[***Originally posted on the "ICTPolicy-Making" listserv, Mod.***] The recent questions posted in this discussion around ICT policies and strategies for policy making that genuinely benefit women, in my opinion, point to a need to look more deeply into how ICTs and their use have contributed to gender equality and women's empowerment in many contexts. Some of the questions raised have referred to: - the introduction of "appropriate" technologies that suit women's needs or the development of gender-sensitive technology policy - the real benefits of "gender training" and "gender analysis" in the field of development for girls and women - actual changes brought about by training of policymaker - effectiveness of advocacy and activism by girls and women affected by policies - how do we address the language barriers in ICT use We in the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) and our partners have also asked similar questions in ensuring that our use of ICTs contribute to our advancement as women. To reflect on our experiences and to facilitate the process of learning about using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for gender equality, we developed a guide to integrating a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for social change. The guide called "Gender Evaluation Methodology for ICT initiatives" or GEM draws on current theoretical gender analytical frameworks and practice and starts to apply this the ICT field. The collective experience of women's organisations, other NGOs, academia, development agencies, government bodies and many others in using ICTs for development and empowerment is now more than a decade and provides a very rich learning ground for all us. I believe that support for evaluating these experiences and learning lessons from them should be a priority. Gender evaluation methodologies can be used to investigate whether ICTs are being used in ways that change gender biases and roles and do not simply reproduce and replicate existing ones and can contribute in strengthening gender accountability in global, regional and national ICT initiatives. As more and more of today's development work and money is channeled into projects that employ ICTs, measuring their impacts on and benefit for women are of great importance. APC-WNSP regional networks, partners and other organizations are now testing GEM to enrich the methodology and customize it to their own ICT networking contexts and social spheres. To refine the tool, we will be evaluating 30 ICT initiatives and train a core group of individuals and organizations in the use of the tool. The results of these evaluations can also provide significant insights and new directions for projects and initiatives, policy interventions and more meaningful use of ICTs for and by women, including the WSIS process. The guide provides users with an overview of the evaluation process (including links to general evaluation resources) and outlines suggested strategies and methodologies for incorporating a gender analysis throughout the evaluation process. At the same time, the guide can also be used to ensure that a gender concerns are integrated into a project planning process. You can access GEM at www.apcwomen.org/gem Chat Garcia Ramilo Project Manager Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme, (APC WNSP) http://www.apcwomen.org http://www.apc.org chat@apcwomen.org Manila, PHILIPPINES ========== HURIDOCS-Tech listserv ========== Send mail intended for the list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.php To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: subscribe huridocs-tech To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: unsubscribe huridocs-tech If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
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