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Project Leader: Chong Sheau Ching   Institution: Corpcom Services Sdn. Bhd. (E-Homemakers)   Region: South-East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia)   Start Date: 12/2004       Project Details  WSIS Action Lines: 3, 4, 6, 8	Indonesian homeworker cleaning legumes

“As I write this email, I am cooking fish curry, ensuring that my Down Syndrome brother is ok, and my 10 year old is doing her homework. Working@ home for women in any situation is feasible... Canadians, and IDRC, have played a vital role to help the growth of e-homemakers. Without… the small grants, contacts and encouragement, we would never have made it to the present state… Thanks!”

-          Sheau Ching, Project Leader

Context: Why is this project important?

The majority of homeworkers in South-East Asia are women, and most of them are tied to their home due either to family responsibilities or because they lack the resources to enter formal employment. In Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, the number of homeworkers have been rising rapidly especially after the 1997 Asian economic meltdown. An invisible group, these workers are too often left out of national labour laws and development strategies. As they struggle with multiple roles and tasks daily, homeworkers are denied many of the technological opportunities that are offered by development agencies and the government to their more visible family members and neighbours. Homeworkers are often isolated inside the household, geographically scattered, and disunited, hindering their ability to organize.

The Project: How does this initiative address the development problem?

One of the major stumbling blocks hindering policy makers from integrating women homemakers successfully into development programmes is the absence of appropriate and sufficient information on home-based work. This project aims to carry out a participatory study to identify and document the issues surrounding home-based work. The information collected will facilitate the creation of a knowledge portfolio on homeworkers, which will serve to support, link, and create opportunities for home-based communities to harness ICTs for their benefit.

The process of determining the issues, challenges, and activities involved with home-based work involves researchers conducting approximately 40 interviews in the urban areas of each country under study - namely Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Interviewees include officials from agencies promoting women's issues, family and community development, ICT, entrepreneurship, human resource development, as well as independent contractors and homepreneurs.

Homeworkers themselves are key informants in focus groups and, through a separate questionnaire, are allowed share their experiences with gender-specific barriers to using ICT in their work. A minimum of 60 homeworkers in each country will be interviewed. Case studies will further explore the barriers of access to ICTs for women and the appropriateness of technology currently being deployed by homemakers. Recommendations will be made regarding revolutionary or innovative technology that can improve homeworkers’ productivity and build their capacity to network, access and disseminate information, and empower themselves.

Objectives:

To understand how ICTs can address specific social economic challenges and gender barriers facing women homeworkers in South East Asia. More specifically, the project aims to:

• Gather evidence on issues and development challenges (research and assistance gaps) of home-based work and women homeworkers
• Uncover gender-specific issues for women homeworkers to deploy ICT for work within the public sphere and in their homes
• Identify opportunities for women homeworkers to deploy ICT for work, improve production capability and quality, reach and create new markets
• Understand the technology appropriateness or technology understanding among women homeworkers
• Undertake more in-depth research on ICT/entrepreneurial barriers and indicators revealed in the research on “Empowering homemakers to become homepreneurs and e-homepreneurs through a gender governance framework,” and possible new barriers and indicators related to gender roles and social development within the family and community
• Disseminate research findings to the policy community in the three target countries

Development Impact

The E-homemakers project has created a trilingual Internet portal catering to women homemakers. The portal has over 9500 active members, not including those who do not formally register but still use the portal contents and attend group activities. For the month of March 2005, the website had 10,371 unique visits. The website allows its visitors access to information and resources that enable them to improve efficiency of home-based work, embark on entrepreneurship, exchange ideas and experiences, and ask questions of experts in working from home or starting an internet business. The eHomemakers project is a role model for all teleworkers and e-entrepeneurs, proving that women can break new grounds with ICT usage, and have the ability to balance home and career. This project stems from a PAN R&D Grant that was awarded in October 2003 titled ICT Assisted Economic Empowerment - Integrated Tools Development.

Outputs

• Project web site: www.ehomemakers.net
• Research Manual: Homeworkers and ICTs in Southeast Asia [Part 1 | Part 2]
• Krishman, Usha and S. Puvaneswary. (2005). “Telworking moms unite!” Information for Development (i4d). Vol. III, No. 3. March 2005. p. 14-16.

• Runner-up: 2005 Gender and ICT Award: GKP (Global Knowledge Partnership)/APC (Association of Progressive Communications) 

Key Words*

Chong Sheau Ching: Advocating for Change 2006-06
If there's anyone who knows the role education can play in aiding international development, it's Chong Sheau Ching. She is passionate about its part in empowering people – especially women – through knowledge, because learning changed her life.