PULA NO. 3: NOVEMBER 2003
A Newsletter on Women and ICTs in Africa

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Newsletter of the Association for Progressive
Communications Africa Women (APC-Africa-Women) Pula
aims to promote and profile the work and activities
of women's ICT initiatives in Africa and to act as a
communicative tool to link women to each other and to
initiatives and opportunities.

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CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. Who produces Pula?
3. Our Voices: Stories from the field
4. Profile of an ICT Champion
5. Policy Focus
6. News and Events
7. Resources
8. World Corner: Global News

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1. EDITORIAL

Welcome to the third edition of Pula. In this edition we explore the concepts of education, training and skills development in relation to women and ICT policy. We have an article on community-based ICT training carried out by Women'sNet in South Africa's Limpopo Province. In 'ICT Champions', Mercy Khozi pays tribute to the life and work of Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda who passed away in September 2003. In our News and Events, Resources and World Corner sections, we have compiled information of interest to African women and ICTs.

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2. WHO PRODUCES PULA?
http://www.apcafricawomen.org

APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. APC-Africa-Women is the Africa regional programme of the Association for Progressive Communication's Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP).

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3. Our Voices: Stories from the field

Women'sNet Pilot Training Project in Limpopo province, formerly know as Northern Province, South Africa.

Women's net successfully piloted a community-targeted ICT-training that has a focus on gender awareness and the empowerment of women through development. The training also aimed at fostering collaboration between community radio stations, telecentres and women and gender organisations in the community.

The training was conducted at the towns of Mohodi and Botlokwa chosen because of their close proximity to the local Community Radio Station and Telecentre in each area. The other reasons were due to the presence of a local high school (in which Women'sNet assisted with the set-up of a computer laboratory), as well as the existence of a myriad of women's groups within each community that could benefit from the sharing of ideas and resources accessible via the radio station and the Telecentre.

Telecentres are also know as Multipurpose Community Centres and one definition provided by the Acacia project is: "A location which facilitates and encourages the provision of a wide variety of public and private information-based goods and services, and which supports local economic or social development." Acacia website http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/telecentre.html

The training included basic computer literacy, starting a Small Business, building Curriculum Vitaes, tips on computer usage and maintenance and access to training materials. The participants gained confidence and appreciated engaing with Information and Communication Technologies, which had previously been shrouded in mystery and fear. Most of the participants expressed an overwhelming interest in receiving further training.

The women were especially grateful for being able to participate in a community development project that focused on them. Many felt that they would be able to transfer their new skills into other areas of their lives as well. Women'sNet is planning for the next phase of the training in 2004.

Some of the reactions towards Women'sNet involvement in Northern Province communities:
"I'm delighted/ The community will really benefit/ Education is a factor when addressing women's empowerment, this is why such training is necessary/ It's a very good thing/I'm looking to acquire new skills and to develop as a person/ I've never worked with a computer before, soon I will know how to."

As trainer Liz Araujo said, "In today's ever-progressing world, it is important to keep abreast with modern technologies. I say this not to be biased, but because I realize the hazards of not feeling comfortable or adequate in the face of new technologies, especially as our societies become increasingly dependant on them. It is for this reason that I believe the Women'sNet Pilot Training Project was a necessary step forward. It provided many people in rural communities with the opportunity to feel like they too are familiar with some of the technology that is being used."

Women'sNet is a gender networking and support programme based in Johannesburg, South Africa that provides Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training to community based organisations, and especially women's organizations. Among other objectives, Women'sNet produces information of relevance to women's and gender organisations for publication on the Internet.

You can find out more about Women'sNet at:
http://www.womensnet.org.za

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4. Profile of an ICT Champion

Mercy Khozi pays tribute too an ICT Champion, Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda.
Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda died on 20th September 2003, a few days before her 50th birthday. She is survived by four children; Rose, Themba, Thando and Nakai. Jennifer was struggling with breast cancer. She was buried at Greendale cemetery in Harare.

She will be remembered for her energy and relentless efforts to help empower women, and particularly women in the media, to improve their lives and reduce their poverty and marginalisation. Jennifer's dedication to women in the media saw her focus gain momentum with rural women when she gave her skills and knowledge on radio to southern African women.

In her prime years, in the mid-1970's, she trained as a journalist at the Africa Literature Centre in Zambia and became one of the first women in Zimbabwe to attain a professional qualification in the field of journalism. She worked as an Intern with The Times of Zambia before acquiring a degree in Mass Communication and Economics. She later pursued her profession through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) where she headed the ZBC's Montrose radio Studios. At one time, Jennifer was a senior official in the Ministry of Information and a member of UNESCO's World Commission on Communication.

It was during her stay with Montrose studios that her interest in rural communication developed into a desire to see rural women become self-sufficient by accessing relevant information, which they could utilize to improve their lives. In 1997, she joined the Federation of African Media Women (FAMW_SADC) as regional director and together with other Zimbabwean media women, spearheaded the conceptualization of the Development through Radio (DTR) theory, which has rocked the rest of the southern African region and beyond.

Her efforts have been recognized by many organizations including UNESCO and Panos Southern Africa, which used her skills to train over 200 rural women in development communication. She will be remembered by women in Zambia's rural areas who referred to her when discussing developmental issues.

Simon Mwila, a local language broadcaster from the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) who was trained by Jennifer in the DTR concept and has since been spearheading the Zambian chapter of the DTR project, said, " … she was a friend. She knew her job and gave me the skills that I have and which I am able to use. She is seen as one of the few in Zambia and the region that understand the DTR concept."

In her efforts to see the development of media women, Jennifer traveled the region and helped many media women in developing exceptional radio skills including the acquisition of positive assertiveness as part of the integral process of broadcasting in Africa. At the time of her death, Jennifer had just organized a media workshop for women in Zambia. She spoke with faith and her voice lacked despair or sorrow and was full of life.

Her courage, assertiveness and skills will leave indelible marks on those that knew her professionally and personally. She spoke with conviction and turned many young media women into communication champions. She will be remembered for a number of achievements in the media field, but most of all, the women in Zambia will remember her for her passion in rural communication and for championing the DTR concept.

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5. Policy Focus: Education, Training and Skills Development

In this second part of our regular Policy focus column that looks at the major issues facing African women and their effective use of ICTs, our policy writer, Alice Munyua, explores the issues of education, training and skills development.

Research conducted on African women's use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) contained in Net Gains, an initiative of the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) and the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) Africa Women, noted that women tended to either not be aware of or unable to use ICTs beyond regular email use. Those with Internet access tended to use the Internet more as a source of information than as a means to disseminate their own information. And there was little awareness about the existence of software tools for development planning, management, documentation and retrieval and evaluation.

The reasons for this are many and complex and include socio-cultural attitudes towards women's involvement in scientific disciplines, the attitudes of girls and women themselves towards technology and the study of science, which is generally regarded as a male domain. Women face challenges in pursuing education at all ages not to mention the limited access to higher education due to prohibitive costs and training for Information Technology occupations.

Once women have entered Information Technology-related fields, they are not encouraged to participate in technology creation. Few women are among the managers, policy makers, and technologists who lead the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategies in the majority of African countries. Literacy, language, computer skills and information literacy are critical skills for drawing some benefit from ICT for development initiatives. Women and girls are less likely to have these skills and therefore more likely to be excluded from local initiatives. These challenges further contribute to the limitations of current ICT regulatory interventions. Thus, a key challenge is how to enable African women to use ICTs through content production to enhance advocacy efforts around gender for social development.

Support for capacity building and training of women and girls, which goes beyond access and basic applications and addresses such personal, institutional and systemic barriers and content development and dissemination is therefore important. Efforts to ensure the access of women and girls to technical, vocational and scientific education has been intensified and a number of organisations are involved in building the capacity of women and girls in ICT skills and information/knowledge management. African women's Civil Society Organisations are indeed attempting to move their members to the forefront of Information and Communication Technology for issues that are political, social as well as economic. Apart from using ICTs to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of organisations, they are taking advantage of ICTs to collect, synthesise, disseminate and to a lesser degree, produce information.

Some Recommendations:

§ The main sites of production of ICT products and services which is the private-sector, academic institutions, public-sector research bodies, and NGOs-must be targeted for policy intervention if African women are to be brought more fully into the process of designing, testing, producing, and improving technological tools and applications.

§ Research on interactivity to improve manipulation of ICT devices using speech, visual icons, and non-keyboard devices is also important. Projects, which focus on these, should be expanded and strengthened to enable Africa to produce basic and applied research on non-English-language computer processing and control systems and applications.

§ Women should have access to well-designed training programs that develop hands-on skills and provide motivational training materials, user-friendly manuals, and local user support. Under these conditions, the overall learning experience of African women encountering ICTs will be more rewarding. Self-education and other open-learning methodologies are useful methods for introducing women to ICTs and can be used to stimulate debate on ICT-related social and political issues.

§ Other critical ICT competencies needed to advance the position of women include information literacy, which link the new technologies to the growing framework of lifelong learning and the concept of a learning society. Awareness of the value of information itself is also crucial.

§ Education skills development programs must train women specifically for senior management positions so that the women in such positions can integrate women's concerns into policy as well as act as role models for girls, which is a crucial component of re-socialisation. This calls for conscious efforts to direct the use of the technologies and attend to the new needs they generate.

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6. News and Events

6.1. Scholarship - Visiting Scholar in Feminist Perspectives on Globalization
http://www.wigsat.org
http://GSTGateway.wigsat.org [English]

The Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's Studies at Carleton University and the Institute of Women's Studies at the University of Ottawa are launching a four year project to allow scholars from the developing world, working in the field of "Gender and Development", to spend a research term at their institutions. The duration of the Visiting Scholar's stay should be for a six month period and within the university's academic year, which runs from September to April. The purpose of this fund is to attract highly qualified researchers from developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, the Carribbean and the South Pacific, working within a "feminist perspective on globalization".

Applications can be submitted in English or French and the closing date for submitting applications is December 15, 2003. Email hboudre@uottawa.ca

6.2. Scholarship - Strengthening Resources for Gender Equity
http://web.uct.ac.za/org/agi/progs/programmeass.htm [English]

The African Gender Institute based at the University of Cape Town proposes to run a Strengthening Resources for Gender Equity: Associates Project in 2004 and 2005 which will offer opportunities to relatively well-capacitated African based women scholars, writers and researchers. We particularly encourage applications for research on policy-making. An Associateship is a period of stay based at the African Gender Institute in Cape Town. Applications are invited for the following periods:
1. Arrive during March 2004, return home during June 2004
2. Arrive during March 2005, return home during June 2005
Please note that only one selection will be held for both the 2004 and
2005 Associateships. Applications must be received by 15 December 2003.
Email: bmartin@humanities.uct.ac.za

6.3. Scholarship - Funding: Fulbright New Scholars Program The Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
http://www.cies.org/ncs/ [English]

Deadline for applications is 15 December 2003. Selections are announced in February. The Fulbright New Century Scholars Program (NCS) is a global program for individual research and multidisciplinary/multinational collaboration within the Fulbright Scholar Program. The research theme for NCS III is "Toward Equality: The Global empowerment of Women." NCS III will support accomplished scholars and professionals who wish to share their work and build collaboration within and across issue communities. Approximately 30 fellows will be selected from the U.S. and around the world. NCS Scholars will conduct individual research, make an international exchange visit of two to six months, and participate in a program of seminars in the U.S. and abroad. In so doing, they will identify and carry forward collaborative projects to advance research, education and/or policy to improve the lives of women. Participants will receive awards in the amount of $41,500, plus travel and per diem for orientation and program seminars.

6.4. Seminars - Gender and ICT for Development Seminar Series - Kampala

The Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University is a leading academic organization committed to advocating for a greater role of women in Uganda's ICT sector. In an effort to broaden its gender and technology initiatives as well as enhance women's participation in Uganda's ICT sector, DWGS are proposing a Gender and ICT for Development Seminar Series to provide an opportunity for students, scholars and interested members of the public to gain insights on the intersection of gender, ICTs and development from key actors in the field. Particular emphasis would be given to raise the challenges and opportunities for women aspiring to be IT professionals.

If you are interested in further information about the series or in being a guest speaker, please email Dorothy Okello on email dokello@wougnet.org

6.5 Award Announcement - Women's Leadership and the Future of Africa
http://www.thp.org [English]

Two women lawyers who are respected for their bold effective action for women's rights will receive the 2003 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger often referred to as the Nobel Prize for Africa. Meaza Ashenafi established the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association (EWLA) that has led the charge for women's rights across the political spectrum and across the nation. She has championed women's rights in the areas of domestic violence, sexual abuse, family, economic and land rights. Sara Longwe of Zambia is a lawyer, grassroots mobiliser, critic and author of the "Longwe Framework for Gender Analysis." She has pioneered the use of international human rights laws in the fight for women's rights in domestic courts. Ms. Longwe serves as chairperson of FEMNET, the African Women's Development and Communications Network that aims to strengthen the role and contribution of NGOs focusing on women's development, equality, and rights and to provide an infrastructure for information and empowerment.The prize was awarded at a ceremony in New York on Saturday, October 11, 2003.

6.6. Conference - Second East African Gender Budget Conference

On behalf of the East African Gender Budget Network (EAGBN), FOWODE is pleased to announce the second East African Gender Budget Conference scheduled to take place 4th - 6th November 2003 at Imperial Botanical Beach Entebbe. The overall objective of the conference is to share experiences in the region on gender budgeting in the context of globalisation and to provide opportunity to: Share and network on gendered approaches through which to engage effectively in the current economic discourse, build capacity on gender and trade and macroeconomic concerns as well as debate alternatives to overcome the current negative effects of globalisation. For more information please contact:
The Conference Coordinator: Email: fowode@utlonline.co.ug

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7. Resources

7.1. Book - Involving Civil Society in ICT Policy: the World Summit on the
Information Society APC/CRIS, 2003
http://www.apc.org/books
[English, French, Spanish]

Access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) is expanding but the majority of people in developing countries are still excluded, says APC. At the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva in December, governments will agree on a declaration and action plan that could enhance or hinder access to ICTs for the vast majority of the world's population. APC and the CRIS Campaign have been following the WSIS process and our publication - "Involving Civil Society in ICT Policy: the World Summit on the Information Society" - highlights some of the principal issues at stake.

7.2. Book - Evelyn Zinanga: A Memorial Booklet
http://www.zwrcn.org.zw
[English]

A publication, A memorial booklet dedicated to Evelyn Zinanga, is now available in limited copies from the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network. The lives of women rights activists are often consumed by the struggle for equality, dignity and respect. There is seldom time to sit back, reflect and write about the contributions we make, often in very difficult and dangerous circumstances and in the context of multi faceted patriarchal resistance and oppression.
Resources to research our experiences in and of the struggle are limited.
To reserve your copy email aderges@zwrcn.org.zw

7.3. Radio - Simbani Africa. A New Voice for Community Radio

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has set-up a news agency on development issues. Simbani Africa News Agency will make use of technical information from various organizations, editing it into radio format, thus making it accessible to a wide audience, including to people in the most remote rural areas. The main focus areas are food security, the environment, gender, democracy and governance and HIV/Aids. Information dissemination will be adapted to the rural and community populations' needs, on the use of local languages and on the vast community radio network, radio still being the most popular communication medium in Africa. Simbani is taken from ChiChewa, a language spoken in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. It means "Talk".

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8. World Corner

8.1. Women's Electronic Network Training - Asia
http://www.i-went.net/ [English]

2003 is the 5th anniversary of WENT, and a series of events is planned to commemorate this milestone. An anniversary dinner, exhibit, and symposium will celebrate the achievements of WENT graduates, and a special Outstanding WENT Graduate award will be given to one winner chosen from among the workshop's alumni. This year's participants will have a unique opportunity to join this celebration, and to become a part of a vibrant community. Since 1999, the Women's Electronic Network Training Workshop (WENT) has trained women on basic website development tools and other Internet-based group communications. WENT seeks to promote greater networking among women's organizations in the region and to enhance their capabilities to use information and communication technology to advance their social and policy advocacy.

8.2. Women Into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement (WINNER)
http://www1.winner-tips .org [English]

WINNER serves the purpose of a long-distance and continuing education for women in the SME sector. Through the use of Internet tools, the project provides women entrepreneurs participating in the WINNER project with information on business opportunities, basic know-how in running their businesses, and capability in gearing their businesses to the global market. With the information and Internet tools available to these women-run enterprises, the WINNER project creates the conditions conducive for business partnerships, trade collaboration and technology cooperation in meeting the challenge of global competition in the New Economy. The project provides trainers' training of core personnel of participating women associations, whose members are gearing to market expansion or business start-ups. The training modules on E-commerce, International Trade and Enterprise Management are in the CD-ROM self-learning packages. WINNERS matches production supply with market demand, through networking of buying agencies and producers and production cooperatives in the WINNER participating countries. This is done through the electronic market space created for the WINNER project. It also fosters continuing education on international trade, trends and tools for making business abreast of the world market through the sustained information flow from the production side to market scene, carried out through the TIPS global database and information services.

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If you have e-mail access, you can get web resources listed in this Newsletter by sending a message to www4mail@kabissa.org with the web address (usually starting with http://) in the body of your message.
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We welcome your opinions about this newsletter. Contributions for publication in French, English and Portuguese and for suggestions and ideas, please email Africa@apcwomen.org

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Pula is produced by APC-Africa-Women, a project of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
http://www.apc.org

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CopyLeft 2003. Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Permission is granted to use this document for personal use, for training and educational publications, and activities by peace, environmental, human rights or development organizations. Please provide an acknowledgment to APC.
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