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The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in the Development of African Women
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
August 2004

http://www.apc.org/english/rights/documents/article_english.pdf

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Introduction
The last few years have been a period of immense growth and interest in ICTs amongst Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). There is no longer a debate about whether to engage with ICTs or not. Most CSOs are choosing to actively engage with new technologies. How to apply ICTs strategically in organizational work is where the debate has moved. A greater sense of the need to own and control ICTs is evident. The debates now concern how to apply ICTs to the developmental challenges facing Africa. Civil Society Organizations, governments, donor agencies and to some extent the business sector are exploring appropriate mechanisms for harnessing ICTs for development. Although there are the concomitant dangers of exploitation, dominance and profiteering rather than sharing and social upliftment, most civil society role players are of the same mind – new technologies can be applied for social change.

However, the reality of access to ICTs in Africa is stark. There are only 14 million phone lines for 816 million people. That is fewer than the number of phones in Manhattan or Tokyo. Eighty per cent of those lines exist in only six African countries. There are only a million Internet users on the entire continent compared with 10.5 million in the UK.

Women’s ICT access in the developing world is generally confined to a small elite of high income, urban-based citizens. Although women represent a growing proportion of Internet users in many countries, in most of these the overall levels of access are extremely low. Significant numbers of women are currently online in only a small number of countries outside of the developing world. But even in the industrialised countries, where overall connectivity is high, gender-specific constraints shape and define ICT use.

ICTs are not a panacea to social evils and they can and do easily reinforce social inequity. But the reality is that exclusion from new technologies means exclusion from access to information, local and global debates and the power to contribute to critical policy debates.

The tremendous importance of the socio-cultural context of technology was apparent throughout. Technology does not operate in a vacuum. Information technology in itself cannot combat constraining socio-cultural forces.¹

Although the 20th century saw the advent of Internet tools, women living and working in Africa are still vulnerable to poverty, racism, war and the particular scars of colonial legacies. Given the many environmental and structural injustices and obstacles faced by women in Africa, the networks which have existed for years and which continue to develop are created according to evolving needs and use various means to communicate. Local networks may meet face-to-face, national and regional networks may produce and communicate through newsletters or radio programmes. Workshops, conferences and meetings create the space not only to work together but also to document processes and develop a stronger information base. Increasingly African women’s networks with access to the new technologies of the Internet are utilising these tools. The speed of these tools, particularly email

(which is relatively cheap and the most accessible feature of the Internet), enables effective networking and quick communication.

"ICTs bring profound changes to our communities. They influence how we know and understand the world. They change work methods and the ways in which we communicate. They affect how we access and share information. They are also an important source of power. By acquiring the equipment and skills to use them, we gain access to that power." ²

Every time we make information available and when it serves human advancement, we are participating in the democratisation of society. And every time we fail to do so, we not only stand in the way of that process, we also serve to break down the building blocks of that very democracy. Access to information (read knowledge and power!) is critical for social transformation and development. Not only is it a basic human right, it also provides a tool for mobilization and participation in decisionmaking processes.

What this means in real terms for 'information brokers' including CSOs, the media, teachers, doctors – anyone who is committed to sharing and spreading information – is that we have to disseminate information as widely as possible across all kinds of barriers – cultural, language, political, social. Through access to basic information (from information on primary health care to how to apply for a pension) we need to create a culture of information exchange, forming networks across all sectors to ensure that information becomes real and useful and empowers more people than merely those who have the means to acquire information. We need to ensure that it reaches the audience for whom it is intended.³

CSOs in Africa who are ‘privileged’ with access are often frustrated by the lack of indigenous content and the large volumes of information from the North that often bears little relation to local lives. This means that ensuring access to the technologies is not enough. They need to be shaped and adapted for use in local contexts.

ICTs are understood to include computers, the rapidly changing communications technologies (including radio, television, mobile telephony and Internet), networking and data processing capabilities, and the software for using the technologies. ICTs provide us with the capacity to harness, access and apply information and disseminate knowledge in all kinds of human activities, thus giving rise to the information- or knowledge-based economies and societies. These have the potential to create new types of economic activity and employment opportunities, thereby improving the quality of daily life. For example, ICTs are changing the way business operates through e-commerce applications, and have brought improvements in health-care delivery. As an information and knowledgebased tool, ICTs can enhance networking, participation, and advocacy within society. They also have the potential to improve interaction between governments and their citizens, fostering transparency and accountability in governance as a result.

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1. Are ICTs gender-neutral? A gender analysis of six case studies of multi-donor ICT projects By Nancy J.Hafkin. UN/INSTRAW Virtual Seminar Series on Gender and ICTs.Seminar One: Are ICTs Gender Neutral? 1-12 July 2002
2. The Internet : Getting Connected, published by the African Gender Institute and Women's Net
3. Boezak, Sonja. 2000. The Politics of Location. Unpublished.

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