Looking Behind the Internet: Empowering Women for Public Policy Advocacy in Central America

The authors have found that information and communications technologies (ICTs) in Central American public institutions and policies are not focused on promoting gender equity or on increasing opportunities for women (Martinez and Gomez 2001). Instead, "e-government" initiatives focus primarily on modernising government administration and service provision, and promoting e-commerce (Reilly 2002a&b). Current research in Costa Rica and Nicaragua shows that the dominant approach to gender and ICTs mirrors the approach to e-government in which women are viewed as individual recipients and users rather than organised actors.

The authors are part of a research team conducting a project with Fundación Acceso of Costa Rica on "Public Information for Public Policy Advocacy: Action Research with Women's Organizations in Costa Rica and Nicaragua,” sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (Martínez 2002a). The project looks at the role of public information, information systems, and ICTs in mediating state-civil society relations. Gender issues and the work of organised women are used as the backdrop for this study. A particular focus of the work is the production and distribution (or lack thereof) of "public information."

The authors posit that this research differentiates itself because it focuses on women and policy rather than ICTs. Thus this research is about women's needs and concerns in the real (offline) world and how public information and ICTs can contribute to solutions rather than issues such as women having internet access, or studies regarding their activities on the web. The identification and analysis of problems comes first - the technology is one of many possible means to facilitate changes that address the problem.

To identify means to make ICTs more responsive to gender advocacy goals, "action-research" is conducted and includes problem definition, strategic planning, advocacy and evaluation. This research is intended to: determine whether women's organisations have access to public information that is relevant for policy advocacy; identify any shortcomings; and explore strategies to overcome these obstacles.

Action-research seeks to empower women to use ICTs and develop awareness of ICT policy advocacy by assisting in these ways:

• Placing public information systems in the context of state-civil society relations
• Making it possible to more readily understand information systems and applications of ICTs
• Measuring the value of public information based on an understanding of where it comes from and how it is produced and disseminated
• Identifying key obstacles to the access, use and appropriation of public information
• Prioritising possible solutions for the production of public information - solutions which may involve ICTs
• Appropriating public information in solutions for a wide range of social, economic and political problems

With these skills in hand, women can challenge the dominant approach to government ICT use, and advocate fundamental changes in the public service that make it more participatory and responsive to the strategic and immediate needs of women and the women's movement.

A second area of emerging grounded theory is in the use of ICTs to mediate state-civil society relations. The lack of public information makes it harder for women to promote policy changes, as public information is required to even make the argument that a policy change is needed. The lack of production of meaningful and relevant information about women's programming produces a barrier to effective policy advocacy. In order for ICTs to empower women, policy formation needs to be considered, as do the interests and agendas of those participating in policymaking.