Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Women Empowerment. A Pan African Capacity Building Seminar for Women in Leading Positions

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1 African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Women Empowerment A Pan African Capacity Building Seminar for Women in Leading Positions Theme: Enhancing Management and Leadership Skills of Leading Women ENHANCING MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR WOMEN IN LEADING POSITIONS INFORMATIONAND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT): TODAY S WONDER TOOL IN MANAGEMENT By Mrs. Effie SIMPSON EKUBAN (Ghana) Tangier (Morocco) March 2014

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1) Mrs. Agatha Gaisie-Nketsiah 2) Mrs. Madonna O. Larbi 3) Mrs. Sylvia Hinson Ekong 4) Mr. Eric Akumiah 5) Mr. Derrick Akompi 6) Mr. Ekow Turkson 7) Soroptimist International Club of Accra

3 ACRONYMS UNCSTD : UN Center for Science & Technology Development ECOSOC: UN Economic & Social Committee ITU : NGO: International Telecommunication Union Non-Governmental Organization

4 ENHANCING MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR WOMEN IN LEADING POSITIONS INFORMATIONAND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT): TODAY S WONDER TOOL IN MANGEMENT Preamble Patriarchal, unequal societies thwart the potential of men and women alike. Where women are relegated to a position of subordination and discrimination, we waste the potential of over half the world s population. Worldwide, less than five members of parliament is a woman. Women participation in the workforce was estimated at 52.6% in 2008 while that of men stood at 77.5%. On average, women hold 29% of the jobs in research. Women s access gap to mobile and internet ranges from 16-40%. Women in decisionmaking in ICT sector ranges from 10-15%. Women in STI fields are already low and decreasing. In Europe, pay gap in S&T ranges from 17-38%. Gender is reflected in only around 1/3 of National Broadband Strategies. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan s Statement to the World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003 is quite telling of the challenge: The socalled digital divide is actually several gaps in one. There is the technological divide great gaps in infrastructure. There is the content divide. A lot of webbased information is simply not relevant to the real needs of people. And nearly 70 percent of the world s websites are in English, at times crowding out local voices and views. There is a gender divide, with women and girls enjoying less access to information technology than men and boys. This can be true of rich and poor countries alike. Gender equality through ICT The challenge for building a social model based on gender equality should go hand in hand with targeted efforts to expand women s access to and use of ICTs as a way to democratize information, communication and the participation of women in the generation of knowledge.

5 The pervasive and persistent stereotype is that women are at a natural disadvantage to benefit from the digital revolution because they are less technologically savvy, they are afraid of technology, and because the technology is not built for their needs and intuition. If this were the case, the increasing socioeconomic importance of ICT would exacerbate the already existing vicious circle of traditional and long-standing discrimination of women in fields like employment, income, education and health and women s chances to improve on this situation in the digital age. On the contrary, others argue that women enthusiastically embrace digital communication. A case in point is the current CEO of Yahoo, a woman, who has turned this company around using her strong communication skills, a strength that many women have in abundance! We can confidently say that despite lack of clear superiority with the letter I (Information) and letter T (Technology) women have obvious strengths with the middle link letter C(Communication) and this is why we must make this strength work for us! ICT and development ICTs comprise a complex and heterogeneous set of goods, applications and services used to produce, process, distribute and transform information. The ICT sector consists of segments as diverse as telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, computer hardware, software and services and electronic media (e.g. the Internet and electronic mail). Information and communication needs can be met by more traditional means, such as print media and fixed telephone lines, or satellite technology, mobile phones and the Internet. Traditional technologies continue to be important for large numbers of people around the world, particularly in rural areas. However new technologies have a vast potential for empowerment which needs to be fully exploited. A study with sample findings on different ICTs mobile phones, Internet, radio and TV posits that quantitative studies of gender are more optimistic about the palliative effects of ICT on gender inequity while qualitative research on the subject tends to be pessimistic, pointing to the intractable dimensions of gender inequity. There are a range of other factors than access that influence the

6 differential uptake between men and women such as income, level of education, ethnicity and age. Nevertheless, ICT has helped women to gain employment through telework or newly created information jobs, obtain cost-effective health services and education such as online courses or soft-ware based literacy programs, and increase their income such as through e-business channels and on-line transactions. This implies a virtuous circle, whereby women could fight their current disadvantages in society by exploiting new digital opportunities. Empirical studies across 12 Latin American countries and 13 African countries from have shown that it is a fact that more men use ICT than women. However, once having access to ICT, this vicious circle can be turned into a virtuous circle due to identified positive attitudes of women towards ICT that can enable them circumvent and fight existing inequalities. ICT for Women s Empowerment ICTs represent critical tools and an infrastructure that are increasingly shaping our world, understandings, interactions and structures of society. They can also enable efforts toward realizing inclusive, equitable and just development. At the center of this is the empowerment of women and gender equality, where ICTs can play a catalytic role. The evidence for this is seen within and across many spheres: Expanding Economic Opportunities through increased access to markets and related information, new or enhanced forms of income generation and new forms of financial, business and agricultural services that women would otherwise not receive. Promoting Women s Political Participation through new mechanisms for engaging constituencies and campaigning by women politicians, new channels for advocacy by women s groups, tools to monitor elections and government commitments and hold political actors accountable.

7 Supporting Social Welfare through service delivery in the health care sector, increased educational opportunities, possibilities for environmental and natural resource management, and channels for cultural expression. Enhancing Safety by provision of or connecting women to services, mapping and monitoring incidences of violence and safety concerns and using social media to change attitudes about harmful practices towards women. Building Connections, Community and Movements by supporting mobilization, providing access to information and knowledge, amplifying voice and communicating alternative views. As with all good things we need to be mindful of the fact that benefits and gains of ICT are not automatic as there are threats and risks in the misuse of ICT in ways that degrade women or destroy valuable societal structures and relationships in communities. Even when technology is implemented with good intentions, there may be unintended consequences that require careful reflection. Technology in general has revolutionized life in the modern world, enhancing the quality of life and making unprecedented wealth possible. It has allowed greater access to knowledge, created opportunities resulting in the building of competencies such as Access to global Online courses and Webinars online seminars and conferences and Online forums which enable communities share and exchange ideas and secure support of services. The urban computer literate woman s love for social media platforms such as facebook and whatsup and the rural woman s effort to keep up with her children and friends on the cell phone can be capitalized upon to position women at the center of development to bridge the gender divide. So how do we bring women closer to ICT and make these technologies more readily available to them? Women s access to ICT can be fostered anywhere, at home, at work or at public access centers. Once policy makers realize that women are starting into the digital age in an unfavorable condition, but that they could make the biggest contributions to an Information Society, there are many ways women could be helped to create a positive dynamic that attacks one of the

8 MDGs that the world is still having serious problems with: gender equality and the empowerment of women. Advocacy on gender equality and ICT UN intergovernmental processes have played a leading role in identifying key issues and proposing strategic actions to enhance women s empowerment through ICT. The UNCSTD in research conducted in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women identified in 1995 the emerging gender divide. The Beijing Platform for Action called for empowerment of women through enhancing their skills, knowledge, access to and use of information technologies. It also included a strategic objective to Increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication. Steps were proposed to ensure that women benefitted fully from ICT, including equal access to ICT-related education, training and entrepreneurship opportunities and equal access as producers and consumers of ICT through public and private partnerships. The UN ECOSOC Division for the Advancement of Women has in cooperation with ITU and the UN ICT Task Force Secretariat over the years advocated for Gender Partnerships and ICT Development. Major recommendations include mainstreaming and monitoring of a gender perspective in all ICT initiatives. The establishment of the ITU Task Force on Gender Issues has yielded dividends with the recent announcement of the 1 millionth trainee recently in ITU Trains 1M Disadvantaged Women in ICT Skills The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has reached its Women s Digital Literacy Campaign target of providing ICT skills training to one million disadvantaged women globally, the union announced. Launched in 2011, the campaign which is a partnership between the ITU and Philippines-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Telecentre.org Foundation this month, broke through its one million target, having trained 1,014,096 disadvantaged women including in Africa in basic ICT skills.

9 Having the skills to use ICTs opens up new horizons and empowers women, both economically and culturally, said ITU Secretary-General DrHamadoun I Touré. In addition, offering digital skills to over one million women at grassroots level is helping reverse the paradigm whereby, in many countries, ICTs still most often benefit men more than women. The union said ICT skills training is one way to achieve gender equality, through digital inclusion of women. With technology now widely recognized as a critical enabler for socio-economic development, the Women s Digital Literacy Campaign has been key in reinforcing ITU s global efforts to promote the digital inclusion of women in line with Millennium Development Goal 3 on gender equality, said BrahimaSanou, director of the ITU s Telecommunication Development Bureau, which initiated the Women s Digital Literacy Campaign. The ITU said the achievement is attributable to the 153 participating organizations, and 20,000 telecentres around the world where much of the training took place. Partnership is key in any undertaking, and what we have achieved so far under the Telecentre Women Digital Literacy Campaign is a testament to this. I, therefore, take this opportunity to thank ITU and all our partners in this campaign for accepting the challenge and for embracing this cause with so much fervour, said Miguel Raimilla, executive director of Telecentre.org Foundation. We may have already reached our target, but the work doesn t stop here. There is still so much more to be done out there Empowering Women and Girls through ICT at Libraries Within the digital divide of access to ICT in developing countries exists another gap: between boys and girls, men and women. Particularly in developing countries and rural areas, girls and women are often restricted to traditional roles, and do not have equal access to technologies and technology training. As many studies have shown, when women do have access to educational resources, their families and communities benefit. As more and more information is moving online, it is critical that women and girls have equal, safe and reliable access to computers and the internet. Without access to computers, the internet and technology training, girls and women will continue to be excluded from many opportunities for social and economic leadership.

10 A number of initiatives both international and domestic have opened the dialogue regarding the importance of gender equality in ICT access and training. These programs are critical pieces of the campaign to foster girls ICT skills, but they often overlook and underuse a potentially valuable asset that could help scale and institutionalize girls access: public libraries. Public Libraries as a Solution to the Gender Divide Public libraries are trusted, safe institutions that already exist in many developing countries where large inequities in education and opportunities for girls and women abound. The Global Impact Study, a recent research on public access to computing venues in developing countries, indicates that public libraries in developing countries have more females than telecenters and cybercafés do. Other research suggests that girls and women choose public libraries over other public access venues because libraries are perceived as safe, reliable, and affordable, often with trained female staff that can help in places where it is not always appropriate for females to interact with males. As trusted community figures, librarians are well-positioned to support women through the process of applying ICT and other information tools. Some development initiatives, particularly in ICT, create stand-alone programs or seek new technologies to overcome technology disparities and include underserved populations, like girls and women. Assessments suggest that many of these programs and technologies fail and are not sustainable. Public libraries, however, are typically part of a larger network and already included in local, regional and national government budgets. Some view mobile phones and mobile internet as the key to bridging the digital divide. However mobiles alone are not enough, particularly when trying to reduce the social barriers girls and women face with ICT access and training. Just as they suffer from inequities of access females are less likely to own or have access to a mobile phone, let alone mobile internet, in developing countries. Girls and women need places where they can feel comfortable going to access computers, the internet, and technology training. Library stakeholders have emerged as strong advocates for comprehensive library and information services for women,

11 and public library systems around the world have already demonstrated their commitment to bridging gender gaps in ICT usage through targeted programs: The Northern Regional Library in Tamale, Ghana This library established a program that provides technology training on internet, web 2.0 use, and search techniques, along with leadership development. The 3- month program trained 125 young women. The library instituted training hours to make it easier for girls to attend the training while still working during the day. In addition to this training program, the Northern Regional Library also provides general computer and internet access for the community and hosts regular events about technology, creating a space where female patrons can participate. Other Initiatives A library in Bogota, Colombia offers young girls aged 5-18 access to not only books and literacy programs, but also to computers, the internet, and technology training. Librarians in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhia saw an opportunity to help their community when they noticed that many girls were falling prey to drug abuse and other unhealthy choices. They launched a program to provide girls with ICT training, career advice, and an overall support network. A library in Copan, Honduras offers technology training and digital literacy programs to the girls and women in their community. Many girls who have been trained at the library became library volunteers themselves, training other people in the community-particularly girls and women in ICT and digital literacy. The National Library of Uganda has introduced an ICT training program designed for female farmers. After conducting background research in local communities, the library found that female farmers have unmet information needs, and would benefit from access to weather forecasts, crop prices and planting information in local languages. Thus in addition to in-person training, the program also provides agricultural information to participating women through mobile phones and text messages. In all these cases, the technology resources available to girls helps them excel in their schooling, communication with friends and family, prepares them from their futures instead of getting into trouble on the streets. For women they are empowered and their economic well-being is increased.

12 Recommendations Studies suggest that inclusion strategies should be defined as conscious activities or sets of activities aimed to recruit people into and keep them within some system, like women into and in the information society. Inclusion measures will need to focus not only on the transformation of ICT practices at different levels from access, to use to design and production but on the gendered relations more widely society. Other studies that seek to establish instances and patterns of exclusion and inclusion, only tell if women are included or excluded from ict and nothing about equity in society more general. It has even been suggested that physical widespread access to and use of ICTs does not necessarily give women a position equal to that of men. A challenge therefore remains in converting ICT access and use into sustained female ICT participation. As developing countries strive and in many cases actually achieve the target of Universal Basic Education for All, the stark realization that the inequality sets in early with girls dropping out at every stage of the education ladder should make us policy makers sit up and examine how we can sustain the interest of girls beyond the first few rungs of the ladder. For those governments, institutions and organizations that have goals and objectives for gender ICT inclusion, serious consideration needs to be given to partnering with public libraries. This would mean building upon already existing infrastructure rather than designing new programs from scratch. Public libraries already exist in many communities as a safe, trusted place for girls and women to access ICT and receive technology training. Thus rather than building new institutional structures, the recommendation is to consider leveraging ICT access and training programs in public libraries to meet gender access objectives.

13 Where public libraries lack ICT resources, development priorities should include ensuring public information access exists where it can best be supported permanently. Governments should support technology, internet and training in public libraries. It is in this vein that I welcome withgreat expectation, as the current president of Soroptimist International Club of Accra,a recent proposal from a benefactor to introduce internet connectivity to the Manle Dada Circuit Library. This is a project the Clubstarted building ten years ago through our own resources and efforts at raising funds and commissioned five years ago for a cluster of schools in a deprived community in the Dadekotopon Municipal District of Accra, Ghana. Maintenance of this library that faces the Atlantic Ocean and its salty breeze has been quite challenging, but our efforts for the children in the surrounding cluster of schools, who use it regularly, have been rewarded as it has attracted Best World Education Research to consider it for internet connection.

14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.0 Beyond Access Libraries Powering Development Issue Brief, October 2012, Empowering Women and GirlsThrough ICT at Libraries. 2.0 Newsletter, Elac2015, September 2011 ICT and gender. 3.0 UN WOMEN, Gender and ICT In Brief, ICT for Women s Empowerment: The Big Picture 4.0 Women and beyond 2000, September 2005 Gender equality and empowerment of women through ICT United Nations. 5.0 Gender Assessment of ICT Access and Usage in Africa, volume one 2010 Policy Paper 5 researchictafrica.net 6.0 HumanIPO, Home of African Tech, ITU trains one million Disadvantaged Women in ICT Skills.