Document(s) 3 of 12

Most of the chapters in this volume were presented at an international conference, African Women and Economic Development: Investing in Our Future, which was held from 28 April to 1 May 1998, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to mark its 40th anniversary. This collection examines the current and potential impact of the explosion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Africa, focusing on the gender dimensions and analyzing the extent to which the revolution is serving women’s needs and preferences. The book argues that it is not enough for women to be simply passive participants in the development and dissemination of ICTs in Africa. They must also be decision-makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to accelerate African economic, social, and political development. 

The chapters in this volume address three broad topics: the current state of ICT and telecommunications policy in Africa; sectoral applications of ICTs in agriculture, education, and governance (democratization); and, finally, some current practical experiences in Africa. 

In the opening chapter, Nancy Hafkin presents an historical perspective on the emergence and convergence of the themes “gender and development” and “ICTs and development” to develop a clearer understanding of the analysis of gender and ICTs in Africa. She points out that the decade of the 1970s adopted the theme “women in development” (WID), which emphasized a home, family, and social-welfare approach. This approach saw women as passive recipients of development benefits. However, the 1980s saw the addition of the empowerment approach, which stressed the need for women’s access to productive resources, such as land, labour, and capital (credit, education, and training). Concerns began to emerge about the effects of new technologies on women’s economic and social roles, and debates began to focus on gender gaps in technology. It was generally held that technologies are gender neutral and that their use is equally available to men and women. Information technology remained a specialized tool, and there was no thought of questioning its relevance or potential benefits for African women (nor indeed any women) at that time. 

Hafkin observes that the application of science and technology (S&T) to development became institutionalized at the regional level in Africa at about the same time as WID was emerging as a new development focus. However, it was only in the early 1980s that the first real interest in the relationship between gender and S&T for development began to emerge in Africa. The focal points for these activities were generally in women’s programs, rather than in S&T units. In the initial years, emphasis was on encouraging young girls to stay in school and study S&T. Hafkin identifies the emergence of the field of development information in the late 1970s, contributing to the creation of a stronger link between ICTs and gender. Governments were encouraged to systematize development-information management to make it an effective tool for decision-makers and planners. 

Hafkin also notes that with the emergence of the economic forces of globalization, which rely heavily on communications technology, ICTs have become increasingly important as tools to accelerate social and economic development. The Global Knowledge Conference, held in Toronto in 1997 (GK97), was critical in focusing the discussion of gender and ICTs on differential access and patterns of use. GK97 gave women a platform to advocate an increase in women’s share of the benefits of the ICT revolution and to argue for “connectivity for all.” 

Writing on the ICT challenge for Africa, Eva Rathgeber examines the current status of the telecommunications sector in the continent. She points out that although many African countries are experiencing some extension and modernization of their telecommunication networks, sub-Saharan Africa’s overall teledensity is still less than 1 line per 200 people. African countries have responded to these challenges with varying results. A growing number are opening the telecommunication sector to private investors. Rathgeber focuses on the need to ensure that the future development of the telecommunications sector takes into account social issues in general and gender issues in particular. She observes that most African countries, with the notable exception of South Africa, have given little attention to formulating ICT policies to provide the sector with an overall structure for development and growth. She argues that such policies are needed to develop a well-coordinated pattern of development that has specific goals, seizes opportunities, and makes the best use of government, donor, and private-sector investments. 

Rathgeber argues that if women are to participate fully in all aspects of ICT development, then ICT policies must include a gender dimension. She stresses that in promoting the spread of ICTs to less advantaged regions of each country, one must make a distinction between the attitudes and needs of male and female users. It is evident that highly targeted efforts are needed to involve women and ensure that their needs are integrated into ICT policies. Rathgeber discusses the potential of ICTs to improve or make an impact on the lives of African women and argues that men’s and women’s attitudes, needs, and perspectives on ICTs are likely to differ. This suggests a reconceptualization of the use of ICTs as tools for African development and a reorganization of existing knowledge and information bases. 

Writing on strategies to include a gender perspective in African ICT policy, Gillian Marcelle argues that both women and men in Africa should have the opportunity to benefit from ICTs. She notes that ensuring equitable treatment for men and women will require concerted efforts and involve considerable demands on the institutional capacities of policymakers. She maps out the current state of national ICT policy-making in Africa and provides a brief historical review of the landmarks in African ICT policy-making. She also examines closely the process of ICT policy-making in four African countries, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda; provides details of the policy-making apparatus used in each of these countries; assesses the challenges facing their policy-makers; and reviews their successes. She concludes with recommendations and actions for various sets of actors in ICT policy and implementation. 

Marcelle also suggests that African governments take steps in five key areas: (1) define and specify measurable goals and objectives for the ICT sector and ICT applications, taking into account rural women and their needs as potential beneficiaries of ICTs; (2) create the necessary institutional structure to develop and steer a vision of national ICT development and include representatives of women’s organizations and experts in gender and development issues in policy formulation; (3) secure advice and strengthen technical expertise in ICT-related fields; (4) develop consultative mechanisms to ensure that all key stakeholders are actively involved in policy formulation, implementation, and review; and (5) improve capacity to review policy objectives, monitor and evaluate programs, and respond to changes occurring in the technological and socioeconomic environment. 

Hilda Munyua begins her chapter by identifying some of the key problems facing women in the agricultural sector in Africa, including cultural, social, economical, legal, and educational handicaps and a lack of appropriate and usable information that could help them improve their farming activities. Munyua notes that a lack of reliable and comprehensive information is a major hindrance to agricultural development. Unfortunately, this has received inadequate attention in most African countries, especially in rural areas, where 70–80% of the African population still resides. Munyua notes that women’s information needs include further knowledge of agricultural production, processing, marketing, decision-making, trade laws, and the natural-resource base. They also need to exchange information on indigenous knowledge, and they require appropriate ICTs to access vital information efficiently and cost-effectively. She points out that the media play a major role in delivering agricultural messages, with radio being the main source of information for many people in rural areas. Nonetheless, she argues that where appropriate, satellite, solar, and fibre-optic technologies, which are now in use for computers, telephones, and facsimile, should be tapped to enable rural female farmers to access further information. She advocates using such modern ICTs concurrently with traditional ones. 

She sees the establishment of rural telecentres as an effective way to move forward. These can provide rural female farmers, female leaders, and others with access to a range of services, including electronic mail, the World Wide Web, electronic networks, news groups, listservs, teleconferencing, CD-ROMs, and distance learning. Munyua looks at some policy implications of the broader use of ICTs. She notes that if female farmers are to have access to, and to benefit from, the information available, then supportive policies and regulations that empower women must be developed, adequate resources must be allocated, telecommunication infrastructure must be provided, and an awareness of the potential of ICTs for development must be cultivated. She argues that women must be involved in decision-making processes to ensure that the new telecommunications systems in various countries meet their needs and constraints. 

Munyua emphasizes that the content of the information must be relevant to the requirements of rural women and that existing information should be repackaged in appropriate format, size, and language and be affordable. This may create jobs, reduce rural–urban migration, and help reverse the brain drain in many countries in Africa. Also required are institutional strengthening and capacity-building. In particular, women should have the technical capability to handle the technologies as they become available; hence, a strong argument can be made for providing adequate, relevant training. 

Drawing on the anglophone African experience and writing on the theme of reconceptualizing education for production, use, and management of ICTs, Cathy-Mae Karelse notes that although ICTs can be used by various groups in society to promote their social causes, the position of most women in Africa distances them from these technologies. In addition, she says women are absent from S&T courses and programs and seldom found in senior management or policy-making positions. Nonetheless, she points out, it is widely acknowledged that women generate local knowledge systems and possess significant information for development. However, experience has shown that when ICTs are introduced into these contexts, women are seldom invited to enter the negotiations regarding the use of the ICTs, which further undermines women’s status. The ICT sector is male dominated, and women on the ground do not have easy access to these technologies for their own organizational and information needs. 

However, attention is increasingly paid to the various ways ICTs can be used to improve women’s social status, as well as their involvement in the information society. Karelse sees education as a key component in developing the human-resource capacity to participate in the information society. Education programs must be directed to developing both gender equity and equality. She stresses that training must also prepare women for various levels of participation in the global information society, including management positions. Women must develop skills to design and shape information systems appropriate to their needs. She suggests that the private sector can assist by emphasizing the participation of women in their own information-infrastructure development. Karelse suggests that telecentres and multipurpose centres in the rural sector can serve as important conduits for women to gain access to further training and resources. 

Fatimata Seye Sylla, writing on the same theme and drawing on the francophone African experience, points to the importance of ICTs as tools for exchanging information worldwide and the need to train African children to master and use these new tools. She notes that previous experience showed that girls are less attracted than boys to S&T subjects, whether in the formal- or the informal-education system. For this reason, girls are likely to suffer a disadvantage in the use of ICTs. Sylla analyzes the causes of such disparities and proposes ways of attracting more girls to the use of ICTs. She argues that women and girls must be given the appropriate background and training, which will ultimately help them to prepare training materials that reflect their interests and take account of their specific needs. The use of ICTs in educational establishments throughout Africa must also be popularized. Sylla also suggests that women can open websites to generate and make accessible a wide range of relevant information, using appropriate software and equipment. Sylla outlines roles for various stakeholders, including those in the private sector, who might invest in the manufacture and local assembly of ICTs, in production and dissemination of teaching materials, in training, and in employment. She suggests that telecommunications companies reduce connection costs for women for specific periods to provide an incentive. Finally, the state should play a pioneering role with policy commitments to the implementation of the proposals. 

Solange Mienje Momo advocates the expansion of women’s access to ICTs. She analyzes the situation of African women within their sociocultural context, noting the progress that has been made on improving the status of women worldwide since the first women’s conference in Mexico in 1975. However, stagnation, if not decline, in this progress marked the 1985–95 period, because of its economic, political, and social turbulence. Momo outlines women’s information needs and analyzes their participation in the use and management of ICTs. She emphasizes that the first stage of any process of change must be the acquisition of knowledge, whether the change is socioeconomic, cultural, political, or legal. Efficient information flow, she says, is an integral part of development. Momo provides examples of successful initiatives to increase women’s access to ICTs in Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Uganda and concludes by urging governments to facilitate women’s access to information and allow them to actively contribute to economic development. 

Aida Opoku-Mensah provides an overview of the emergence of civil society in Africa, outlining the level of participation of women in the electoral process. She notes that the participation of women, as full and equal partners with men, in key decision-making processes (particularly in politics and governance) has not yet been achieved. However, she argues that ICTs have the capacity to greatly enhance people’s participation in the democratic process in developing countries, and in many instances they are already doing so. She cautions that although the ICTs may provide new opportunities for social and political dialogue, they may also increasingly disenfranchise already marginalized people as the gap between the information rich and the information poor widens. Who gains access to ICT resources in many countries will depend to a large extent on the effectiveness of government policies. 

Opoku-Mensah provides insights, glimpses, and examples of how ICTs are being used throughout the continent to empower women and improve the protection of their rights. She notes that new technologies have characteristics similar to those of alternative media and are well-suited to the needs of women’s networks because they are decentralized and horizontal. She examines the potential of ICTs to contribute to the advancement of women and illustrates how fairly affordable computer-mediated communications, such as e-mail, Internet, hypertext, and hypermedia, have infinitely facilitated networking, research, training, and the sharing of ideas and information. She emphasizes the need to develop imaginative approaches to overcome the difficulties of weak infrastructure, actively promote training in rural areas, and find the ways and means to interface new and old media technologies for women who have no access to computers or electricity. She concludes with recommendations on the ways the main actors in society, namely, governments, women’s groups, and international organizations, can enhance the use of ICTs. 

Finally, Shanyisa Anota Khasiani gives an overview of the experience and ongoing lessons learned in a project on women and governance in two rural districts of Kenya. The project’s overall objective was to build on existing infrastructure in community-based resource centres to provide the women of the communities with the ability to generate, access, and use civic information to enhance their participation in governance. Khasiani tests the hypothesis that community-based resource centres with ICTs can play a pivotal role in giving Kenyans, especially Kenyan women, information about the electoral process. The project’s aims were to enhance women’s interaction and generate, store, and promote the exchange of strategic information to enable women to make informed decisions and participate effectively in the electoral process in the long term. 

The project has already developed information, education, and communication materials to demystify ICTs and demonstrate the potential for women to use ICTs to become more involved in governance, including both effectively participating in electoral politics and responding to their own information requirements in their daily activities. She identifies civic education and small-scale enterprise as two priority areas for intervention. Khasiani concludes by highlighting key challenges facing the project, including repackaging information to make it more relevant, addressing the cultural dimension within indigenous communication systems, diffusing fairly new technologies in the study areas, solving infrastructure problems, and meeting the impacts of the ongoing liberalization of the telecommunications environment (policy). 

Together, these essays provide an overview of a number of compelling issues in the wider use and acceptance of ICTs in Africa. They specifically underscore the importance of giving special attention to the needs, priorities, and perspectives of women. Information is the universally acknowledged linchpin of development, and several of the papers stress the paucity of any type of information available to rural women. They see the new ICTs as having the potential to redress this information imbalance, but they also stress the importance of making information directly relevant to the needs of rural women, whether in agriculture, health, microenterprises, or other sectors. This will involve careful selection and repackaging, often repackaging into local languages. 

Most of the authors further emphasize that unless policies are well thought out and unless targeted training is provided, the ICT revolution currently sweeping the world is likely to bypass the majority of African women. Women must become involved in ICT policy formulation, and the starting point for participation in this process will be to make women aware of the importance of the information revolution. Women must understand their own information needs and develop sufficient technical knowledge to be credible advocates of their views in policy debate. Finally, the authors provide numerous examples of ongoing ICT initiatives, many of them started by African women’s organizations. These initiatives illustrate the varied potential of these technologies to empower women. 

Document(s) 3 of 12