Introduction
SETTING THE STAGE
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From the ground up...
• ICTs should not be regarded as a discreet sector. Rather, they should be
applied as tools to help meet existing development objectives. They are a
means to an end.
• There is a danger that supply-side ICT solutions driven by donor
expectations can be applied in a way that in fact exacerbates development
problems and gender differentials. Where ICTs have been successfully
appropriated at the local level, you are likely to find a strong existing social
network of users with similar or common interests or goals.
• In other words, individual access to ICTs on their own does not ensure that
the technology will be used by women for their empowerment. Rather,
ICTs only become advantageous to women when they are able to organize
themselves around information that meets or addresses their specific
needs.
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Designing a participatory
ICT training workshop
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Typically an ICT training workshop is most effective when it situates ICT within an immediate
context and brings together participants who share common information objectives. Women
farmers or small business owners who are likely to benefit from sharing information with each
other will have an incentive to use ICTs to communicate with each other long after the training .
Conduct a simple needs assessment prior to the workshop that asks women what it is they want to
learn. Their first responses may focus on access concerns, but will provide the facilitator with a
good sense of the knowledge gaps to be addressed. Bringing local knowledge economy
stakeholders to the workshop will enable participants to form alliances with ISPs, business support
services, financial intermediaries, employment agencies, career counselors and other institutions.
In this way, the facilitator designs a training program in collaboration with participants, resource
persons and local ‘mediator’ organizations. This ensures full and active participation on an ongoing
basis between participants and local resource persons, and maximizes the learning process. The
training is people-centered rather than goal-oriented and is guided by a process of self-discovery.
Providing on-line ‘laboratory’ conditions for participants to experiment with and experience web
navigation and software packages encourages confidence building, skills in problem solving and
self-empowerment. It is a particularly effective mode of training for women, who value the
creation of networks and peer groups to build alliances, support each other and share ideas.
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What do women commonly want?
Women want to influence the decisions that affect the
lives of their families and communities as well as their
political and economic environments. Women want to
be better informed but they also need to have their
own information, experiences and ideas valued and
organized into voices for change. Poverty is often
about the lack of voice and influence and as well as a
lack of wealth or resources. When women can
articulate their needs and concerns, when they can
push for change that addresses their priorities, then
people-centered development will take place.
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Module outline
This module has four sections:
1. Good practice gender principles & guidelines
(referred to as First Mile Principles)
2. A step-by-step guide to gender-sensitive ICT
development for Medium and Small Enterprises
(MSEs) (technology transfer template)
3. How women are applying ICTs as business,
banking, commercial and management tools
4. Links to other training materials in this subsector
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Section I
FIRST MILE PRINCIPLES OF
ENGAGEMENT
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First Mile Principle I
Assess ICT capacity needs among men, women and
different social groups, build this into the project
planning, allocate budget and capacity building
towards ICT development
• Be cognizant, in any aspect of capacity building,
training, or outreach to women, that there may be
a role for ICTs (see slide 29 for example)
• Incorporate a range of interactive audio-visual and
digital tools to enable women to gravitate towards
and to choose different uses of tools for different
purposes
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First Mile Principle II
Poor women are most effectively reached, not as
individuals, but as groups – and this requires both
leadership at the community level and individual
participation
• Set aside time and space for women to familiarize themselves
with keyboards, or the basics of the Internet. Breaking this
“virtual wall”, is a first step. The very activity of emailing each
other, or finding a local product on the web has immediate
impacts on women’s regard for the use of ICTs.
• Conduct the training at a computer training center that has
hours open to the public. This will help to ensure that women
return to the ‘familiar’ space to try out their new skills.
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First Mile Principle III
Use ICTs to connect the first mile, work with
“infomediaries” who are reaching women in a
dynamic and learning oriented approach
• This is probably the most important engagement
factor of all. Consolidate and build upon the work of
existing activities and outreach of NGOs, groups and
associations that are already focusing their work with
girls and women. Applying an ICT platform to these
activities not only encourages ICT familiarity amongst
the women, but also promotes transparency and
accountability (see slide 17 for example)
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First Mile Principle IV
Conduct research into existing gender information
systems and design ICT initiatives that build on these
networks and that involve local participation
• Don’t assume that just because women are using ICTs, it
means that they are empowered! There are examples
where women engage in, for instance, earning an income
from selling cell phone services. But she remains
uneducated and does not access ICTs herself for life long
learning (see slide 34)
• Be on the look out for the pushing of ICT related activities
on women, that increase their household burden, or that
place them in debt, without clear information, learning or
empowerment impacts.
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First Mile Principle V
Build local people’s capacity to use existing
technologies and information to improve
their livelihoods (rather than focus on
identifying uses for new technologies)
• Encourage community driven-initiatives that value
indigenous information and promote local decisionmaking using a range of communication tools (i.e.
this could include radio, television, newspapers and
newsletters).
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First mile principles require a
supportive policy framework
• The development of ICTs and the benefits that may accrue to
women are conditional upon the countries’ and regions’ ability to
support effective, pro-active and deliberate policies that push for
the social inclusion of women in all spheres of economic and social
activity and decision-making.
• In the absence of deliberate policies, the diffusion and use of ICTs
and their intended benefits can actually exacerbate existing income
and economic divides, with the poorer sections of the population
being further marginalized, exploited and impoverished as a result.
• ICT programs and policies must be developed to increase people’s
access to information, to enhance the transfer of these
technologies to resource-poor areas so that people can learn how
to use these tools, and to improve the quality and delivery of
education and other public services.
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A comprehensive checklist
… can be found at:
Connecting the first mile: investigating best
practice for ICTs and information sharing for
development
By: Surmaya Talyarkhan, David J. Grimshaw, Lucky
Lowe (Intermediate Technology Development Group
– ITDG)
http://practicalaction.org/docs/icts/connecting_
the_first_mile_summary.pdf
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Section II
A STEP BY STEP GUIDE …
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A Step-by-step guide to gender-sensitive ICT
development for Medium and Small Enterprises
(MSEs)
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Stage I: Base information and factual bank
Stage II: Setting Objectives
Stage III: Implementation
Stage IV: Evaluation
Stage V: Maintaining fluidity & flexibility in the
program design
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Stage I: Base information and factual bank
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The first stage involves building up a factual bank of the differences in male and
female-run MSEs. One way is to identify businesswomen’s associations and
involve them in information gathering to gain an understanding of the particular
needs of women clients and the business culture of women in their national
context. Considerations in this stage include:
gather information on the role of women in financial management and in local
business practices, their roles in decision making and its relation to their economic
earnings, responsibilities and ambitions
determine existing systems of financial and business management that women
already have access to, what kinds of business associations and service centers
women already tap into and what needs are not currently being met
involve businesswomen and their organizations in discussing the role that ICTs can
play and learn more about their needs and objectives. By discussing directly with
businesswomen about their goals, we may learn that she seeks to overcome
strategic barriers that include social as well as economic dimensions
analyze how businesswomen establish access and control of resources, how this
impacts their business decision making, and what their immediate obstacles are.
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Stage II: Setting objectives
When setting objectives the following questions need to be considered:
• identify the “entry points” to reaching out to businesswomen, such as
existing membership of chambers of commerce or business service
providers
• identify women-run businesses that are viable businesses and not just
income-for-survival initiatives
• design and conduct training “outreach” workshops that provide an
“applied training” environment to enable businesswomen to understand
the three dimensions of ICTs in business (see slide 24)
• work with regulatory bodies to determine what policies need to be
implemented to ensure that women have equal access to ICTs as men
• identify the range of support services that would prove helpful to women
in order to ensure that they participate in literacy, skills training, decisionmaking, etc. Determine the feasibility of supporting some of these clientspecific services
• determine strategies to ensure that women’s perspectives and input are
incorporated into the decision-making processes.
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Stage III: Strategies of empowerment
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Empowering women refers to bridging the gaps that exist with
men and endowing them with the skills, experiences and
capabilities which allow women and men to operate on an
equal basis. There are four dimensions to empowerment in an
enterprise development arena:
Technical skills and entrepreneurial capacities
Access to and control over economic resources & bargaining
power in the marketplace
Public image, perceptions about women’s work and selfimage
Women’s entrepreneurial leadership and organization
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Stage IV: Evaluation
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Although there is some overlap between the implementation and the
evaluation phase, it is important to critically assess the program and
evaluate what changes, if any, need to be made to better accommodate
the interests of women. The following key data, qualitative and
quantitative, should be collected and considered in this phase:
Collect average monthly statistics on how many women participants came
to training events, how many dropped out and why, how many return to
further training events?
What software, software training and support service do women
entrepreneurs in the region prefer, what is the upward trend in use of
services?
How have the women responded to the financial and support services
offered? How have they benefited personally, in the context of their
family, and with respect to larger society?
Which groups of women have or have not been reached with services?
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Stage V: Incorporate lessons learned
• After obtaining information through monitoring the implementation
of the organization’s objectives, there needs to be a feedback
mechanism to incorporate the lessons learned into management
decisions.
• If a weak link is identified through the monitoring phase, the
program can be strengthened through changing program design in
response to findings.
• It is important to learn from the previous steps of implementation
and evaluation to determine what works and what proves to be
inefficient. After gathering that feedback, staff and clients should
collaborate to determine if and how program design should be
influenced to incorporate new information.
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Recommended on-line resources
• A Manual in two parts for practitioners - Genderoriented Entrepreneurship Promotion (Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation)
• ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development
and (WED) Capacity Building Guide
• IFC’s Women in Business Program and WIN case
examples
• DFID/IDPM’s Women’s ICT Based Enterprise for
Development practical guidance handbooks
• World Bank ICTs for Women’s Socioeconomic
empowerment
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Section III
HOW WOMEN ARE APPLYING ICTS AS
BUSINESS, COMMERCIAL & MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
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The three-dimensions of ICT
• Connectivity: changes the mode and
immediacy of communication (changes
economic and social organization) e.g. mobile
telephony
• Computing (changes business and information
management practices) e.g. data management
• Commerce (changes modes of exchange,
production and distribution) e.g. virtual malls
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ICT perceptions and uses
In an age where many women
in developing countries are
interacting with ICTs for the
first time, ICTs are very often
perceived almost entirely as
mechanisms for connectivity
and communication. Its
applications for computing,
information systems
management and commerce
are given secondary
importance. In fact, all three
dimensions of ICTs are equally
important in determining the
overall impact of ICTs. This
table provides evidence that
communications use of ICTs
outweighs all other uses.
Potential role of ICTs according to women entrepreneurs in Uganda
Perception
Percentage
Time saving:
15.9
Search for outlets:
14.5
Information on trade:
14.5
Communication with suppliers
and customers:
40.7
Cost savings:
4.3
No answer:
10.1
Total
100.0
• Source: ‘Consolidated report on monitoring women
entrepreneurs in the CEEWA project sites’. May 2001
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ICTs in the marketplace
The interface of ICTs in the marketplace has many direct
implications for women – in the agricultural sector, in industries
where women are an established workforce, (e.g. garment
industry), and in the service sector. ICT applications in the
marketplace can be categorized into three sub-groups:
• ICT platforms that support micro, small and medium enterprises
• Manufacture, servicing and repair of the full range of hardware and
software that comprise ICTs
• ICT Services Sector includes programming and applications in
primary, secondary and tertiary production: embracing a wide
spectrum of applications and remote services from electronic
communications to management information services (such as
medical transcription, data processing and insurance claims
processing) to advanced distance learning tools and software design
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Linking entrepreneurs with their markets
• Knowledge and information are key drivers of growth and key
aspects of all stages of business development. Information about
prices, markets, policies and regulations that may affect a business
sector, as well as information on buyers and producers is important
for all enterprises
• ICTs can be used to level the playing field by providing small
entrepreneurs with access to new information and knowledge that
otherwise may remain in the hands of elite individuals and
institutions
• Small niche businesses in particular, such as tailoring, travel
services; hand-made crafts are able to transcend the barriers of
size, time and distance through the use of the Web. This can
present opportunities for rural and urban women - who often are
both the producer and retailer - to shift business interests to their
favour, or to strike new business deals hitherto unreachable
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Direct links with markets - examples
Shea Butter Sales in Burkina Faso
When the women of the Songtaaba
Association, an organization that markets
shea butter skin care products in Burkino
Faso, started using ICTs, their profits more
than doubled. The use of cell phones and
computers helped them to run their
businesses
more
efficiently.
The
Association currently provides jobs to
more than 3000 women in 11 villages. To
provide the women with regular access to
ICTs and improve marketing and sales of
their products, the association set up
telecentres in two villages which are
entirely managed by the rural women
trained by Songtaaba. The organization
also set up a website which the women
manage. This has been particularly
successful in boosting the visibility of the
producers. Since the site went on line two
years ago, orders were up by almost 70%.
(also see similar story in Mali)
Women cake sellers – Tortas Peru
Initiated in 1996, Tortas Peru is a womanowned enterprise that uses ICT to reach
and service a wider market. A network of
housewives take Internet orders for their
cakes. Tortas Peru also targets over 2
million Peruvians who live outside the
country through their website, clients in
San Francisco or New Zealand can send a
home-made cake to friends or family in
several major cities. The tortas are
prepared and delivered by one of the
housewives in the network. Customers
can order a cake from a catalogue and pay
using credit cards, cheques, money orders
or electronic payments. To maintain low
prices the company is based mainly on the
Internet, making it necessary for the
housewives-member to be familiar with
computers and Internet.
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Computerizing production
A garment factory in Sri Lanka,
employing a workforce of 6000,
95% of whom are women, uses
computerized
machines
for
design, sewing and embroidery –
producing 700,000 pieces per
month. The high literacy rate
means that the women in the
workforce are easily trainable,
and the computerization ensures
that timelines, pricing and quality
standards meet the requirements
of the international market.
Source: Asia and Pacific Centre for Transfer of
Technology www.unescap.org/esid/GAD/events
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International competition is forcing
the garment industry in Bangladesh
to upgrade its manufacturing and
marketing processes using new
computerized and communications
technologies.
As these are introduced at different
levels of the garment manufacture
and marketing processes, women
could be positioned to take
advantage of the opportunity for
applied training in computerization
in the industry.
This training could arguably afford
women more mobility between
jobs, as the basic IT functions
become applicable elsewhere.
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Computerizing finance
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The financial intermediary sector that services small businesses is
extending its reach to poorer sections of the economic community and to
those clients who might not otherwise have access. ICTs can service the
small businesses in many ways such as:
Adapting and simplifying accounting and loan tracking software;
Computerizing financial reporting and performance measures, making
them cost-effective, secure and accessible to both borrowers and lenders;
Providing individual borrowers with secure user-friendly account access
through location points in local banks, post offices, and other community
centers;
Taking savings and credit schemes through mobile banking, smart cards,
handhelds, and modified ATMs, to bypass the traditional methods of
providing bank services.
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Examples of computerized financing
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The Loan Performer software grew
from humble beginnings in Uganda
and now services micro-finance
institutions in 50 countries. Various
software packages are contributing to
the increase in efficiency of many
Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).
HISAAB, for example, is group-level
microfinance software designed for
illiterate and uneducated users.
Currently the software is used by:
Sero Business Women, Tanzania
Mara Women Empowerment Assistance,
Tanzania
Women’s Finance House, Botswana
National Association of Business Women,
Malawi
Tanzania Women Entrepreneurship (WEDTF),
Tanzania
Pamoja Women, Kenya
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Where women workers are unable to visit
the bank after work—being met at the
factory door on pay day and being able to
deposit her pay with the help of a mobile
banking representative means that she
can make a payment towards a loan, add
to her savings, and in this way, her
financial literacy is deepened.
At the same time, women might not have
access to government scheme
information, which allows them to tap
into the financial subsidies that they may
be due. As this kind of information
becomes available over the Internet – the
same ICT devices that bring credit and
savings management to women can also
be used to record and monitor women’s
use of these facilities.
As banking services become a built-in
function of mobile wireless telephony,
these aspects of recording and completing
transactions will expand.
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Opportunities in the ICT Services Sector
• The ICT Services Sector covers trade, transport, and
financial, technical and professional services. The primary
IT aspect of the service sector is in information processing,
particularly data entry, and publishing. Other opportunities
are in call centers and in software development.
• Opportunities for women come not so much from the high
value end of the information processing work, such as
software programming or system analysis, as from the
relatively low value added operations that include a wide
range of activities from customer services in call centers to
secretarial work for medical transcriptions. These are
categorized as Information Technology Enabled Services
(ITES) jobs
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ICT sector business examples
Cell Phone Repair Small Business
Development for Women, Cameroon
CISCO Systems Networking Academy
Mobile phone penetration in Cameroon
increased from 0.02% in 1999 to over 12%
in 2005; by 2006 mobile phones
represented more than 95% of all
telephone lines. A long established
women’s business association, ASAFE,
identified this escalation in cell phone use
as a viable opportunity for young women.
The program supports the creation of
small scale enterprise in rural and periurban areas for cell phone maintenance.
Women are trained to repair cell phones,
sell them and run viable businesses. They
gain technical and management training
over two weeks and a loan to acquire 10
cell phones, pay for needed equipment
and rent a small space.
The Cisco Systems Networking Academy,
established in 1997, is an ICT training
program with locations worldwide that
teaches students to design, build, and
maintain computer networks, and prepares
them for industry-standard certification as
networking professionals. To increase female
enrolment, CISCO uses female role models in
advertisements and promotional materials.
The curriculum also includes a training
module on gender equality, and the women
also received training in management,
entrepreneurship, and gender issues.
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netac
ad/index.html
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A cautionary comment – cheap labour in an ICT
Value Chain may not empower women
The export shoe industry in one developing country employs about 25,000
people of whom women are the majority. Between 1998 and 2001, exports
rose to $20.5million and the initial three firms exporting shoes to a major
developed country increased to 10, about 200 new jobs were created- many
filled by poor women from nearby villages. Because many of the exported
shoes require handiwork – village women are subcontracted to do delicate
hand stitching in their homes. Although women were able to take advantage
of the opportunity of home-working and micro enterprises in the shoe
industry, they did not themselves have any direct participation with ICTs,
they were the indirect beneficiaries of a business that used ICTs to promote
competitiveness and efficiency in the market. Women did not receive any
training in the use of ICTs, they were merely supplying a labour-intensive
product within the supply chain.
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Some final reminders
• Work directly with women to help them determine what
kinds of ICTs they can apply to their day-to-day activities
• Engage them in determining their needs and training priorities
and how best the training could be delivered and by whom
• Involve stakeholders from the wider community to establish
dialogue and relationships beyond the actual training
• Build a support system among women using ICTs for business
so they can help each other over time.
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For more details…
Please contact Nidhi Tandon :
Nidhi@networkedintelligence.com