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Report on the National ICT Strategy and Policy Workshop
Taurai Maduna, Kubatana.net
October 22, 2004

Summary report on National ICT held at the HICC - August 31, 2004

The E-Knowledge for women in Southern Africa (EKOWISA) in conjuction with the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) hosted the National ICT Strategy and Policy workshop in Harare on October 21, 2004.

The workshop was attended by more than 80 delegates from civil society, government departments and women in business. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss the National ICT Policy and get recommendations that will be included in the draft ICT policy.

The workshop also focused on how the National ICT Policy should reflect the main issues affecting women and their access to ICT's in their communities.

The programme began with welcome remarks by Ms Mbambo, chairperson of EKOWISA followed by presentations.

Ms N Manzini, the Regional Director of the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) thanked Margaret Zunguze and her team at EKOWISA for the wonderful work they where doing in promoting the use of ICT's amongst women in Southern Africa. Ms Manzini said it was important that women where meeting to discuss the National ICT Policy before the draft policy was compiled. She said policies should be gender balanced and inputs from a gender perspective where very useful.

The Director of the United Nations Information Department, was represented by Ms Tafadzwa Mumba. In her presentation Ms Mumba outlined the WSIS process, the declaration and plan of action. She said there was need to the scrap the Geneva Plan of Action because it was vague.

The workshop was officially opened by a representative from the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation who highlighted government's commitment to the creation of a National ICT Policy.

Mr Dumisani Ngwenya, Project Coordinator of the National Information and Communication Technology Project. He spoke about the National ICT Project, which was set up to create a sustainable knowledge society/economy in Zimbabwe through the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The National ICT Project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed through the Department of Science and Technology Development at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). The intended final project outcome is the National ICT Strategy Document being formulated and linked to the national Millennium Development Goals. The project will achieve this by undertaking several activities including readiness surveys, conducting awareness campaigns and organizing stakeholder workshops. The diagnostic surveys will address sectors of the economy and society such as: e-Commerce, e-Education and Training, e-Government, e-Public Service, e-Mining, e-Health, e-Agriculture, e-Tourism, e-Manufacturing, e-ICT.

Dr Dlodlo from NUST presented a paper entitled "National ICT process and the gender component". Dr Dlodlo said her paper was meant to stimulate debate on ICT's visa vis gender equality. She further added that at the moment ICT's are labelled as a 'non'-woman sector.

After each presentations, delegates where asked to comment or give their thoughts on the National ICT Project. Some of the concerns raised by the delegates included the following:

• Although good policies were being drafted they are useless if the implementation is not done effectively.
• Government has to do more to commit it'self to the National ICT Policy
• Focus on women should not only refer to rural women but also those in the urban areas.
• The National ICT Project was not doing enough to raise awareness of the project by the general public.

After the presentations, delegates where divided into groups, that were meant to discuss and give policy recommendations/guidelines to the diagnostic surveys being conducted by the National ICT project.

The groups were meant to discuss various issues, which include, appropriate technology, relevant content, socio-cultural factors, legal and regulatory framework and political will.

Discussions from the groups where then presented in a plenary session. Some of the presentations made during the plenary highlighted that there was need for a sound economic environment that allows investors and potential investors to invest in ICT's. There were also calls that Government should do away with laws that stifle the use or growth of ICTs. The deregulation of monopolies and an increase in competion was seen as a move that would create a conjucive environment in the growth of ICTs.

Apart from the presentations and disucussions, the workshop provided an opportunity for delegates to interact with women in business who have benefited from the Technological Information Promotion System (TIPS) programme. The TIPS is a specialized network that provides support and information to business enterprises, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises. The main goal of TIPS is to promote the potential and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.

Women who are involved in various business projects which include cross border trading, cateringand events management highlighted the need to learn more about ICTs. The women expressed a desire to learn more about ICTs to enable hem to improve the way they do business and at the same time allow them to explore new markets for their goods.

A report on the workshop with recommendations that would be put forward to the National ICT Project will be compiled by EKOWISA.

Visit the EKOWIZA fact sheet

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