Transcript – What Have We Done So Far? Communication Technologies (ICTs) and

The World Bank Tokyo Office Videoconference Seminar Series
PIC Tokyo Partnership Program Vol.1
World Bank's Programs on Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) and
Gender Equality – What Have We Done
So Far?
Kayoko Shibata
Gender and
Development Group
June 22, 2004
WB Village Self-help Kiosk Pilot Project,
Polonnaruwa District, Sri Lanka
Photo: Meena Munshi
1
Why do we have so much
faith in ICTs when we
discuss gender equality?
New technologies have laid the foundation
for new ways of organizing work
(e.g. telework), employment
(e.g. call centers), and education
(e.g. distance education) – all of which have
the potential being women-friendly.
Asian Women in the Digital Economy: Policies for Participation,
Swasti Mitter, 2001
2
Yet, the gender digital divide
continues to exist…
Women % of Internet Users
51 51
50
43
40
38 37.5
31.5 30.4
30
23
12
Senegal
India
China
Uganda
Zambia
Russia
Brazil
SouthAfrica
0
Philippines
10
6
6
Jordan
20
Lebanon
60
Source: USAID/AED (2001)
3
Women as % of Internet users,
Africa Country
Women as % of users
Zambia
Uganda
South Africa
Ethiopia
Senegal
37.5
31.5
19.0
13.9
12.0
Internet users as
% of population
0.0
0.1
3.0
0.01
0.1
Source: USAID/AED (2001)
4
Female Internet users as % of total Internet
users, 2002 (Source: ITU)
5
Female Internet users as % of total
Internet users, 2002 (Source ITU)
6
What is the World Bank doing?

Raising awareness through seminars and (October 2000 –
current)

Completed the Engendering ICT Study which includes
analysis of consideration for gender issues in World Bank
projects (2002-2003)

Held seminars which sought to inform participants about what
gender-aware ICT projects mean, to help them identify steps
and resources necessary to incorporate gender issues into
projects as well as good practices that use a variety of ICTs
and technology choices

Held E-Discussion on ICTs and Gender Equality (May 10
– June 15, 2004)

Completing the Engendering ICTs Toolkit this summer
7
What does “Engendering ICT”
mean?


Integrating gender into development work, and
identifying and removing gender disparities in the
access to and use of ICT.
The goal is to adapt ICT to the special needs of
women and girls, and to take advantage of
women’s special knowledge and strong informal
networks, which may combine electronic with
traditional communication systems. (e.g. Beijing
Women’s Conference,1995)
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Engendering ICT study



Responds to call of WB/OED (2002) for better
integration of gender considerations into the
design of Bank-supported projects so that both
men and women are able to access the benefits
equitably.
Many Bank-supported projects have an ICT
component (90%).
To investigate the potential of ICT for promoting
gender-equitable development in Bank projects.
9
Areas examined by study






Employment both in the formal IT sector and in
the informal, semi-formal area of micro and small
enterprises.
Education to provide a base for using ICT and
new models of delivery--14% of Bank lending in
Education is to technology.
ICT-enabled delivery of social services.
Using ICT for political empowerment.
National ICT policies.
Consideration of gender issues in Bank
projects cutting across many sectors.
10
Chapter 7. Of the study

Concentrates on analysis of consideration
for gender issues in World Bank projects.

Based on desk study of some projects
and interviews with TTLs.
11
Gender issues in WB ICT
projects

Study: broad sample of 200 Bank projects from the ICT
sector and those with ICT components from other sectors to
determine extent of inclusion of gender issues.

Nearly half of projects considered gender as an element in
the overall rationale for the project
 But consideration was often only a mention of gender or
description of the varying social roles of men and
women.
 More than half of the projects examined paid no attention to
gender issues.
12
Successful incorporation of gender issues in
World Bank projects: examples
Argentina: education project teaching information
technology in secondary schools and analyzing results by sex
and class.
 Ghana: an agricultural services ICT project that targets
women farmers for the diffusion of information and has a
sex-disaggregated database of food and agricultural
statistics.
 India: a project that provides scholarships and housing to
female students studying information technology.
 Macedonia: A technology training program aimed at at-risk
girls and boys from various socio-cultural backgrounds and
from ethnic groups that are underrepresented in the
country’s education system.

13
More “best practices” projects





Mexico: project seeks to promote equality though communitybased gender-awareness programs. Information is collected
and analyzed on the basis of gender.
Mozambique: mineral resources information management
project that addresses gender issues in artisanal mining.
Mozambique: higher education project in Mozambique that
increases Internet access for institutions of higher education
with a focus on gender equity.
Peru: agricultural extension project that selects information
technology service providers inter alia on the basis of their
capability to work with rural women.
Tanzania: establishment of agricultural extension information
and communication centers that reserve 30 percent of places
for women and included women’s issues in training.
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Recommendations to engender
WB ICT projects
At the initial stage of project development,
project teams should be made aware of
useful tools and good practice examples
of gender and ICT, such as in the toolkit that
accompanies the study.
 World Bank staff working on operations that
involve ICT should receive training on gender
issues in ICTs.

15
16
Engendering ICT Toolkit
 Will
help task managers and
counterparts to better incorporate
gender issues into ICT projects
and provide guidance on how
to design gender-sensitive
ICT interventions.
17
Engendering ICT Toolkit is
divided into 11 modules
Checklists
 Country Profiles
 Evaluation Tools
 Good Practice Examples
 Resources on Gender and ICTs: Who is
doing what?

18
Many case studies of the
i
World Bank in the toolkit
illustrate the ways in which
ICTs can contribute to
empowerment for women.
19
For example,
Improving technical education for female
students project in India
India Third Technician Education Project
provides training to Indian workers in fields that are
crucial to economic growth, with a focus on IT.
Women account for about 40% of students in
participating technical institutions, as well as for a
large share of the country’s high-tech workforce.
The project provides scholarships and housing to
female students to encourage their participation.
20
For example,
Supporting female farmers in Ghana
Despite the key role that women play in
agriculture, traditions and customs often restrict
their activities and limit their access to land,
technology, training, and credit. Through the
Bank’s Agricultural Services Subsector
Investment Project, the Directorate for Women
in Agricultural Development has addressed
gender issues:
21
One of the project’s main goals is to develop costeffective, demand-driven ICT systems that generate and
disseminate knowledge among female farmers—
increasing their participation in accelerating agricultural
growth to promote food security, reduce poverty, and
conserve natural resources.
The project will also establish a sex-disaggregated
database of food and agricultural statistics to support
gender-responsive training.
The project aims to raise female enrollments to increase
the number of female extension agents and agricultural
technicians in both the public and private sectors.
22
For example,
WB Sri Lanka Rural Poverty Reduction Program -
Village Self-help Telecenter (Kiosk) Pilot Project

The project started with three kiosks in 2001 and
will be scaling up within next six months.

50% of workers of each kiosk are women.
Kiosks were set up to service women needs, by
generating micro-regional and local economic
development programs, providing social services,
as well as child welfare information.
23
How will ICTs contribute to
women’s entrepreneurships:
Tortas Peru
24
How will ICTs contribute to
women’s entrepreneurships:
Tortas Peru


Women owned enterprise that uses the Internet
to reach and service a wider market, selling
cakes and desserts through their website,
targeting the 2 million Peruvians living outside
the country.
With 3 hour of training, housewife members of
the network who bake and deliver the cakes
learn to use e-mail and website, and interact with
clients through public information booths.
25
When a cake is delivered…a
picture is taken and sent to
the client
26
The Engendering ICT Toolkit has
many more examples of how ICT
can contribute to women’s
entrepreneurship and economic
development, including …Mongolia
Telecom where 4,500 workers are
women.
27
Mongolia Telecom increased the
share of managerial positions held
by women from 9% to 20% by
helping them balance their
responsibilities at home and work
and offering them training and
management development
programs.
28
Our Recent Endeavor: E-Discussion on ICTs and
Gender Equality and Outcomes
420 participants register/regionally balanced/rural citizens’
participation.
Each week, participants were asked to reflect on a set of
questions.
Key Issues Raised by Participants include:
1. Language was considered to be a critical barrier.
People who are not fluent in English, for example, are
at a serious disadvantage in using the Internet and
use of the Internet is especially difficult for people
who are fluent only in local languages.
30
2. There is no single appropriate approach to
capacity building. Some participants urged that
efforts should be concentrated in working with
youth and educated women while others argued
that this would alienate and further marginalize
poor women. Instead, they said that ICTs should
be seen as offering an opportunity to help poor
illiterate women gain access to information and
knowledge.
31
3. It was generally agreed that cultural contexts,
while different from one place to another, are
extremely important everywhere and any efforts
to introduce ICTs to rural communities must be
made within existing, acceptable cultural
frameworks. This factor is not always taken into
consideration by international organizations that
set up ICT projects in rural areas.
32
4. ICTS have had a substantial impact on the
quality of work environments and women
have been affected both positively and
negatively. Although many women have
acquired employment in call centers or in
other ICT-based firms, there is still a
tendency for the best-paid and most
prestigious jobs to be held by men.
Moreover, the actual number of women
who have found good employment
through outsourcing is relatively small and
most of them come from elite
backgrounds.
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