African women converge around ICTs in cape town.

The access and use of information communication technologies by women was the objective of the women's electronic network training held in March-April 2003. African women from nine countries participated in the training, aimed at advancing and expanding their technological expertise in lobbying and advocacy around African women's human rights. The seven-day workshop was organized and hosted by Association of Progressive Communicators Africa Women. The training team was drawn from various organisations. Women's Electronic Network Training Africa 2003 aimed to build capacities of women and their organisations to utilise ICTs In social development work and policy advocacy. WENT Africa 2003 was open to all women whose organizations play or will play a significant role in promoting the use of ICTs to enhance women's role and capacity in social and policy advocacy as well as to strengthen women's organizations and networks in Africa. The workshop used the Asia and Pacific Women's Electronic Network Training workshop as a module and methodology and has been held annually since 1999. APC Africa women saw the workshop as a potentially beneficial south-south partnership and skills sharing. WENT Africa 2003 offered two parallel instructional tracks from which participants chose the most appropriate for their training needs as well as two sessions in which all the participants were involved. Track one included computer housekeeping and e-mail list management, track two focused on Action Applications and APC open software for web content management. Track three involved repackaging of information and convergence of old and new technologies with a focus on radio and track four focused on gender and ICT policy and violence against women materials. All participants engaged in hands-on training and an all women training team led the tracks. The highlight of the workshop was the beginning of an African women's definition of ICTs. The key words identified were Access, Appropriate, Sustainability, and Integration. The workshop was also a beginning of an African Women's ICT training network. As one workshop participant said "it was great being trained by women."

The WENT Africa 2003 Report and Evaluation is up on the APC-Africa-Women website and can be downloaded at: http://www.apcafricawomen.org/went_report.htm For further documentation of the Workshop, go to: http:// www.apcafricawomen.org/went_rep.shtml

Des femmes africaines reunies a Cape-Town se concertent...