Resources
The Following resources are collected from members of APC-Africa-Women. Some have been initiated by the network, and others have been developed by the member organisation itself. We have divided this page into Websites, Training Materials, Research and General Documents. Please scroll down to find each section.
Web sitesVers le Sommet Mondial de la Société de l’Information
Informations sur les préparatifs engages par les organisations de femmes et de la société civile, et les organisations internationales, en Afrique et dans le monde, dans le cadre de la préparation du Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l’Information
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WSIS NGO Gender Strategies Working Group web site
With nearly all of the planned regional preparatory meetings for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) completed and the Second Preparatory Committee meeting fast approaching, the WSIS NGO Gender Strategies Working Group (WN-GSWG)* considers this a most opportune time for women to begin sharing and discussing our lobbying points and strategies for the Summit.
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Flamme – African Sisters Online
At the time of the 5th Regional Conference on Women (Dakar, 1994) Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as an issue and as a tool for women’s agenda was almost ignored. The ICTs for women issue was highlighted in the Beijing Conference, but poorly at the African level. Since then, the context of ICTs in Africa has evolved a lot, and different initiatives have been set up for women in the field of ICTs in Africa.
African women must seize the Beijing+5 evaluation process to use, get information, be trained and have their say in the ICT field as well as in the Beijing assessment process, within Africa and linking to the global processes. Thus FLAME/FLAMME: Sisters On-Line Website was developed by 12 committed women’s NGOs to meet this need.
Flame serves as an electronic forum for women to share and exchange ideas, strategies, information and issues of concern to impact on the implementation of the Beijing platform for action. Flame is a network of African sisters online committed to strengthening the capacity of women through the use of ICTs to lobby, advocate and participate in the Beijing +5 process regionally and globally.
Africa ICT Policy Monitor Project
The APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor’s primary goal project is to enable the consideration of civil society needs in ICT policy development. The ultimate aim being that governments and policy makers recognise that access to and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is a basic human right.
The ICT Policy Monitor project is collecting and interpreting policy information in Africa in a similar way to related APC Internet rights projects already underway in Latin America and Europe, to build civil society awareness of ICT policy issues in the context of other basic human rights, and to provide a means to monitor and engage ICT policy issues in the interests of social justice and human development.
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APC Women’s Networking Support Programme
The web site for The APC WNSP supports women networking for social change. Our programme work areas include training, participatory research, policy and advocacy in gender and information technology, information facilitation, and regional programme support. We strive to challenge the inequities faced by women, especially in the south.
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Training materialsICT Policy for Civil Society training pack
APC and CTO are proud to announce the release of the “ICT Policy for Civil Society” training pack. The pack includes a curriculum and accompanying materials to build the capacity of civil society organisations to understand and engage policy and regulation related to information and communication technologies (ICTs). The pack includes a curriculum and training modules and materials that can be used for either a five-day course or as stand-alone sessions combined to meet specific training needs.
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Training Tool – A Structured Multimedia Training Kit
The UNESCO/APC Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK) provides trainers in telecentres, community media organisations, and the development sector with a structured set of materials to help make that jump between new and traditional media or train in a new skill area.
The materials cover a range of multimedia areas like “presenting on radio” and “writing for the web” as well as topics such as “cooperative problem solving”. The MMTK is a growing collection, and new topics will be added in the months to come. Materials follow a standard format and so can be used as interchangeable building blocks from which trainers can build up face-to-face training appropriate for their different contexts. So, a trainer running a workshop on information skills for a women’s organisation could choose components from the “Searching the Internet” unit and the “Violence Against Women” module and combine them into a single workshop kit.Individuals can also use many of the materials for self-instruction.
All MMTK materials are released under a Creative Commons license which allows their free use and distribution for non-commercial use.
CONTACT: [email protected]
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ResearchThe Role of Information and Communication Technologies in the Development of African Women
This paper sets out to look at the question to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in relation to women’s development in Africa. The emphasis is on current issues and the paper highlights key issues and challenges faced by women in Africa and to a smaller extent, globally. The paper provides examples of good practice and includes recommendations to Civil Society Organisations on how to create an enabling environment for women to access and use ICTs for development. The crucial link between understanding the gender dimensions of the Information Society – in terms of what women’s needs are and a thorough understanding of conditions of access, policies – and the potential ICTs have of boosting the economic, political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality is explored. An extensive resource list and examples of successful initiatives form the field are included in appendices.
Download the paper and appendices in various formats.
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Citoyennes africaines de la société de l’information
Le Réseau Genre et TIC, une initiative en
partenariat ENDA – OSIRIS – ART, publie, à l’occasion de la Première Conférence Préparatoire du Sommet de Tunis sur la Société de l’Information (Tunis, 23-26 juin 2004) “Citoyennes africaines de la société de l’information, un manuel de première urgence à l’intention des décideur(e)s”, plaidoyer à l’intention des décideurs et acteurs publics, civils et privés, sur la prise en compte du genre dans les politiques d’information et de communication, pour une société africaine de l’information juste, plurielle et inclusive.
Cet ouvrage collectif, pratique et illustré s’inscrit dans le programme “Prendre en compte le genre dans les politiques de TIC”, mis en œuvre par le Réseau Genre et TIC avec l’appui de Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA, Dakar, Sénégal), est à utiliser pour négocier et construire l’équité dès les premières heures de la société de l’information.
Préface par Mme Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, Directrice de la Division des Services de l’Information pour le Développement de la Commission Economique des Nations Unies pour l’Afrique ; Avant-propos par Association for Progressive Communication.
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Information and Communication Technologies in Africa
In 1997, IDRC launched its Acacia initiative in an effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply new information and communication technologies, or ICTs, to their own social and economic development. Now, 6 years later, the Acacia initiative presents this unique and groundbreaking three-volume collection of original research on this important and timely issue.
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Gender Issues in the Information Society by Natasha Primo
A UNESCO Publication for the World Summit on the Information Society – Geneva, December 2003.
Women represent the main economic force in most developing countries. As economies become more and more information-driven, the issues of women’s access to and use of ICTs is growing in importance for both developed and developing economies. The ease with which information and communication technologies can transmit and disseminate information for development is well recognized. But women’s access for women to ICTs cannot be assumed to occur “naturally” when gender-blind approaches and technologies are implemented. As a result of profound, gendered applications and implications of ICTs in employment, education, training and other areas
of life, women need encouragement and support to take their rightful place in the information revolution…..
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Telecentres and the Gender Dimension by Kelby Johnson
Telecenters have become an important component to development programs that seek to narrow the digital and knowledge divides that exist throughout the world. Despite the proliferation of telecenters throughout Africa, women continue to be cut off from essential info-communication
resources that could improve their lives. This thesis examines the relationship between gender differences, telecenter design and women’s accessibility to information and communication technologies (ICTs). By examining how these elements interact in the context of the diffusion model, this thesis suggests that the incorporation of the gender dimension
into telecenter designs can enhance the diffusion of engendered telecenters, thereby increasing women’s access to ICTs and improving their ability to contribute to the evolution of Africa’s information society.
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Resource Guide – Mobilising Communities to Prevent Domestic Violence: A Resource Guide for Organisations in East and Southern Africa
Developed by Raising Voices in collaboration with UNIFEM and Action Aid-Uganda, sheds new light on how community-based organisations can design and implement a participatory project to prevent domestic violence. The Resource Guide describes a conceptual framework for preventing domestic violence and provides extensive strategy and activity suggestions for organisations interested in working systematically to affect individual and social change within their communities. Special features in the Resource Guide include: rights-based program ideas and activities; full color examples of learning materials such as posters, games, murals and booklets; a comprehensive community activism course; and, simple, ready to use documentation and monitoring tools.
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Report – Progress of the World’s Women 2002: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals. UNIFEM Biennial Report, 2002
What has been the progress for the world’s women in 2002? There has been progress in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world – but the pace is too slow in many regions. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest levels of achievement, primarily because of a devastating combination of national poverty, conflict and the effects of HIV/AIDS. These are among the findings of Progress of the World’s Women 2002, the groundbreaking report on women’s empowerment produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). This biennial report is the only one of its kind to track the world’s commitment to gender equality.
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The One to Watch Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity.
The chapters in the book show that the injection of the Internet’s “digital DNA” is changing the nature of radio. The cases considered here are indicative of the first few steps in this transformation of radio. They offer insight into what the next generation of radio might be like and underscore the significant potential of the combination of radio and new ICTs.
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Information and Communication Technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women.
The Division for the Advancement of Women, Department for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, convened an Expert Group Meeting on “Information and Communication Technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women”, organized in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations ICT Task Force Secretariat.
The meeting was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from 11 to 14 November 2002. These reports will be used for the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women.
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Signposts on the Superhighway: African Gender Signposts
Panos Southern Africa, with support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, commissioned women’s organisations largely from southern Africa to engage in a gender analysis of the Internet and identify relevant, easy-to-use Internet information resources on gender and development.
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Gender and the Information Revolution in Africa
The essays in this book examine the current and potential impact of the ICT explosion in Africa. They focus specifically on gender issues and analyze the extent to which women’s needs and preferences are being served. The authors underscore the need for information to be made directly relevant to the needs of rural women, whether in the areas of agriculture, health, microenterprise, or education. They argue that it is not enough for women simply to be passive participants in the development of ICTs in Africa. Women must also be decision-makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to accelerate African economic, social, and political development.
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Women’s Information Services and Networks: A global source book
This source book is part of the Gender Society and Development series published by KIT. It looks at how women’s networks and information services are using ICTs for their work. The book includes a directory of the ‘Mapping the World’ database.
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Net Gains: African Women Take Stock of Information and Communication Technologies
This book is the product of participatory research. Forty-two women from sixteen countries in east, west, north and southern Africa gave generously of their time to contribute to the research and share their experiences. The book attempts to address questions such as: What relevance do information and communications technologies have to poor rural women?; and Is the information revoluntion really a priority for the African continent, when there are far more immidiate challenges to be addressed?
The research forms part of a holistic APC-Africa-Women and FEMNET programme of activities related to the Beijing+5 process in Africa and internationally.
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General DocumentsAPC Annual Report: Strategic use of ICTs by civil society and
In the course of 2002 APC focused its energies primarily in two areas – strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by civil society and engaging civil society in ICT policy processes. The use of ICTs by civil society has been central to APC since our founding and we have been working on ICT policy issues since 2000 when APC members identified ensuring internet rights for civil society as a priority. But in 2002 we started to delve beneath the surface of the challenges our communities confront and instead of responding to the symptoms, find ways to help civil society anticipate and plan for the challenges in their policy environment at home or in their use of ICTs in their workplace.
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Running a National ICT Policy Consultation for WSIS
The upcoming World Summit on the Information Society is a great learning opportunity for civil society organisations that are new to the ICT policy process to begin to articulate positions and gain valuable experience in lobbying that can be taken back to their home countries. “But How Do We Start Working At National Level?”
The APC guide “FAQ about Conducting a National WSIS Process” outlines the steps to take and key components in organising a national consultation around ICT policy. The “question & answer” format homes in on some of the key questions we have heard people ask about how to organise. The primary target audience is people that are active in using or promoting the use of ICTs in their work, but who have not necessarily been involved in national level policy processes previously.
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Rural women and Access to Land (Recommendations of International Workshop)
The International Workshop Rural Women and Land took place in Thies, Senegal from 25-27 February 2003. It was organised by the Rural Women National Network of Senegal with the support of the Dimitra project and Enda-Pronat. The main goal was for rural women to speak out and highlight the problems they encounter in regard to accessing cultivable land, natural resources and land acquisition. Rural women, the majority of whom are farmers, are crucial partners in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Nevertheless, their work still remains underestimated and local traditions can often increase discrimination against them.
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Local appropriation of ICTs
As part of the ongoing research into the potential role of ICTs in rural development, the FAO Communication for Development Group (SDRE) produced the report ‘Discovering the “Magic Box”: Local appropriation of information and communication technologies (ICTs)’. The main findings of the report concluded that there were few examples of community driven access to ICTs, a scarcity of evaluation studies and a lack of local participation and content generation at the local level.
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Internet, se connecter
Une publication conjointe de l’Institut Africain sur le Genre et Women’snet (Afrique du Sud), destinée à encourager les organisations de femmes agissant sur les questions de genre à utiliser Internet. Version en langue française : Famafrique (ENDA, Sénégal)
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Gender Caucus Statement at the Africa Regional Meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society
This statement was prepared by the Gender Caucus at the African Regional Summit on the Information Society 2002 in Bamako, Mali. APC-Africa-Women was there to help draft and to mobilise support for the statement. The Gender Caucus meeting was initiated by UNIFEM.
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Statement from APC-Africa Women. Information and Communication Technologies:A Women’s Agenda
This statement was launched at the 6th African Regional Conference on Women in Addis Ababa in November 1999. The focus is on women’s access and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development in Africa.
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The Internet – Getting Connected
This joint publication of the African Gender Institute and Womens’Net has been compiled as a tool to encourage gender activists based in women’s organisations to make effective use of the Internet. It is an easy to understand, illustrated guide to understanding and using the Internet.
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Articles/PapersLe rôle des technologies de l’information et de la communication dans le développement des femmes africaines
Les TIC ont connu une période d’essor considérable ces dernières années et les organisations de la société civile (OSC) leur ont témoigné un intérêt croissant. On ne débat plus de la question de savoir s’il faut ou non se servir des TIC. La plupart des OSC ont choisi d’utiliser activement les nouvelles technologies et cherchent maintenant à savoir comment utiliser stratégiquement les TIC dans le travail organisationnel. La nécessité de posséder et de contrôler les TIC se fait davantage ressentir et devient évidente. Les débats portent dorénavant sur la façon d’utiliser les TIC pour relever les défis du développement auxquels l’Afrique se trouve confrontée. Les organisations de la société civile, les gouvernements, les bailleurs de fonds et, dans une certaine mesure, le secteur des affaires étudient les mécanismes appropriés permettant de mobiliser les TIC au service du développement. Bien qu’il y ait les risques concomitants liés à l’exploitation, à la dominance et au mercantilisme plutôt qu’au partage et à l’avancement social, la plupart des acteurs de la société civile s’entendent sur
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The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in the Development of African Women
This paper sets out to look at the question to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in relation to women’s development in Africa. The emphasis is on current issues and the paper highlights key issues and challenges faced by women in Africa and to a smaller extent, globally. The paper provides examples of good practice and includes recommendations to Civil Society Organisations on how to create an enabling environment for women to access and use ICTs for development. The crucial link between understanding the gender dimensions of the Information Society – in terms of what women’s needs are and a thorough understanding of conditions of access, policies – and the potential ICTs have of boosting the economic, political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality is explored. An extensive resource list and examples of successful initiatives form the field are included in appendices.
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Rage Against the Machine! ‘The same technologies that instil institution can be used to forment revolution
In the digital world, the black woman is conspicuous by her absence. As with an urban legend, some speak of having once encountered a black female who could write C or even Perl (both programming languages). However, as with most near-mythical creatures, she is elusive and hard to track down. Often her existence is doubted, even when she’s standing right in front of you.
The predominant question investigated in this article is this: “Why the lack of women, let alone black women, writing code (structured instructions written in a programming language) in South Africa and similar developing nations ?”.
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Development – Volume 45 Issue 04 – Creating Global Communication
Development is the Journal of the Society for International Development (SID). Volume 45 Issue 04 – Creating Global Communiation – Development and the new Information and Communication Technologies.
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Internet and ICTs for Social Change
This document locates APCWNSP’s GEM work in the context of overall development issues of gender and ICTs. It sets out critical ICT issues relevant to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the current context of globalisation. This section also presents APC and APCWNSP’s analysis of these issues and our approach to using ICTs for development.
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Women and Media for Social Change: Communication Initiatives Worldwide
Advances in technology over the past two decades have brought information to the most isolated regions. Media convergence allows the dissemination of the same news in various forms (print, radio, television, Internet). But the gross of the information that is disseminated across the planet is commercial and standardized, designed to maximize investor’s profits and insensitive to social justice and equity.
Women across the world, concerned with the impact of media on their lives, insisted in 1995 that the United Nations make media a critical area of concern.
This book (and web site) gives an overview of the progress made in the media landscape in the six years that followed the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and highlights the obstacles encountered by women in each world region.
Faced with media that makes so little place for them, women have developed strategies to produce information that is balanced and representative, to claim their place and to present new voices and new images: a newspaper in Haiti, multimedia books for rural African women, a feminist press agency in Mexico, community radio in East Timor, interactive television in France, journalist networks in the Middle East, an Internet network for peace in Macedonia. This book is a journey through the world of women’s accomplishments in the field of media, accomplishments that point the way to making
information accessible.
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Relevant and Accessible Electronic Networking in Africa
This article reflects on some of the debate around the relevance, usefulness and appropriateness of ICTs for women in Africa.
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Report on the APC Women’s Program in Africa and WomenAction research into the situation of computer networking among women’s organizations in Africa and how WomenAction can support their participation in the Beijing+5 process
Over a period from August-September 1999, the APC Women’s Program in Africa and WomenAction conducted research into the situation of computer networking among women’s organizations in Africa and how WomenAction could better support their participation in the Beijing+5 process. Results of the research are to be used as a lobby input for the ‘Beijing PfA Section J: Women and Media’ at the Sixth African Regional Conference on Women for the Mid-Decade Review of the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action (PfA), 22-27 November 1999, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In addition, the results will be used by WomenAction to better anticipate how to enable women around the world to communicate with each other about Beijing+5 and to exchange information.
This report presents a summary of the research findings. In the following section, the characteristics of the respondents and their organizations is presented. This is followed by sections on the Beijing+5 process, Communication, Information retrieval, Information dissemination, Skills, Training & support, and finally Recommendations.
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