gender_issues-Geneva

HAFKIN FORUM

HAFKIN Hafkin

Nancy J. Hafkin

In parallel with the two WSISs, there were also separate realities on gender issues at the Summit and the ICT4D Platform, which I will proceed to describe.

For anyone who attended the World Summit in Geneva, there were two WSISs, each with its own reality. The divide between the events was a divide between what happened ofªcially versus what happened unofªcially.

On the ofªcial side was the Summit, with credentialed delegates from governments, the private sector, and civil society reading prepared speeches and “debate” (UN terminology for the series of speeches at a meeting on a topic is “general debate”) taking place in name only. Albeit hammered out in a long series of difªcult preparatory conferences, the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action were agreed upon in their ªnal form before the Summit actually opened on December 10, 2003.

Adjacent to the Summit, in the same Palexpo, an aircraft hangar of a building, was the ICT for Development Platform, organized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), open to anyone and attended by at least 13,000 participants. As far as most of those who attended WSIS were concerned, the Platform was where the action was. There was so much going on at the ICT for Development Platform that even a 436-page catalogue could not capture all of the events. There were exhibitions (the catalogue lists some 250 exhibitors, but there were others who signed up for booths after the catalogue was printed), and in the forum, 9 main streams of panel discussions, seminars, and workshops, and 70 one-off conferences, plus special events and entertainment. In addition there were numerous other events, happenings, workshops, and award ceremonies not listed in the catalogue. It became a major job of information management to try to attend and see even a small portion of what one was interested in.

Gender Involvement at WSIS Two major groups were involved in promoting awareness of the importance of gender considerations in ICT: the Gender Caucus and the NGO Strategies Gender Working Group.

The WSIS Gender Caucus came into being in the course of an Africa regional preparatory meeting for WSIS held in Bamako, Mali in 2002, at the invitation of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to ensure that gender dimensions were included in WSIS. The WSIS Gender Caucus comprises women and men from national governments, civil society and nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and the United Nations system. Well-ªnanced with technical cooperation grants from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and UNIFEM, the Gender Caucus put on an impressive program at the WSIS ICT for Development Platform.

The NGO Gender Strategies Working Group was formed at the ªrst WSIS PrepCom Meeting in Geneva in July 2002 as one of the subcommittees of the Civil Society Coordinating Group (CSCG). The organizations involved in this Group include the African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), Agencia Latino Americana de Informacion, Association for Progressive Communication–Women’s Networking Support Programme, International Women’s Tribune Center, and Isis International–Manila. In contrast to the Gender Caucus, the NGO Strategies Working Group was largely selfªnanced. Although it mounted a modest program at the ICT4D Platform, the Working Group played an important role in getting gender issues adopted into the Summit’s two “outcome”1 documents, the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action.2 The two, however, worked closely together throughout the preparatory process and the Summit

1. “Outcome” is in quotation marks because although the two documents are spotlighted as the products of the Summit, delegates worked long and hard almost up to the start of the Summit to hammer out the text that would be adopted by the Summit.

2. World Summit on the Information Society Geneva 2003–Tunis 2005. Declaration of Principles, Building the Information Society: a global challenge in the new Millennium. Document WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/4-E, 12 December 2003. Original: English, http://www.itu.int/dmspub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS/DOC-0004!!MSW-E.doc; World Summit on the Information Society Geneva 2003–Tunis 2005. Plan of Action. Document WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/5-E, 12 December 2003. Original: English. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS-DOC-0005!!MSW-E.doc.

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itself to ensure the inclusion of gender dimensions in the process of deªning and creating a global Information Society.

Gender and the Ofªcial WSIS The inclusion of gender dimensions of ICT from the perspective of gender equality was a controversial and contentious issue throughout the three lengthy Preparatory Committee sessions for WSIS. While gender advocates, led by Canada and South Africa, wanted the ofªcial documents to represent a women’s empowerment perspective, others, including China and Syria, took the position that references to women should be in the context of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society.

The issue took a turn after what has come to be known as the T-shirt incident in which gender advocates at the PrepCom went beyond the traditional tactics of button-holing and presenting their arguments to delegates to attempting to capture the attention of the whole assembly in a way that combined substance with ºash. This tactic was an effective attention-getter because the NGO representatives were limited to 5-minute presentations during the discussion of any agenda item at the PrepCom. During the NGO 5-minute presentation referring to the gender “paragraph” that gender advocates wanted in the Declaration of Principles, members of the NGO Gender Strategies Working Group entered the committee hearing room wearing T-shirts printed with the message “WSIS has a missing paragraph” on the front and the text of the “missing” paragraph 11A printed on the back. The paragraph in question reads: A focus on the gender dimensions of ICTs is essential not only for preventing an adverse impact of the digital revolution on gender equality or the perpetuation of existing inequalities and discrimination, but also for enhancing women’s equitable access to the beneªts of ICTs and to ensure that they can become a central tool for the empowerment of women and the promotion of gender equality. Policies, programmes and projects need to ensure that gender differences and inequalities in the access to and use of ICT are identiªed and fully addressed so that such technologies actively promote gender equality and ensure that gender-based disadvantages are not created or perpetuated.

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The Canadian government had originally proposed the paragraph in an earlier preparatory meeting.

After the walk-through that got the attention of delegates and caused an audible buzz in what had been a rather sleepy session, a number of delegates approached some members of the Strategies Working Group and inquired about the paragraph and where they could get a copy of it. The group printed ºiers containing the paragraph and distributed them to all the ofªcial delegates.

The next day, the Canadian government’s representative made a proposal to adopt the “text on the T-shirts” (WE! 2003, September 16).

The T-shirt incident had an important effect on the Preparatory Committee. In the previous committee meetings for WSIS and in the third PrepCom up to this point, the inclusion of gender equality references did not receive consensus support from delegates. After the T-shirt incident and acceptance of the Canadian proposal, opposition to gender issues in the Information Society lessened dramatically. In the end, the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action contained the substance of all the recommendations that the Gender Caucus put forward.

Analysis of the main recommendations of the Gender Caucus shows that they were all incorporated into the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action adopted by the World Summit on the Information Society. Table 1 shows the six main recommendations of the Gender Caucus followed by the text from the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action that reºects those recommendations.

In addition to the adopted text related directly to the main Gender Caucus recommendations, the Plan of Action called for the promotion of balanced and diverse portrayals of women and men by the media (Plan of Action, Media, para 24e).

Gender at the ICT4D Platform If the relevance of gender issues to ICT started out as a controversial element in the ofªcial Summit deliberations, it was accepted orthodoxy in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) Platform. Virtually all the members of the NGO Strategies Working Group had stands that prominently featured their gender activities. UNIFEM, the World Bank, USAID, and many others featured gender issues in their exhibitions.

The largest concentrated gender program at the Platform, however, was that of the Gender Caucus.

Information Technologies and International Development

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Table 1. Gender Caucus Recommendations Adopted at the WSIS

Gender as a fundamental principle for action

Our challenge is to harness the potential of information and communication technology to promote the development goals of the Millennium Declaration, namely . . . promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women . . . (Declaration of Principles, para 2) To this end [women’s empowerment and full equality in all spheres of society and all decision-making processes], we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end. (Declaration of Principles, para 12)

Equitable participation in decisions shaping the Information Society

We afªrm that development of ICTs provides enormous opportunities for women, who should be an integral part of, and key actors in, the Information Society. We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality of all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. (Declaration of Principles, para 13)

New and old ICTs in a multimodal approach

Traditional media in all their forms have an important role in the Information Society, and ICTs should play a supportive role in this regard. (Declaration of Principles, Media, para 55) Encourage and promote joint use of traditional media and new technologies. (Plan of Action, Information and communication infrastructure, para 9l)

Designing ICTs to serve people

Applications should be user-friendly, accessible to all, affordable, adapted to local needs in languages and cultures, and support sustainable development. (Declaration of Principles, ICT Applications, para 51) Facilitate access to world’s medical knowledge and locally-relevant content resources to promote men’s and women’s health. (Plan of Action, E-health, para 18b) Encourage the adoption of ICTs to improve and extend health care and health information systems to remote and underserved areas, recognising women’s roles as health providers in their families and communities. (Plan of Action, E-health, para 18e)

Empowerment for full participation

Literacy and universal primary education are key factors for building a fully inclusive Information Society, paying particular attention to the special needs of girls and women. (Declaration of principles, Capacity Building, para 4) Work on removing the gender barriers to ICT education and training and promoting equal training opportunities in ICT-related ªelds for women and girls. Early intervention programmes in science and technology should target young girls with the aim of increasing the number of women in ICT careers. (Plan of Action, Capacity-Building, para 11g) Governments, in collaboration with stakeholders, are encouraged to formulate conducive ICT policies that foster entrepreneurship, innovation and investment, and with particular reference to the promotion of participation by women. (Plan of Action, Enabling Environment, para 13l) Encourage the development of best practices for e-workers and e-employers built, at the national level, on principles of fairness and gender equality, respecting all relevant international norms. (Plan of Action, E-employment, para 19a) Promote teleworking to allow citizens, particularly in the developing countries, LDCs, and small economies, to live in their societies and work anywhere, and to increase employment opportunities for women . . . (Plan of Action, E-employment, para 19c) Promote early intervention programmes in science and technology that should target young girls to increase the number of women in ICT careers (Plan of Action, E-employment, para 19d)

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Table 1. (Continued)

Empowerment for full participation

Strengthen programmes focused on gender-sensitive curricula in formal and nonformal education for all and enhancing communication and media literacy for women with a view to building the capacity of girls and women to understand and develop ICT content. (Plan of Action, cultural diversity and identity, para 23h)

Research analysis and evalua- In cooperation with each country concerned, develop and launch a composite ICT tion to guide action Development (Digital Opportunity) Index. It could be published annually, or every two years, in an ICT Development Report. The index could show the statistics while the report would present analytical work on policies and their implementation, depending on national circumstances, including gender analysis. (Plan of Action, Follow-up and evaluation, para 28a) Gender-speciªc indicators on ICT use and needs should be developed, and measurable performance indicators should be identiªed to assess the impact of funded ICT projects on the lives of women and girls. (Plan of Action, Follow-up and evaluation, para 28d)

The Caucus organized a 4-day series of critical debates and dialogues on a wide range of subjects.

The themes included panels on different regional perspectives, planning for WSIS II in Tunis, capacity building and empowerment, opportunities for women in the Information Society, media in the Information Society, young women in ICT4D, academic research, North-South collaboration, and an action plan for an equitable Information Society. The Caucus also mounted an exhibition stand.

One of the main points that emerged from the Caucus panels was that it is up to women to ªght for their empowerment, in order to take part in decision making, conºict resolution, and especially human rights struggles so as to increase their opportunities in the Information Society. Participants felt that women should push more actively to get gender rights into ICT policy at international and national levels, and for this, they need to proceed at least on two fronts: sensitizing policy makers to gender issues and sensitizing gender advocates.

Gender Awards at GKP Awards Night Other major gender events at the Platform were the Gender and ICT Awards. The awards bring international recognition to innovative and effective projects by women using ICTs for the promotion of gender equality and/or women’s empowerment.3 Organized by GKP and the APC Women’s Net-

working Support Programme, the four awards’ recipients, selected from 110 nominees, were: 1.

Women Mayors’ Link Romania Submitted by: Dina Loghin, M.A., Equal Opportunities for Women Foundation Begun in 2002, Women Mayors’ Link utilizes electronic communication to foster cooperation between women mayors and local governments and local women’s networks by preparing small projects to improve the quality of life of women and children in local communities.

2.

Documenting Experiences of Women in Situations of Armed Conºict in Uganda Uganda Submitted by: Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, IsisWomen’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) This project focuses on recording and telling the stories of women in situations of armed conºict in Uganda and other African nations. Since 1997, IsisWICCE has documented the experiences of women in situations of armed conºict in 10 African countries.

3. See http://www.genderawards.net/winners/index.html

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E-seva (services) of West Godavari District India Submitted by: Sanjay Jaju, Government of Andhra Pradesh The E-Seva (e-services) project in the district of West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh uses information technology to provide access to various citizen-to-citizen and citizen-to-government services to the people living in rural areas. Women’s self-help groups run and manage the Web-enabled rural kiosks at the subdistrict level.

Nabanna India Submitted by: Suryatirtha Ray, Change Initiatives

related recommendations in the Plan of Action. The hope is that gender issues will no longer be controversial at Tunis, but will rather move to a higher plane that embodies the ªrst paragraph of the Declaration of Principles: A people-centered, inclusive and developmentoriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge. ■ References WE! newsletter. (2003, September 16). ISIS. Retrieved from http://www.isiswomen.org/onsite/ wsis/tshirt.html © 2005 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Information Technologies and International Development Volume 1, Number 3–4, Spring–Summer 2004, 55–59

Change Initiatives set up a Web-based information system for the beneªt of poor women of Baduria, a rural region in the Indian state of West Bengal.

The Summit: Was It Worth It? The efforts to secure inclusion of gender issues at the ofªcial Summit were, without doubt, worth the effort. The inclusion of gender issues in the Declaration of Principles and the Action Plan was the sine qua non for gender advocates to go forward at national and local levels. Without the imprimatur of the global Summit, they would have faced an uphill battle to secure a voice in the elaboration of ICT policy and the consideration of gender issues in projects. With the strong endorsement by the Summit, they are able to move forward conªdently. The endorsement of the need for sex-disaggregated statistics and gender-speciªc indicators was particularly important, as preparations are underway for WSIS II in Tunis. That will allow monitoring and evaluation of gender inclusion in a way that was not possible, given the current state of ICT statistics and indicators, especially in developing countries.

As to the ICT4D gender program and activities, there was near-universal acclamation for the high quality of the programs, events, and documentation that added a rich dimension to the Platform.

Where to Go from Here?

Gender advocates have already begun organizing for Tunis. The emphasis is on identifying lacunae in the 2003 documents and events and pressuring delegations to ensure implementation of the gender-

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