“More and Better Women’s ICT based Enterprises in Uganda”

Introduction

The Women’s ICT-Based Enterprises (WIE) project in Uganda is part of a global Women's ICT Enterprises Project, which is coordinated by Dr. Richard Heeks of the University of Manchester and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The Ugandan WIE project is coordinated by Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), supported by an advisory group composed of Ugandan participants to an India August 2005 workshop in which the English-language version of a handbook on supporting women’s ICT-based enterprises was reviewed.

In Uganda, there are two aspects to the WIE project. The first aspect of the Ugandan project involves localization and use of the guidance handbook on creating and supporting women’s ICT based enterprises.

The second aspect of the Ugandan project was to run a workshop that motivates key stakeholders (government, NGO, private sector, community organisations, donors, banks, and training institutions among others) to initiate and promote women ICT-based enterprises. The objective was to launch the handbook localisation process and to develop national and local action plans to promote, initiate and improve WIEs. The WIE workshop also included a “market place” where women’s ICT-based enterprises exhibited their products and services.

Kampala WIE Workshop

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) supported by the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) of the University of Manchester with funding from the UK Department of Foreign International Development (DFID) organised a two-day national workshop for women and key stakeholders engaged in promoting women’s access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), to share experience of support and operation of women’s ICT based enterprises, drawing from the experience of participants.

The workshop also sought contributions to the development of a handbook on women’s ICT-based enterprises and sought for strategies to develop national and local action plans to promote, initiate, and improve women’s ICT-based enterprises in Uganda. The workshop was held 7-8 February 2006, at Hotel Africana, Kampala.

Participants were drawn from a cross section of ICT practitioners including ICT service vendors; Internet Service Providers; mobile communication service providers; ICT service retailers such as women selling call services, Village Phone services sellers, and proprietors of secretarial bureaus; system developers; multimedia consultants; non-government organisations (NGOs); National Planning Authority (NPA); academic institutions such as the Department of Gender and Women Studies, Makerere University; and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications. The workshop was also attended by four international participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.

The key speaker and guest of honour was Dr. Maggie Kigozi, the Executive Director of Uganda Investment Authority. In her opening remarks, she observed that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provide enormous opportunities both as tools used for handling work and as source of business opportunities. She identified a number of business opportunities offered by ICTs such as system development, development of electronic learning materials for schools, e-commerce that women can ably do.

The workshop closing remarks were made by Ms. Jane Mpagi, Director of Gender in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, who thanked Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) of the University of Manchester for coordinating this initiative in Uganda. She said this initiative is an acknowledgeable fact since women are new entrants and minorities in the areas of ICT as well as entrepreneurships. She requested the initiative to support women’s ICT-based enterprise through developing entrepreneurship skill as well as ICT skills. This she said would enable women to improve on the quality and quantity of products among which will be data entry, programming, hardware assembly, web designing, ICT training, ICT consulting, etc.

Despite the enormous opportunities offered by ICTs, women’s access to ICTs is still too limited to make an impact on the way women relate in society and conduct business. The WIE workshop identified challenges in promoting, initiating and improving WIEs in Uganda, and then proceeded to draw action points and strategies for the way forward, including the following:

• Advocacy
  • Establish an ICT lobby group to facilitate access to appropriate ICTs
  • Nurture a network of WIEs, under the guidance of the Uganda Women’s Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) and the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA)
• Capacity Building
  • Build capacity of women, particularly in rural areas, in the usage and application of ICTs
  • Establish business/ICT incubators to stimulate business motivated minds among the youth
• Mentorship
  • Identify and engage role models to increase awareness among women about the application of ICTs
  • Increase participation of role models and mentors in entrepreneurship development programs

The Kampala WIE Workshop Report is available in PDF format (700KB).

WIE support resources

The goal of the WIE project is the creation of more and better women’s ICT based enterprises that are majority-owned and/or run by women. In line with this goal, the following material are available for use by WIEs or by organisations wishing to support WIEs.

• Supporting Women’s ICT-based Enterprise: A guide to promote, initiate and improve women’s ICT based enterprise in Uganda
  The guide is available in English, Luganda and Luo. Click language to download a copy of the guide. Kindly note that due to the size of the files (about 800KB), they may take some time to open/download.
  
  
• Radio Script: Supporting Women's ICT-based Enterprise in Uganda
  A radio script has been developed to support dissemination of information in support of more and better WIEs in Uganda. The script is available in English, Luganda and Luo. Click language to download a copy of the radio script.

The WIE support resources are produced under "copyleft" principles: anyone is free to make use of the content, including modification, subject to acknowledgement of the original authorship and to use only for non-proprietary/non-copyrightable purposes. In addition, we would greatly appreciate your feedback on the materials, send us email at info@wougnet.org or visit the WOUGNET offices on Plot 53 Kira Road, Kamwokya.

Call for stories and case studies of WIEs in Uganda

Are you running or working for a women's ICT-based enterprise in Uganda? Do you or your organisation provide support to WIEs in Uganda? If yes, we would like to capture and share your story! Kindly complete and submit the WIE Submission Form below. For more information, send email to info@wougnet.org.

WIE Submission Form

Organisation Name
Address/Telephone number
Contact Person
Email Address
Primary type of activity (e.g. IT Training, Hardware Assembly, Data Entry, Web Design, Software Development, etc.) (Please limit to 50 words or less)
Number and brief description of roles of the core women members of the enterprise(s)

(You will be returned to this page on successful submission of the WIE Submission Form)

---

Last update: October-14, 2006