Social Change
Social change action with informed and engaged societies
Social Change
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Digital Pulse - Ch 2 - Sec 1 - Empowerment and Governance through Information and Communication Technologies: Women's Perspectives

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Summary

The Digital Pulse: The Current and Future Applications of Information and Communication Technologies for Developmental Health Priorities


Chapter 2 - ICT for Development: A Review of Current Thinking

Section 1: The ICT4D Proponents



Empowerment and Governance through Information and Communication Technologies: Women's Perspectives


Vikas Nath



Summary

Nath's article examines the ways that ICT enabled networking processes create opportunities for women in the areas of empowerment and governance, analyzes the challenges that lie ahead for an engendering of these processes, and presents a set of actions that will direct the rewards of ICT towards women and improve their overall quality of life. At present, the benefits of ICTs and the new knowledge society are not evenly distributed and have the potential to worsen the plight of already disadvantaged women in the developing world.


Key Points

While knowledge is a valuable resource, it is not a scarce resource and there exists ample opportunity for all women to participate in the exchange and production of knowledge. ICTs allow the development of knowledge networks that facilitate interactive communication between governments, NGO's, communities, and individuals. Through participation in these networks, women can recognise the knowledge that they already possess and utilize it for productive ends. Reflection on the decades of development work has shown that failure to empower women will hinder efforts to alleviate global poverty. But because of their historical roles, women are generally more bound to their localities and have had less access to the emerging pool of empowering knowledge. ICTs and engendered knowledge networks can help to overcome these disadvantages. These networks and the accompanying creation of spaces for women are vitally important issues to be addressed in the drive to utilize ICTs for development. Potential gains for women can be classified into two spheres: Empowerment and Governance.


The Empowerment sphere involves the development of skills that allow women to gain insight into the actions and issues that influence them, and to build their capacity to make decisions and become involved in these external processes. This involves utilizing knowledge networks to:

  • Access alternate communication channels and information providers.
  • Connect and allow women to broadcast to the external world.
  • Empower women through employment and entrepreneurship.
  • Create value-added services for women.
  • Challenge and change stereotypic role.

Opening of spaces in the Governance sphere results from the democratization of women's knowledge about social, economic and welfare processes and the “demystification” of political decision-making. Knowledge networks contribute to this by:

  • Improving women's access to government information.
  • Reforming and improving service delivery for women.
  • Providing avenues for monitoring governance and access to decision-making processes.
  • Facilitating virtual communities for mobilization and public advocacy.

While there are clearly many opportunities for ICTs to improve women's participation in the knowledge society and to contribute to empowerment, many barriers still exist, including:

  • A lack of awareness amongst governments and civil society about the potential benefits.
  • Hindrances to women's access, e.g. cost and underdeveloped infrastructure.
  • An underdeveloped ICT skills and capacity base and linguistic barriers.
  • Resistance stemming from the changes in power equations.
  • A focus on re-invention of existing ICT models as opposed to innovative models tailored to women's needs.

Nath also presents the following strategies and initiatives that are intended to help facilitate the emergence of a successful gender-entrenched knowledge network:

  • Creation of Intermediary Organisations facilitating communication between women's groups.
  • Imparting of precious technical skills and education about ICT benefits.
  • Creation of virtual support networks and remote volunteers.
  • Creation of innovative prototype ICT models that are targeted towards women's needs.
  • Establishment of public and private sector partnerships.
  • Focusing on research, innovation and incubation of tools to address women's information needs.



Source:Vikas Nath, "Empowerment and Governance through Information and Communication Technologies: Women's Perspectives"