| The
Expert Group Meeting to Review ICT Policy from a Gender
Perspective was held in Bangkok on 18 and 19 December
2001. The meeting aimed to review the national, regional
and global initiatives for equal ICT access from a
gender perspective and to assess how these initiatives
had been translated into gender-sensitive policies
in the Asian and Pacific region. The meeting was attended
by 11 experts representing telecommunication sector,
national machineries for the advancement of women,
research institutions, women’s NGOs, and private
sector. In addition, United Nations specialized agencies,
international organizations and non-governmental organizations
were invited to attend the meeting.
DOCUMENTS
1.
Meeting agenda
1.
Opening of the meeting
2. Election of officers
3. Adoption of agenda
4. Background
4.1. Global Review: World Summit on Information
Society
4.2. ITU policy toward gender-sensitive ICT policies
4.3. Background paper presentation: “Issues,
policies and outcomes: are ICT policies addressing
gender equality?
5. Discussions
5.1
Discussions on issues in background paper: ICT policy
for the empowerment of women from perspectives of;
I. Access and capacity building
(a) telecommunications infrastructure and other
technologies
(b) training and education
II. Empowerment
(a) entrepreneurship
(b) jobs and employment opportunities resulting
from advances of IT industry
III. Decision-making
(a) political participation
5.2. Presentations by experts
6.
Consideration of recommendations
7. Adoption of recommendations and report
2.
Opening statement by Chief of Social Development Division,
ESCAP
Opening
Remarks by Ms Lim Kim-Lan, Chief, Social Development
Division, ESCAP
It
gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the
Expert Group Meeting to review ICT Policy from a Gender
Perspective.
In
the emerging “knowledge societies”, access
to communication is becoming the key tool for social
inclusion. The development of ICT, especially the
Internet, has provided improved communication opportunities
for the empowerment of women and girls, which has
enabled an increasing number of women to contribute
to knowledge sharing, networking and electronic commerce
activities.
On
the other hand, as rightly pointed out in the five
year review report of the implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action, gender differences and disparities
have been ignored, traditionally, in policies and
programmes dealing with the development and dissemination
of improved technologies. As a result, women have
benefited less from, and been disadvantaged more by,
technological advances. Women, therefore, need to
be actively involved in the definition, design and
development of new technologies. Otherwise, the information
revolution might bypass women or produce adverse effects
on their lives. The outcome of the five-year review
recommended that further actions and initiatives need
to be explored and implemented to avoid new forms
of exclusion and ensure that women and girls have
equal access and opportunities in respect of the developments
of science and technology.
In
light of the importance of mainstreaming women in
policy and in policy making in the field of information
and communications technology, this expert group meeting
aims to review the national, regional and global initiatives
for equal ICT access. It will assess how these initiatives
have been translated into gender-sensitive policies
in the Asian and Pacific region. In doing so, the
meeting will focus on three components which we consider
indispensable for achieving gender equality in ICT.
These are: access and capacity building, empowerment,
and decision-making. The Association of Progressive
Communications Women’s Network Support Programme
has prepared a background paper for this meeting covering
these components. To receive comments and insightful
views on current ICT policy from a gender perspective,
we have invited experts from different backgrounds
whose expertise is in the areas of ICT, telecommunication
policy making and/or gender issues. I believe the
blending of your expertise will bring tangible results
to the meeting, especially to analyze and draw upon
lessons learned from the background paper, and to
formulate policy recommendations for action, based
on the empirical findings.
The
outcome of this meeting is expected to be the basis
for the regional input for the Commission for the
Status of Women which will be held in March 2003,
where one of its themes will be on the participation
and access of women to the media, and information
and communication technologies and their impact on
and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment
of women. I am also pleased for the valuable collaboration
of the International Telecommunication Union at this
meeting. The ITU representative will make a presentation
on the ITU policy toward gender-sensitive ICT policies.
She will also brief us on the preparations for the
World Summit on Information Society. As you might
be aware, the World Summit on Information Society
will be held in 2003 and 2005, in Geneva and Tunis
respectively, and ITU is the leading UN agency undertaking
preparatory activities for it. ITU has established
a Task Force on Gender Issues, aiming to ensure that
the benefits of telecom applications are made available
to developing countries on a fair and equitable basis.
The presence of the ITU representative at this meeting
will assist us in orienting our outcomes strategically
to integrate gender dimension of ICT at high-level
policy making.
Noting
the challenges women face and the potential role of
women to bring about changes in the development paradigm,
ESCAP will continue its effort in narrowing the gender
digital divide in Asian and the Pacific region.
In
closing, I would like to thank the Government of Japan
for making this meeting possible through its generous
funding support.
I
wish the meeting all success.
5.
Experts' and agencies' presentation briefs
Ms
Sheng Cai from the All-China Women’s Federation
(ACWF)
To enhance rural and urban women’s
level of education, technical know-how, management
and their political participation, the different measures
have been adopted by ACWF for the different target
groups. These measures include to encourage, organize
and guide women to learn advanced skills, science
and technology, and the knowledge of management, provide
leadership training to women for their more participation
in decision making, and to bring professional women
groups together to share among them their experiences,
knowledge and expertise. ACWF created a Chinese Women’s
Web Site to provide information services accessible
to the general public. It is a member of the Gender
in Science and Technology regional website groups
and collected data and information on women in science
and technology and provided them to the regional website.
Original text in PDF file
Mr
Muhammed Ajmal Edappagath, Advocate of the Supreme
Court, India
Despite of its constitution which ensures
equal rights of men and women, there still exist a
wide gap between the goals enunciated in the constitution,
legislation, policies, plans, programmes and the reality
of the status of women in India. Against this backdrop,
the Government is committed to improve the status
of women and several schemes and programmes have been
planned for Women Empowerment Year in year 2001 which
include (1) establishing technological park for women,
(2) national assessment for on women friendly technology
on drudgery reduction, tools and implements and income
generation for women, (3) exhibition on women in science,
and (4) women in information technology. Mr Edappagath
concluded his presentation by emphasizing that the
protective legal provisions in India should be extended
to the ICT sectors and reflected in ICT policies from
national, regional to international levels.
Original text in PDF file
Ms
Laina Raveendran Greene, Executive of GetIT Multimedia.com
Pte Ltd, Singapore
URL: http://www.getit.org
Ms Greene stressed the need to bring a paradigm shift
and political will in order for women and other minority
groups to fully participate in decision-making process
in the ICT industry and that the paradigm shift needs
to happen not only at the national level, but also
at regional and international levels. There are many
women already involved and many more who are at the
forefront of creating new ICT technology, and if they
are supported, they can serve to bring other on board.
In this regard, role models are important. Ms Greene
also mentioned the power and potential of ICT for
women when it was applied to the entrepreneurship.
ICT should be used as a tool of empowering women,
whether for the purposes of e-Learning, knowledge
management, CRM to help them do their jobs better,
or for their ability to be an entrepreneur.
Ms
Junu Kailay, Director, Regional Computer Centre, National
Informatic Centre, Ministry of Information Technology,
India
URL: http://www.nic.org
IT policy is in place in India for many years and
the convergence bill covering issues related to IT,
Communication and Broadcasting is under discussion
and is likely to be passed in the Parliament soon.
Although few Ministries have formulated schemes particularly
in the area of education and training in ICT, many
policies are not gender sensitive. Citing instances
of disadvantaged situation of women who in general
have low literacy rate, Ms Kailay stressed the need
of conscious and positive steps to be taken by the
Government to increase women’s access to higher
and technical education and strong political-will
to remove gender biases from education and training.
Awareness programmes on ICT among rural population
would be equally crucial to cover large number of
women being involved in small-scale businesses in
rural area.
Original text in PDF file
Ms
Kio Chung Kim, Director, Asian Pacific Women’s
Information Network Center (APWINC), Sookmyung Women’s
University, Seoul
URL: http://apwin.Sookmyung.ac.kr
APWINC has a vital role to promote a gender perspective
in ICT, as the institution has mandates on both ICT
and gender issues. APWINC’s activities include
the web-based information services for women and ICT
educational training on dissemination, specialization
and globalization. Ms Kim introduced activities undertaken
by APWINC at national, regional and international
levels. She further introduced the APEC gender guidelines
on IT project. APWINC prepared a draft gender guidelines
which covers the categories of gender mainstreaming,
gender analysis, sex- disaggregated data and gender
budgeting. Gender-sensitive IT projects in the Republic
of Korea, under the e-Korea national project, include
e-business and web-design training, on-the-job training
and the establishment of the cyber IT education center.
Original text in PPT file
Ms
Temukisa Kupa, Senior Policy Analyst, Ministry of
Posts and Telecommunications, Apia
While mentioning the unique role of Samoan
women as pillars in the family and community, emphasized
the needs of promoting active women’s roles
in the society. According to a recent poll, majority
of women continue to occupy administrative work in
the ICT industry in Samoa. To promote the status of
women, a draft national communications policy recommends
measures including; (1) involvement of the Ministry
of Women’s Affairs and other stakeholders in
the national ICT policy development, (2) programmes
to break barriers against traditional roles of women,
(3) skill training to be provided for women at community
level, (4) The women’s committees in the villages
will need to be strengthened through policy implementation.
Ms Kupa concluded her presentation that increasing
attention to women in the ICT sector at international
level would be expected to bring promotion of women’s
involvement in the early stage of ICT development
in Samoa.
Original text in PDF file
Ms
Batsukh Purevsuren, Head, External Relations Office,
Mongolia Telecom, Ulaanbaatar
http://www.mtcone.net
While the successful integration of women in development
programmes would contribute significantly to improve
the distribution of wealth, income and well-being
of the country, Ms Purevsuren raised a concern that
compared to male workers the female workers spend
far much time on unpaid work at home and thus double
burdened with inputs to social reproduction and sustainable
human development. Against this backdrop, the Mongolia
Telecom implements special measures for female employees,
such as special care programme for single mothers
and allowance for women who gave a birth. The Human
Resource Development Plan of the Mongolia Telecom,
established in 1996, includes a recommendation to
promote and support women for a management position.
The plan helped increasing women at managerial level.
Today, 20.5 per cent of senior managers are women
while there were only 8.8 per cent of these when the
Plan was developed.
Original text in PDF file
Ms
Asiya Sasykbaeva, Director, Center Interbilim, Bishkek
Ms Sasykbaeva mentioned that most ICT related
companies do not pay enough attention to the improvement
of the status of women. Noting that access to and
use of ICT by women could play an important role in
economic and social development, Ms Sasykbaeva stressed
the importance of collaboration among the Government,
donor organizations, women’s NGOs and other
stakeholders for developing gender-sensitive ICT policies.
Resources Centers in the rural regions could provide
a platform for a wide range of partners to contribute
resources, technology, equipment, educational content,
training and technical assistance. Alternative ICT
training venues for women and girls could increase
the skills and accessibility of women to ICT. She
concluded with recommendations as mainstreaming gender
in the ICT policy development, collaborating with
women’s NGOs and raising media attention on
the issue for public awareness.
Original text in PDF file
Ms
Champa Jeevani Waragoda, Deputy Director (Compliance),
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka,
Colombo
URL: http://www.trc.gov.lk
In order to successfully overcome the prevailing situation,
Ms Waragoda made following recommendations in conclusion;
(1) encourage private sector by creating a healthy
competitive environment, (2) take measures to reduce
the cost and thereby increase the accessibility, by
installing public telephones, multi-purpose community
telecentres, and establishing community-based telephone
systems, (3) make user-friendly environment and create
an attitude change by developing software suitable
for the communities with low IT literacy rates with
special attention to local languages, (4) take measures
to maintain an acceptable level of quality of all
the telecommunication services, (5) take measures
to make waiting time for connections minimal, and
(6) conduct periodic analysis and surveys and identify
the correct needs of the society.
Full text in PDF file
Ms
Zarima Zaitova, Professor, State University of World
Economy, Tashkent
Although reliable statistics on women’s
Internet use is not available, Ms Zaitova mentioned
that most women Internet users, like many other developing
countries, were not representatives of women in the
country as a whole. The single most important factor
in improving the ability of girls and women to take
full advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT
is education, at all levels from literacy through
scientific and technological education. Beyond access
to basic education, girls and women must be equipped
with skills to prepare them for a range of roles in
information technology as users, creators, designers,
and managers. Therefore, efforts should focus on increasing
the number of girls and women studying IT-related
subjects in formal schooling and seeking IT training
outside of school, as well as related areas to help
them fully utilize IT skills.
Original text in PDF file
Presentations
by the United Nations Specialized Agencies and other
organizations
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