Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated in May 2000 by several women's organisations in Uganda to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively. WOUGNET’s vision is a society in which women are empowered through the use of ICTs for sustainable development.

WOUGNET's mission is to promote and support the use of ICTs by women and women organisations in Uganda, so that they can take advantage of the opportunities presented by ICTs in order to effectively address national and local problems of sustainable development. The new ICTs, in particular, email and the Internet facilitate communication with each other and the international community. Indeed, access to information about best practices, appropriate technologies, ideas and problems of other groups working on similar concerns have been identified as critical information and communication needs of women organisations in Africa.

While our emphasis is directed towards Internet technologies, we are also interested in how these technologies can be integrated with traditional means of information exchange and dissemination including radio, video, television and print media. Our goal is to improve conditions of life for women by enhancing their capacities and opportunities for exchange, collaboration and information sharing.

WOUGNET activities are carried out under three major program areas:

Information sharing and networking: This program aims at providing relevant information to urban and rural women and sharing of experiences for purposes of improving quality of lives. Information sharing and networking is conducted in a variety of ways including through an electronic mailing list, a monthly electronic newsletter with updates on the activities of WOUGNET members and the secretariat, the WOUGNET website www.wougnet.org, a quarterly print newsletter “WOUGNET News”, as well as online and face-to-face workshops. The secretariat also houses a Resource Centre with a variety of information on ICT for development.
In addition, a project on “Enhancing Access to Agricultural Information using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Apac District” was initiated to develop and improve information and communication systems so as to enable easy access to agricultural information for rural women farmers via a variety of ICTs including mobile phones, radio cassettes, and community radio. Located in Apac town, the Kubere Information Centre (KIC) was established to act both as an Information Resource point as well as to support project implementation and two-way linkages with the women farmers. This project was initiated with support from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).

Technical support: This program aims at supporting women organisations to access, utilise and apply ICTs in addressing their development problems. Under this program, WOUGNET activities include designing simple websites for members (with support from volunteers), providing Tech Tips on a variety of computer related queries and issues of members, and facilitating access to ICTs (e.g, refurbished computers in collaboration with Computer Aid International, WorldSpace satellite radio in collaboration with RANET-Uganda, innovative technologies such as i.scribe, making use of tools such as skype and wikis for internal communication).

Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy: The program aims at building capacity of network members to effectively influence the formulation and implementation of gender sensitive ICT policies and programs. WOUGNET serves as secretariat for the Uganda Women’s Caucus on ICT (UWCI) to undertake advocacy activities geared towards addressing gender concerns within the ICT Policies and programs. Primarily funded by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), advocacy activities include building the capacity of policy makers, ICT experts and the media to articulate gender issues in the on-going ICT policy processes (e.g., conduct public fora, gender analysis training), advocating for gender sensitive ICT policy processes (e.g., produce policy briefs), and assessing the implementation of ICT policies (e.g., assessment of the the Rural Communications Development Fund from a gender perspective).

Through the programs above, WOUGNET expects to make a significant contribution to the use of ICTs in Uganda that is in line with the national vision of "a knowledge-based Uganda where national development and good governance are sustainably enhanced and accelerated by timely and secure access to information and efficient application of ICT".

The WOUGNET website is currently under re-development to take advantage of new web tools and techniques. Your input and suggestions on changes we need to make are most welcome. Please send comments to techsupport@wougnet.org. Thank You!

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