ICT policy challenges for African women.

unequal power relations in our societies can contribute to differential access, participation and treatment of men and women in the information society.

Studies have shown that although African women have had little contact with the so-called new technologies, it is clear that they offer substantial possibilities to improve their lives and those of their families.

FEMNET

A strong message emanating from the Know How conference to be carried to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003 is that ICT's must be connected with the right to information and access.

Information technology has become a potent force in transforming social, economic and political life globally. As a result, there is more concern about the impact of those left on the other side of the digital divide. Most African women are in the deepest part of the divide, further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share.

Studies have shown that although African women have had little contact with the so-called new technologies, it is clear that they offer substantial possibilities to improve their lives and those of their families. Thus, gaining a voice and ending isolation have enormous implications for African women. If access to and use of information technology is linked to social and economic development, then it is imperative to ensure that women in Africa understand the significance of these technologies and use them. It is also essential that gender is considered early in the process of introduction of information technology in African countries so that gender concerns can be incorporated from the beginning and not as a corrective afterwards.

As African women in organised civil society, we need to involve ourselves in national information and communications policy development, with an emphasis on the right to communicate, universal access and low cost extension services to rural areas. This will need advocacy efforts for an enabling !CT policy environment. ICT policy must be gendered with awareness of the opportunities and challenges that IT brings.

We are in a unique position to end these information gaps by

creating links between African women at the community level and the development-decision and policy-making processes that affect their lives and enabling a two-way dialogue between African women at the community level and the national, regional and international levels. Strategic information flows between...