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* Gender & ICT Policy Advocacy

Engendering ICT policy

The Need for Gender Sensitive ICT Policy Processes

ICTs are a solution to various problems of development and can be very instrumental in combating poverty, poor governance, disease, market shortage, gender inequality, female dis-empowerment, low quality education and constrained access to information. ICTs are a solution to various problems of development and can be very instrumental in combating poverty, poor governance, disease, market shortage, gender inequality, female dis-empowerment, low quality education and constrained access to information.

Women play a very important role in reaching out and dissemination of information in different communities. However, infrastructure is a gender issue and women tend to be the most impoverished, with least access to resources, little control over decision making that affect their lives and for this reason women are on the wrong side of the digital divide with limited access to and control over ICTs.

ICTs have enormous potential to benefit girls and women in terms of enhanced income-generation opportunities, employment, and improved quality of life, as well as political and social empowerment of women. However, it is important to advocate for integration of gender in ICT policy processes to reduce and manage the potential for ICTs to create economic and social exclusion and reinforce existing social disparities. As Nancy Hafkin 2002 puts it “engendering the ICT Policy is an area of great importance, perhaps the most important in securing the benefits of the information age for women and girls” If gender issues are not articulated in the ICT Policy , it is unlikely that girls and women will reap the benefits of the information age”.

Some of the gender issues and concerns include; the distribution of ICT infrastructure, the concerns of women’s literacy and access to ICT, gender insensitive language in the ICT policy and ICT discourse, social and cultural stereotypes, distribution of power and decision making in ICT sector, the privacy and security of women and men.

Gender analysis and mainstreaming of ICT policies is still a new area and is very important in enhancing women’s equitable access to the benefits of ICTs. The main interest under equitable access is that both men and women have equal access in the sector without any favour or discrimination. The main aspects of gender mainstreaming include;

    > Inclusion of gender equality and development goals in the ICT policy,

    > Reflecting gender perspectives and recognising that technology policy is not gender neutral

    > Provision for interventions that can bring about change in the gender relations

    > Recognizing and planning for the different categories of women and men and their roles as producers and consumers of ICT

    > Adapting ICTs to the needs and realities of women

    > Addressing the differential impact of ICT on women and men and their different development needs

    > Perceiving communication as a right and a public good

    > Providing universal opportunity to access ICT through ICT education, training and information.

This calls for all stakeholders involved in the ICT Policy processes; policy makers, the private sector, and civil society, to acknowledge and adequately address gender dimensions of the information society, by creating conditions which maximize the benefits of ICTs and reduce the risks that ICTs contribute to the digital and the information divide.

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