| De: |
"Maja Andjelkovic" [ Profil ] |
| Sujet: |
Supporting Young Women in ICT4D Projects
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| Envoyé: |
Nov 11th, 2003 - 10:57:10 |
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Dear Participants,
It's time to delve into the new topic, "Supporting Young Women in ICT for development (ICT4D) projects." This theme, with the final one (Building Communities of Learning), makes up the "heart and soul" of this online forum.
This week, we will attempt to gain some clues into what steps are necessary to support young women's involvement in ICT4D initiatives. Over the course of the week, we would like to gain a better understanding of what it takes to support young women's interests and skills in ICT4D so that they can go as far as they want in using these technologies to solve important local and global problems. This understanding will help to improve existing programmes for young people and/or to create new ones which better serve the needs of young women.
Let's begin at the most basic requirements for involvement in the broad field of ICT for development: Access and basic knowledge of information communication technology;
While most of the world's people remains without access to ICT, existing gender inequalities have made it even more difficult for young women to gain such access. Some gender dimensions of barrier to access include the lack or inadequacy of infrastructure, cost, poverty, illiteracy and lower educational levels for women. What are some specific techniques that you believe work well to help young women overcomes these barriers to access?
A second basic set of requirements is that of intermediate ICT skills, gained though formal or informal education. These skills allow young women to capitalize on the potential ICTs have to help them improve their livelihoods.
ICT training should reflect differences in age, education and social background and also account for varied levels of receptive capacity for technical knowledge. In other words, ICT skill training for young women should be tailor-made for various subgroups. Do you know of any examples of ICT programs for youth or women that take into account the specific needs of young women?
The next step to involvement in ICT4D is acquiring knowledge of development issues, whether at the community, regional, national or global level. As they are among groups most affected by poverty, conflict, and disease, young women are often quite equipped to grasp the most complex of development issues. What they are missing may be the vocabulary that the global development community uses to communicate ideas, and the feeling that what they do makes a difference. What do you think?
Once a young woman has obtained ICT skills and has acquired a solid background of development issues, she is equipped to work on ICT4D initiatives. Depending on various factors, such as her interests, formal education, social background and mobility, she may get involved at any level - from small grassroots projects to larger international initiatives.
Once she has acquired experience in ICT4D, a young woman may choose to create, implement and lead her own initiatives, while engaging other young women in the field.
At any point in this process, the young woman may also act as a mentor to others, and may rely on a mentor for support in her work. Many organizations, such as AWID, run mentorship programs of various formats. Do you have one or do you serve as a mentor to another young woman in ICT?
Below is a simple diagram outlining this overall framework. A JPEG version has been uploaded to the documents area at http://groups.takingitglobal.org/ycdogender/docs What do you think? To what degree does this framework match your own experiences?
As you look through the diagram below, keep the following questions in mind:
1. Where are you on the path?
2. Which steps have you skipped? Why?
3. Have you taken any extra steps? Which ones?
4. At which points on the path have you seen other young women to be dropping out and abandoning or decreasing their engagement in ICT for development?
5. What were some of the more difficult steps on the path for you, and where do you wish you had more help from your community?
1.
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ACCESS TO &
BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF -> NO (WHY?)
ICT
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V
directly to 6. (MENTORSHIP) AND/OR
2.
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ICT SKILLS
(formal or informal -> NO (WHY?)
education in ICT)
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V
directly to 6. (MENTORSHIP) AND/OR
3.
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DEVELOPMENT KNOWLEDGE
(community, country, -> NO (WHY?)
regional or global)
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V
directly to 6. (MENTORSHIP) AND/OR
4.
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INVOLVEMENT IN
ICT INITIATIVES -> NO (WHY?)
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V
directly to 6. (MENTORSHIP) AND/OR
5.
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LEADERSHIP OF ICT
INITIATIVES -> NO (WHY?)
(public or private)
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V
6.
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SERVING AS A MENTOR -> NO (WHY?)
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V
Mentoring young women
at any of
1,2,3,4 or 5
Looking forward to your input,
Maja Andjelkovic
Discussion Moderator
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