A shallow sweep of the topic I wrote for my Gender & Development class. (this is the short version. I thought that was nicer to share.)
Read more in this helpful book: African Women & ICTs, get some Twitter action through @ICT4D and check out Eldis’s one-stop-website on the topic.
Information Communication Technology for Development:
Gender and a Ugandan case
The dawn of the digital age has come for the entire globe. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), born and nurtured in developed countries through the past century, have restructured the exchange of information, practical production, and social constructs. Parallel to general development trends, the use of ICT for development purposes, both with a focus on actual service delivery and on the social implications and improvement because of access to ICTs, have vastly increased. These efforts have already changed certain aspects in the way of life of communities around the globe. In the past perhaps fifteen years, women in rural villages of Uganda have acquired cell phones, farmers in remote areas of India have begun the use of mapping technology for agricultural improvement and governments and development agencies have launched programs for the positive growth of ICT in developing nations.
In many ways, ICT for development has brought positive change to countries. In theory, ICT should also be a liberating and strong developing force for women, offering opportunities for education, open communication, economic growth, and participation. (Hafkin 3) However, what was often the case in early IT implementation was a regard for gender not thorough enough to actually promote female participation. In fact, in many cases the projects served to further deepen gender disparity because females could not utilize the new resources freely. In some cases it led to increased burden or stress for women. For example, in Zambia the easier and cheaper access to cell phones have offered women the opportunity to have their own mobile communication outlet. But, because of the pre-existing social constructions, husbands of these women often because jealous and distrusting, sparking controlling and harmful behavior and diminishing the women’s overall freedoms and reversing the ICT progress if husbands decided to take away the phone. (Melham 33)
The situation of ICT is pertinent particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa for several reasons. First, ICT is frequently used as a means for rural poverty elimination; an issue that women in this region are very familiar with. Furthermore, in all demographics of Sub-Saharan Africa, “women have the lowest participation in the world in science and technology in all education levels.” (Hafkin 6) Increased familiarity with any form of ICT will increase the likelihood of female participation in technology development, which requires the best the citizens can give, male or female. (Melham 8) Also, with “e-government” becoming a popular trend amongst Sub-Saharan African nations, such as NICI policy in The Gambia, the opportunity for the female voice to be present in and informed about politics like never before makes access to communication technology pressing. (Islam 3)
It is nearly undeniable that with these timely opportunities and the counter-productive situations like that in Zambia, along with the low ratio of female to male participants in many ICT initiatives because of other socio-economic constraints, encourage an engendered approach to and evaluation of ICT for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Melham 5) In order to effectively create and implement positive ICT for development projects in this African region focused on the participation and benefit of women and girls, it is important to look at a few of the main obstacles of ICT in recent history. One of the main issues facing the use of Information Communication Technologies as a means of engendered or gender inclusive development is that traditionally data collected, by either government when related to policy or outside organizations when related to development work, had no segregation by sex. (Hafkin 4) In this way, governments or development agencies saw positive numbers with out the realities behind them, which were most frequently a situation of alienation from ICT for women community members. (Hafkin 4) Another inherent issue is the lack of female presence in policy and decision-making. The majority of Sub-Saharan African nations have traditional roles in which men are dominate in all levels of politics and participation. In this way policy development and implementation have largely neglected the concerns of women. (Litho) Females in this region tend to have lower literacy rates and receive a lower level of education than male peers, making even accessible ICTs difficult to use. Lastly, general obstacles for ICT development tend to become magnified when approached by females. Issues such as lack of resources like consistent electricity, the cost of use of ICT, and socio-cultural obligations that limit time and activity tend to restrict females in a household more than men. (Litho)
In the past ten years, development projects can be seen that address these issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is widely accepted today that ICT is a development tool that is “neutral and useful to all regardless of gender, social, economic, or political context.” (Litho) Because of this point of view, ICT for development is “now being promoted by governments and development agencies as a tool having the potential to empower the marginalized, especially women living in rural Africa.” (Litho) In some cases, new projects have even been created to alleviate problems from originally gender-neutral initiatives. Such a project has been created in rural Uganda: WIRES.
In Uganda, women are the majority of the population and many of these women reside in rural areas. Because they are the majority, their role in socio-economic strength is paramount, but is often ignored because of social status. Over the past decade, the creation of telecentres was a major cooperative between NGOs and the government. In the planning stages of the telecentre system, gender had been a thought. Telecentres are multi-platform hubs in rural areas that offer internet connection, landline telephones, computer access, and more depending on regions. However, women did not consume the successfully created ICT centers in the way hoped. Using the Social Construction of Technology viewpoint of development and technology (SCOT), one researcher has identified some obstacle points to female usage and why the development of this program had not effectively considered the “realities” of the region in which the ICT would be implemented.
First, the researcher found that women used mobile phones much more largely than computers, as is also a trend for both genders in Uganda. “Women are reported to be uncomfortable with especially computer related ICTs,” including e-mail and Internet, while they find the mobile phone “accessible.” (Litho) Women surveyed reported feeling uncomfortable using the facilities in the presence of local men. Their domestic schedule made walking the long distance to the telecentres difficult, leaving mobile phones as a much more convenient form of communication. Because of their low-income levels, virtually none since husbands hold household earnings, women did not have the disposable income for the fee of entry into the telecentre. Lastly, their literacy levels are lower than those of men, and even if they used telecentres despite these challenges and a large technophobia, women would not easily find the information they seek.
These facts in mind, the researcher says one will find only men surrounding computers in the telecentre, with women sometimes gathered in a second room in the facility. He attributes this real failure of inclusion to the planning. “The international agencies possibly based their model on western concepts…without consideration of the environment to which the technology was being delivered.” (Litho) Conversely, the researcher presents the new, counter project, WIRES, as an inclusive ICT. WIRES is a female-only environment that offers a CD-ROM to its visitors. The CD-ROM includes audio-visual materials, making it accessible to illiterates, and uses the local language. The CD-ROM is designed to present ideas about bettering personal economic practices, with relation to their own family and production levels. Its goal is to reduce rural poverty in Uganda by empowering its women. As of the time the researcher published, women using the WIRES resources said they understood the materials and benefited from them. (Litho)
Thinking on the example of women in rural Uganda with in the larger context of ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed its global trends, ICT is clearly at a crossroads with gender. Timely opportunities for increased participation in government, self-education, and communication must be seized. However, it is my opinion that, as the researcher in Uganda said: “It should not be assumed that the rejection of a technology is due to a lack of understanding by the recipients, it is just that the technology does not work for them.” (Litho) With all of the innovation going on around the world, interactive technologies for development should be created that offer women accessible ways to be involved with ICT. Knowing what is most important to women in rural Uganda, a computer may not be the answer. A woman would do better to have a portable device that is accessible from the home. Participatory ICTs are empowering women like never before, and devices must offer women—even illiterate women—a way to participate, perhaps through audio recording. Solar powered chargers to sidestep electricity shortages are most reasonable. Above all, steps must be taken before turning these technologies over to women to ensure that the social environment in which they are being placed does not cause a reaction that will only serve to increase a woman’s burden or stress at home.
SOURCES
Hawfkin, Nancy and Taggart, Nancy. “Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Counries: An Analytic Study. Executive Summary.” Washington, DC: LearnLink.
Islam, Dr. Baharul. “Creating an Outer Circle in the Digital World: Participation of Women in the e-Government System.” 12 December 2005. Economic Commission for Africa.
de Jager, Arjan and van Doodewaard, Margreet. “The e-Society Programme of the Apac District, Uganda” May 2008. Hivos, IICD.
Litho, Patricia K. “ICTs, empowerment and Women in rural Uganda: A SCOT Perspective.” 22 April 2005. SSMAC Centre for Narrative Research. http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/ICTs.htm
Melham, Samia and Tandon, Nidha. “Information and Communication Technologies for Women’s Socio-Economic Empowerment.” 30 June 2009. World Bank Group Working Paper Series no. 51259.
