Women & ICT Agenda: the role of partnerships

1. Women & ICT Agenda: the role of partnerships Presentation at ITU Regional Symposium On Women and ICTs Cairo 17-19 December 2003 Gillian Marcelle Founding Convenor WSIS Gender Caucus gmarcelle@genderwsis.org www.genderwsis.org

2. The WSIS Gender Caucus MULTI-STAKEHOLDER NETWORK • National government representatives • Civil society organizations • Non-governmental organizations • Private sector • United Nations system STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE To integrate gender equality and women's rights into the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS and its outcome processes

3. Steering Committee Members (2003) • Eva Rathgeber (Uni. of Ottawa/Carleton University) • Gillian Goddard (Caribbean Found. for Human Development) • Gillian Marcelle (Technology for Development) • Gloria Bonder (Catedra UNESCO) • Ingunn Yssen (Consultant, Finland) • Jacqueline Morris (Internet Business Consultant) • Lettie Longwe (AMARC-Africa) • Patricia Faccin (ITU/BDT) • Rosario Gracia-Luque (HumanITy) • Ruth Ochieng (ISIS-WICCE) • Shafika Isaacs (SchoolNet Africa) • Sucharita Eashwar (Media Consultant, India)

4. WSIS Gender Caucus Strategic Partners and Core Team • Denmark • Finland • Norway • Sweden • ITU • UNIFEM • UN-ICT Task Force Core Team • Nish Matenjwa- Logistics Coordinator • Megan Smith – Electronic networking consultant • Bernie Vigano- Programme Administrator • Florence Etta- Advocacy resource person • Cathy Mae Karelse – Organisational development • Ann Dumas – Communications specialist • Oliva Acosta- Media relations

5. Programmes of the WSIS Gender Caucus • Advocacy and lobbying • Electronic Networking • Research and materials development • Capacity building and training • Summit Events • Programme of activities www.genderwsis.org/Dec2003.html • Civil Society Bureau Gender Focal Point • Regional groups • Communications and outreach • Partnerships at national and regional level

6. Advocacy Strategy for WSIS • The Caucus was launched at the African Regional Prep-Com in May 2002 • Since then the WSIS–GC has been represented at every Global Prep-Com and participated actively in several of the regional Prep-Coms and at the Summit • The WSIS-GC made formal submissions on the Declaration and Action Plan, (www.genderwsis.org/advocacy.html) and is a vocal champion of the non negotiable requirement to include gender equality as a fundamental principle in the creation of the Information Society.

7. Key Recommendations We urge all WSIS stakeholders to act on: • Gender as a fundamental principle for action. Acknowledge existing gender divides in the WSIS Declaration and Plan of Action and include actions that work to eliminate them. • Equitable participation in every aspect of the Information Society, including decision making. Women are agents of development and therefore must be included in defining and leading development of the Information Society.

8. Key Recommendations • New and traditional ICTs must be expanded and used in a multimodal approach. Acknowledge the availability, success and familiarity of traditional ICTs within communities as a foundation to the new Information Society. • Design ICTs to serve people. Women and currently underrepresented groups should be equitably represented in technology, research, design and development and encouraged through appropriate, targeted education in this area.

9. Key Recommendations • Empowerment for full participation. National governments, the international community and all stakeholders must take action at all levels to strengthen capacities of women of all ages so that they can participate as equal partners in policy and practice development and in technology conceptualization, design and implementation, • Research analysis and evaluation to guide action Apply creative research and evaluation techniques to measure intended and unintended impacts on women generally and on subgroups of women. At minimum agencies should collect information on a disaggregated by sex, income, age, location, and other relevant factors.

10. Onsite Advocacy and Lobbying for WSIS • Produced lobbying briefs which influenced national government delegations to accept its proposed language for the Declaration and Action Plan. • Maintained a visible and unifying presence for gender advocates through daily meetings • Created a safe, supportive forum for participatory involvement in lobbying and advocacy. • Provided mechanisms for diverse group to work as a team despite regional differences and other potential divides such as age, income level and political ideology. • Distributed regular series of advocacy updates and lobbying briefs. • Organised preparatory capacity building workshops. • Demonstrated holistic approaches to advocacy by supporting personal development and care practices such as relaxation techniques and meditation

11. E-Advocacy • The WSIS-GC carries out its advocacy and lobbying work through a small team of consultants and a much larger global community which is connected via mailing list and the website • The wsis-gc list wsis-gc@genderwsis.org is used for on-line consultations on lobbying and advocacy strategy and tactics Join the mailing list by writing to register@genderwsis.org • Documents produced by the Caucus are disseminated via the website and mailing list enabling wide-spread consultation from gender advocates round the world. • The WSIS Gender Caucus community includes some of the leading thinkers and advocates on gender and ICT issues • WSIS-GC Steering Committee members are active in the leadership of many other networks including the ITU Working Group on Gender Issues, One World Network, GKP, ICT4Dev Platform, UN ICT Task Force and the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality UN-IANGWE

12. On Line Tools and Global Networking • Demonstrates the usefulness of ICT tools for global organising and networking by making its position papers available on-line and providing a facility for online endorsement of these positions. www.genderwsis.org/endorsement • The WSIS-GC also uses ICT tools for communications and networking and distributes an electronic bulletin on ICT current affairs using a one-way mailing list news@genderwsis.org

13. Successes and Challenges Successes • Increased awareness of gender issues amongst the decision makers • Inclusion of changes in the Declaration and Action Plan • Global reach of lobbying team made its impact Challenges • Gender issues is still not considered fundamental and legitimate by a large number of countries • Overcoming resistance from unconvinced delegates

14. Integration Gender Equality in WSIS • Paragraph C4 12 g) removal of gender barriers to ICT education and training and proposes equal opportunities in ICT-related fields for women and girls. It also notes the importance of targeting young with the aim of increasing the number of women in ICT careers and promoting the exchange of best practices on the integration of gender perspectives in ICT education. • Paragraph C6 14 q) encourages governments in collaboration with stakeholders to formulate conducive ICT policies that foster entrepreneurship, innovation and investment, and with particular reference to the promotion of participation by women. • Paragraph C7 c) promotes 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, and for those with disabilities • Paragraph C7 d) early intervention programs in science and technology that should target young girls to increase the number of women in ICT carriers. • Paragraph C8 24 h strengthened programmes focused on gender-sensitive curricula in formal and non-formal 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 to develop ICT content.

15. Integration Gender Equality in WSIS • Paragraph C9 25 e) which promotes balanced and diverse portrayals of women by the media. • Paragraph D28 which suggests that the Digital Solidarity Agenda aims at putting in place the conditions for mobilizing human, financial and technological resources for inclusion of all men and women in the emerging Information Society • Paragraph E29 a) which promotes the development of a composite ICT Development (Digital Opportunity) Index which could present analytical work on national policies and implementation, depending on national circumstances, including gender analysis. • Paragraph E29 d which promotes the development of gender-specific indicators on ICT use and needs, and the identification of measurable performance indicators to assess the impact of funded ICT projects on the lives of women and girls.

16. National and Regional Partnership Programmes: Objectives • Ensure integration of gender perspectives at national and regional level Information Society policy and programming • Enable gender equality advocates to effectively participate in the process of Information Society policy making and programming • Contribute to the preparation for international negotiations through thorough preparation and action at national and regional level • Help realize the goals of the global accords through monitoring and implementation at national and regional level

17. National and Regional Programmes: Activities The WSIS Gender Caucus provides financial and technical resources to support national and regional efforts to raise awareness about WSIS and to improve the effective participation in national and regional preparations of gender advocates www.genderwsis.org/nationalprogrammes

18. WSIS Gender Caucus Contribution Support national and regional level organizers in: • Identifying partners and providing assistance for organizing awareness raising, training and capacity building workshops • Providing relevant materials and document templates (such as project proposal templates) • Presenting the best proposals received to potential funders • Featuring the most effective programme plans on the Gender Caucus website

19. Follow Up Activities: WSIS Gender Caucus • Disseminate the results of the Geneva Phase of the Summit and the discussions of the WSIS Gender Caucus Events programme • Support effective participation in organising advocacy during the interval between Geneva Phase and Tunis Phase • Share your experiences and best practices via the website, mailing lists and publications • Encourage decision makers to use the expertise that is available at national and regional level for Information Society policy and programming • Support research to measure and evaluate the impact of ICTs, particularly on women • Provide a platform for information sharing, networking and co-operation

20. Follow Up Activities: Our Partners • Lobby national and regional stakeholders for the inclusion of gender issues in their Information Society agendas • Carry out research to measure and evaluate the impact of your advocacy effort • Continue networking at all levels, including through the global platform provided by the WSIS Gender Caucus • Share experiences and best practice with other regions

21. Latin American and Caribbean Region Workshop,October 2003 in Buenos Aires, Argentina Serbia and Montenegro Roundtable October 2003 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. South Asian Consultation, November 2003 in Delhi, India. Regional awareness raising and capacity building workshops

22. Thank You • International Telecommunication Union • Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology • Egyptian National Telecommunication Institute WSIS Gender Caucus PO Box 31866 Braamfontein 2017 SOUTH AFRICA Email: secretariat@genderwsis.org Ph: +27-11-3392300 Fax: +27-11-3395912 www.genderwsis.org