

While the research ends with implications on policies, the concretization of those policies, according to de Vela, will be nuanced for the specific countries: “So the country specific policy implications and principles are up to each country.”

 

For more information about the People’s Communication 4 Development Launch please contact Sharon Bhagwan Rolls on (679) 9244871 or email sharon@femlinkpacific.org.fj





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