A new tool to open access to information for rural women farmers in Africa
Anne S. Walker, Executive Director, IWTC

Need for Information:

Rural women, most of whom are farmers speaking only the local language of their region, are among the most isolated groups in Africa. Having little opportunity to go to school, they are dependent on word-of-mouth or local radio for information and have had little say in what that information is about. Yet they are in the forefront of the fight against poverty, illness and conflicts that are raging across their continent.

Need for New Approaches to Opening Access to Information:

With few women able to read, even in their own language, books are of limited use. Radio programmes tend to be confined to political or government propaganda and religious activities. Into this isolated arena, international agencies have begun to construct telecentres as a major effort to "cross the digital divide" between those with access to information and those without. Women however, even though living and working in close proximity to the telecentres, have not been able to use them effectively due their limited reading ability and the absence of appropriate content materials.

Responding to These Needs:

What are the tools, resources and opportunities that need to be put in place in order to open access to vital information for rural women, particularly those living in close proximity to the new telecentres? How can we create a strong, responsive knowledge base to support rural women's economic, social and political empowerment?

In responding to these needs, the following requirements were established:

• the content material must be accessible to an audience with little or no reading skills,
• the information must be in the language of the users
• the information must have immediate value to the users
• the tool must be affordable in cost
• the tool must be easy to use
• the tool must be easily adaptable into other local languages to ensure widespread replicability and viability.

An underlying premise of this project was that the audience for this new information tool would be first time users of computers. It was also assumed that a rural woman's initial experience in using this new information tool would be important in determining whether the women become repeat users of facilities in the telecentres. In short, the new tool was expected to deliver not only useful information but also a positive experience.

Methodology:

IWTC, working in partnership with IDRC, the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology and women's groups in Uganda, has developed a methodology for a new information tool that can be used in the telecentres, using the existing computer software already installed in each centre. Key in the development of this methodology was the need not to rely on access to the Internet as this is still problematical in Africa, and there is usually a charge to the user to go online.

The end product is a CD Rom that uses a simple browser navigating system with graphic interface and spoken text. The user simply moves the mouse across the screen and clicks on pictures or text to hear a voice speaking in the local language.

Content of the First CD-Rom:

After two years of meetings with rural women at various telecentres in Uganda and listening to their information needs, the decision was made to focus the first programme on small business entrepreuner-ship. Entitled: "Rural Women in Africa: Ideas for Earning Money," the CD-ROM uses as it's primary sources: "From Boardroom to Burning Sun: Interviews with 75 Successful Entreprenuers in Uganda" by Peg Snyder, and the small business training manual, "Marketing Strategies," developed by the Overseas Education Fund (OEF) and field-tested extensively among low-income women in Africa. Field-tested in February and May 2001, the results have been very successful and offer a variety of future possibilities for other subject areas.

Advantages:

The work on this pilot project suggests that this new tool is affordable, adaptable and capable of carrying multiple language tracks. It offers farm women direct access to information they need to improve their productivity without relying on someone from outside, -such as an agricultural extension agent- to bring the information to them. And most of all, it provides a way of accessing information in their own time and at their own speed. The user is able to open up the programme, move to different sections as needed, or linger over parts that they particularly want to go over again and again.

Future Prospects:

This CD-ROM has been designed to meet the needs of rural women in Africa to have access to relevant and appropriate information that will improve their marketing and survival skills. It does not require access to the Internet. At this time, going online in Africa can be problematical and costly which alone precludes most rural women. In addition to this, there is little on the Internet that is appropriate to their information needs nor is there anything in most local languages.

It is envisioned however, that this programme will be available online in several African and international languages, with visuals and sound, using the point-and-click methodology developed by IWTC and IDRC. In this way, it could be disseminated widely and made available for adaptation and translation across the African continent.

This first programme on small business entrepreneurship for rural women in Africa is a foretaste of programmes that could be developed in many other subject areas. We want you to assist us with ideas on ways to move the project forward.

Additional Information

Click here for additional information about this project as well as contact information. You can also download a copy of this report 'A New Tool' in WORD format.

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Last update: November-11, 2002