Gender and ICT/Implications of Integrating a Gender Perspective at National Level

Implications for Policy, Programme and Project – Design, Implementation, Evaluation and Monitoring
‘Mainstreaming gender’ is both a technical and a political process which requires transformations in organizational cultures and perspectives, as well as in the goals, structures and resource allocations of governments and NGOs. Mainstreaming incorporates specific gender concerns within institutions, in agenda-setting, policy-making, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Elements in the mainstreaming task include staffing, budgeting, training programmes, policy procedures and guidelines. Experience suggests that increased response to gender issues is linked to the level of ‘fit’ of gender issues with the mandate and procedures of the government, and the capacity of staff members who work on gender concerns to translate their knowledge into agency-specific procedures and programmes.69 Recognizing the needs and perspectives of women in ICT policy can help ensure the active participation of women in policy discussions and lead to the increased contribution of ICT to socio-economic development, and in particular poverty reduction. When women have access to ICT, they can fully engage as decision makers in a variety of productive tasks, including entrepreneurship and management of SMEs.70 Thus, development goals and gender goals can advance at the same time. According to Sonia Jorge, “there need not be any inconsistency, however, between gender-specific objectives and development objectives; on the contrary, it is becoming increasingly apparent that one of the most effective means to provide access to both telephone and advanced ITs to unserved and lower income areas and populations is to encourage the development of micro, small or medium-sized telecommunications businesses owned and managed by women,”71 as shown by the very tangible example of Grameen Phones in Bangladesh.

Most Grameen-provided phones represented the first telecommunications service in the respective villages. In places where the signal is weak, antennas, which serve as an advertisement of availability of public phone services, are mounted on the women’s homes. Despite the imminent arrival of fixed wireless phone service in rural Bangladesh, observers feel that the Grameen village phones will continue to be viable businesses because the fixed wireless will probably target more densely populated areas and because village women have become loyal customers of the women phone operators. Grameen Phones has captured about half of Bangladesh’s cellular phone market. It is planning technological upgrades to phone cards, email messaging, fax and web access through the newly established Grameen Communications, an NGO, which plans to launch an Internet service and has started pilot Internet kiosks.

Importance of Substantive Consultation and Facilitation of Women’s Understanding of the Policy Process
Poor women in developing countries could improve their lives and the lives of their families with the help of ICT. Both the technological solutions and the successful pilot projects, along with tested finance mechanisms, are already in place. However, neither the technological solutions nor the pilot projects yet have sustainable business models that would allow them to be replicated in other regions. The focus needs to turn from small projects to national programmes, supported by national policy commitments. When these national programmes are put into place, women must ensure that they are part of them, and that governments remember that when they talk about reaching the poor in their countries with ICT, women are the majority of those whom they are talking about (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Integrating a Gender Perspective in the Making of a Public Policy

However, it is imperative too that when consulting with women, that not just practical gender needs are expressed and addressed, but also strategic gender interests of women (see section on ‘What’s the Difference Between Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Interests?’). Consultations with women need to take place not only at the early stages of conceptualization and planning, but also at all stages of monitoring and evaluation. These consultations need to include simplifying development policy processes for women who have never been part of these, to enable their full understanding of the implications of policy development, not just from within the ICT sector, but the social sectors as well. Louise Chamberlain in her paper on ‘Considerations for Gender Advocacy vis-à-vis ICT Policy Strategy’ says that a World Bank study,72 “found that projects with greater focus on poverty reduction were more likely to address gender” (Chamberlain, 2002). However, this e-primer would like to suggest that a greater focus on addressing gender equality and women’s rights, will definitely address poverty reduction. Since no such national programme exists that truly addresses gender inequality issues in all of its forms, it is quite premature to say that the development approach that has been traditionally used is the better approach. In fact, Chamberlain to a certain extent supports this in her paper when she said that the study, “found projects with gender components to be more effective overall, also recognizes that such projects may also reflect better identification of the target population, design and implementation” (Chamberlain, 2002). The making of a public policy, in other words, must include women’s strategic gender interests at the centre of it if resources are to be well optimized. ICT policy generally covers three main areas: telecommunications (especially telephone communications), broadcasting (radio and television) and the Internet. It may be national, regional or international. Each level may have its own decision-making bodies, sometimes making different and even contradictory policies. It is essential that gender issues be considered early in the process of the introduction of ICT in developing countries, as ICT is not gender neutral.73 National level decisions about infrastructure can impact gender and affect women’s opportunities to use new technologies – including decisions about what systems to put in place (at what cost to the consumer?), which suppliers of communications services (will they have universal service obligations?), and where facilities will be located (will they be available in rural areas?) (Hafkin and Taggart, 2001). Many critics dismiss the issue of gender and ICT in developing countries because of the more pressing needs that women in developing countries have for safe water, adequate food, improved health, better education, owning land, etc. It is crucial to begin thinking outside of the ‘either-or’ mentality because ICTs are not, in any way, in opposition to fulfilling women’s basic needs. On the contrary, ICTs will go a very long way in reducing the stark isolation that women face when these basic needs remain unmet or inadequately addressed.

Importance of Recognizing and Adopting International Norms
The process of integrating gender concerns into national ICT policy development processes can be informed by international consensus documents to ensure cross-border interoperable norms/rules and closer cooperation that can assist governments in meeting their commitments. Examples of internationally agreed consensual documents include the Beijing Platform for Action (1995),74 the CEDAW Convention (1979), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and of course, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The CEDAW Convention, for example, obliges States to undertake a series of measures to end all forms of discrimination against women, including to:


 * 1) Incorporate the principle of equality of women and men in their legal system, abolish all discriminatory laws, and adopt appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against women;
 * 2) Establish tribunals and other public institutions to ensure the effective protection of women against discrimination; and
 * 3) Ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination against women by persons, organizations or enterprises.

The CEDAW Convention is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women, and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family relations. It affirms women’s rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality and the nationality of their children. It is also the only Convention that affirms the principle of substantive equality.75 The CEDAW Convention promotes the substantive model of equality and consolidates two central approaches to equality. First it stresses the importance of equality of opportunity in terms of women’s entitlements on equal terms with men to the resources of a country. This has to be secured by a framework of laws and policies, and supported by institutions and mechanisms for their operation. However, the CEDAW Convention goes beyond this in emphasizing that the measure of a State’s action to secure the human rights of women and men needs to ensure equality of results. The indicators of State progress, in the eyes of the CEDAW Convention, lie not just in what the State does, but in what the State achieves in terms of real change for women. Article 2 of the CEDAW Convention enjoins the State to ensure the practical realization of rights. Thus the State is obligated to show results, not just stop at frameworks of equality that are strong on paper. Hence, the CEDAW Convention stresses that equality must inform the practice of institutions. The UDHR is the main source of law in terms of fundamental and universal rights. At the international level, the UDHR guarantees the freedom of expression of every individual. Article 5 of the UDHR in particular, provides for the freedom of individuals to communicate and express over all forms of media (including ICT). Conventions and Declarations of the International Labour Organization (ILO) can also be particularly critical to the sustainability of women’s livelihoods. At the international level, the ILO sets standards and provides the basis for justice in the area of employment. The conventions that refer to issues of gender76 are:


 * Declaration on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment for Women Workers (1975). The Declaration stresses that “…all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex which deny or restrict equality of opportunity and treatment are unacceptable and must be eliminated…”
 * Resolution on Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Women and Men in Employment (1985). The Resolution discusses the need for better conditions of employment, work and life of women.
 * Plan of Action on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Women and Men in Employment (1987) which is directed towards ILO policies and strategies. The main objective is to ensure gender mainstreaming within the institution.
 * Resolution concerning ILO Action for Women Workers (1991) which reaffirms the need for joint efforts between government, employers and workers to implement the principle of equality.
 * Equal Remuneration Convention 1951.
 * Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958.
 * Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention 1981.
 * Part-Time Work Convention 1994.
 * Home Work Convention 1996.

It is important to note though that all of these conventions and resolutions need to be understood within the framework and interpretation of women’s rights, women’s empowerment, non-discrimination and substantive equality, as primarily offered by the CEDAW Convention and the Beijing Platform for Action. The chart in Figure 5 draws preliminary reference to international law and perspectives in gender policy. Stage 1 emphasizes the need for countries to work with universal/international norms and practices, and at the same time develop the engendered policy approach at the national level. Also at the initial stages, some government/policy maker sensitization to the issues will be important. There should be a cross border recognition and understanding of the issues and networking of agencies. Subsequently, the approach requires the involvement of stakeholders and women’s groups at a very initial stage to inculcate and develop a deep and responsive consultative process. A central group will assist to identify the resources, make connections and identify current issues. In addition, a national agency will assist to champion the cause of women, and provide leadership. Stage 2 is where full recognition is given to the need for political, social and economic empowerment, and could be included into the mandate/goal of the national champion. In Stage 3, the approach stresses the importance of inter-agency coordination. Within a government perspective, agencies and ministries are tasked with their own priorities and work. This fact may put up communication barriers and/or challenges between organizations. Thus the idea here is that the inter-agency contacts, and working groups must be formed within governments and ministries. The reality is that an engendered policy must have the political clout at the broad inter-agency cooperation and at the highest levels of government, to reach out beyond even the scope and mandate of the ICT regulator even with the mandate of convergence.77 The scope of gender and policy must reach out to civil society, across ministries (horizontally) such as the Ministry of Family Affairs, and vertically, to higher levels of government, such as parliamentarians, and at the ground level – the most pragmatic implementers – authorities, police, etc.

Figure 5: Gender in the Wider Policy Process

Moving the Giant Towards an Inter-agency, Inter-sectoral Approach
Government structures are established in such a way that they do not actually facilitate inter-sectoral approaches and implementation strategies. As a result, collaborative interventions within and across sectors are minimal and fail in tackling issues on multidimensional fronts. Since gender issues are largely seen as the purview of national women machineries, it is important to examine the wider policy environment and political factors underpinning the establishment of national women machineries and their respective roles and functions. As countries shift their policy perspectives, there is the concern that gender issues might be relegated into social programmes viewing women as marginalized and underserved groups. Some of these critical concerns include:78


 * The need to advocate for the incorporation of gender issues in the design of broad economic and sectoral adjustment policies. This requires provision of analytical tools and an information base for determining the gender impact of trade liberalization, structural adjustment, and globalization and the integration of relevant concerns;
 * Mainstreaming of gender in decentralized programmes. As decentralization of government functions becomes the dominant approach to governance, the shift in decision-making and resource allocation locus requires an adaptation to local structure, rules and practices. While decentralization provides an opportunity to make programmes at local levels responsive to gender equity issues and ensures effective local level implementation of gender policies, it also increases accountability for gender equity by equipping local gender units and women’s committees with appropriate tools;
 * Ambiguous mandates. National machineries and focal points have been established but the ambiguous mandates, lack of clear definition of roles and responsibilities, and inadequate political support hamper their performance. Clarity in structures, processes and mechanisms needs to be emphasized;
 * Non-achievement of the full participation of women in the decision-making process at the political and administrative levels. In most countries, parliamentary representation of women has been less than 10 percent of the total; and
 * Lack of clear link between action plans and their intended outcomes. There is no logical sequence of activities that will lead to the attainment of gender equality in socio-economic status.

The above concerns show that gender analysis is not a simple process for a ministry to address on its own. Even with the establishment of national women’s ministries, due to the lack of resources79 and lack of history in and mechanisms for substantive collaboration between ministries, governments have been unable to reasonably put in the required constructive thought, leadership, resources and knowledge on the social and cultural dimensions of gender within the specific contexts of a country. In such a scenario, the concept of a dedicated Gender Unit that parallels the importance of the central economic planning unit within government can be instrumental in taking into account many of the issues pertaining to gender and women’s empowerment at the policy levels. A Gender Unit could assist in revising or developing guidelines to remove gender bias and discriminatory results for women, or add new regulations, develop circulars etc. that would better facilitate the achievement of the main goals of concretely addressing gender issues. In addition, a Gender Unit could address the identification of appropriate gender statistics and how to collate these in a country, while working closely with women leaders and civil society through a substantive consultative process. A Gender Unit should be ideally mandated to coordinate an inter-agency and inter-sectoral approach within the country. Such a unit may need to either be placed within the central economic planning unit of a country or at least, have a status that is on par with it. The concept or mechanism such as the Gender Unit is not meant to replace the national women machineries already established nor the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The roles and responsibilities of these are quite distinct, just as the role of the Economic Planning Unit is very distinct from say the Ministry of Agriculture or Rural Development. Nor does the establishment of a Gender Unit discount the need to allocate adequate resources to national women machineries and/or the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (see section on ‘The Need to Strengthen National Women’s Machineries’).

A Gender Unit with participation by other agencies and civil society groups could study the following:
 * Ways to improve government processes towards gender-sensitive policies;
 * Information exchange on issues facing women and ICTs within the country;
 * The relevance of an engendered approach to policy-making; in the area of ICT, especially with regard to Internet policy, and make recommendations to the telecommunications regulator (or Ministry of Communications), and to other Ministries;
 * Ways of applying new technologies to network women’s groups, NGOs and other related organizations;
 * Ways to develop or support relevant content for women;
 * Ways to further support ICT training for women in the region, implement best practices in the use of ICTs in relation to women;
 * Incorporation of women ICT experts for government or ICT projects; and
 * Directory compilation of women ICT experts, and the pooling together of resources nationally and internationally.

With the necessary expertise, information and knowledge concentrated within a Gender Unit, governments would be better able to effect a wider and more substantive consultation with women as well as to concretely integrate a gender perspective throughout all of their agencies and development programmes. It is therefore also critical that if a Gender Unit is indeed established that it receives more than sufficient political support and budgetary allocations.

Gender Concerns in ICT Policy
Nancy Hafkin’s work which identifies the gender aspects in ICT policy is shown in Table 2. In her analysis, Hafkin also borrows from the work of Sonia Jorge. Table 2 clearly shows that addressing gender issues in ICT also requires governments to look at other sectoral policies and how these could adversely impact on a progressive and gender-sensitive national ICT policy. These are issues of training and literacy (basic skills and skills training), issues of human resource and employment (employment schemes, paid and unpaid work in the area of ICT) and other related issues that can impede women’s active and substantive participation – for example, related legal issues that pertain to domestic violence, citizenship, guardianship, workers compensation, marriage/divorce, sexual harassment in the workplace, availability of maternity leave (to international standards/ILO guidelines), availability of paternity leave, ownership of resources particularly land, and even access to high quality and professional legal aid.

The Engendered Policy Process
Addressing gender requires detailed process planning. Gender needs to be taken into account explicitly not only in the content of ICT policy, but also in the process of policy elaboration, implementation, and evaluation (Hafkin and Taggart, 2001). In other words, gender equality goals must shift from being just integrated into public policy pronouncements to actual integration into public policy development and implementation.

Need for Gender-sensitive Indicators and its Definition80
Sex dissegregation of data is only the minimum requirement to help people differentiate the impact of development programmes, policies and projects on women and men and if possible by age, ethnicity, geographical location, etc. Disappointingly, however, in many cases the dissegregation of data by sex has become the only requirement to fulfil when addressing issues of gender equality.81 This should not be so. In dealing with the ‘socialization’ of women and men and the inequalities that manifest as a result of this process, it is essential that suitable gender-sensitive indicators that are both quantitative and qualitative are further developed. Qualitative indicators are particularly valuable when measuring the immeasurable (see Box 13).

Gender-sensitive indicators, as the term suggests, are indicators that track gender-related changes over time. Their value lies in measuring whether gender equality/equity is being achieved through a number of ways. Gender-sensitive indicators take into account that gender roles exist and point to changes in the status and roles of women and men over time. It helps us to see in what ways a project affects gender roles and addresses or disregards gender discrimination. Gender-sensitive indicators should be drawn from the identification of gender issues within the specific context of a project or activity. Many indicators that take gender into consideration such as the Gender

Empowerment Measure, Human and Development Index and Gender Development Index (GDI)82 are useful tools in tracking gender equality/equity. Many of these indicators are based on gender analytical models that have emanated from a feminist analysis of societies, relationships and development. On the other hand, a growing number of gender specialists believe that indicators by themselves are insufficient to capture women’s experience especially in areas such as women’s empowerment or participation. They argue that policy makers need to pay more attention to women’s experience, towards which indicators can be a pointer.83 For example, during the World Conference on Women in 1995, APC WNSP implemented a woman-led initiative that provided Internet access, electronic communications and information services and support to over 30,000 women attending the conference and the NGO forum. Over 40 women from 25 countries and speaking 18 languages worked together to set up and manage a computer networking facility, provided training and user support and facilitated the information flow and advocacy generated by women’s networks. One of the main goals of this initiative was to demonstrate to other women this new technology was appropriate for and could be maintained by women. Three years after this initiative, APC WNSP conducted a study to gather feedback from the women who had worked on this project and explored, in more depth, women’s relationship to and experience of working in ICTs. Among other things this study identified a series of women’s needs in relation to use of ICT. These general needs can be used as a guide for asking questions to determine specific indicators in different environments.

Anecdotal evidence in measuring the gender impact of projects, however, has been severely criticized as being too subjective on ‘just how good the project was’.84 Since they cannot be compounded or synthesized, comparison of different projects and approaches is difficult. As Louise Chamberlain (2002) points out, “in the end, it is more powerful to show that approach A gave an increase in women’s income of 30 percent, whereas approach B only led to a corresponding increase of 10 percent.” The commonly held belief is that quantitative indicators are measurements that stick to hard facts and rigid numbers and there is no question about their validity. Quantitative indicators are also seen as ‘objective and verifiable’ as they point out the number of computers in a workplace, telephones in a community, or computer- and Internet-related training workshops. Quantitative indicators deal with outputs and are easier to define. On the other hand, qualitative indicators are seen as subjective, unreliable and difficult to verify. Qualitative indicators are more difficult to ascertain because these indicators probe into the whys of situations and contexts of actions as well as perceptions of people. However, qualitative indicators are valuable to the evaluation process because projects and initiatives are involved in looking into changes in the lives of communities. Qualitative indicators seek to measure the impact of a project or an initiative and are therefore used to evaluate the long-term effects and benefits. From a gender/feminist perspective, qualitative indicators are particularly useful and important in understanding women’s experiences and perceptions in relation to empowerment and development. For example, the number of women using telecentres becomes more significant when it is supplemented with details of how the information that they find and the links that they make through the Internet have contributed to their sense of independence and empowerment (see Box 14).

Properly developed and interpreted, qualitative indicators can also play a significant role in identifying constraints to implementation and obstacles to success, which would otherwise not be readily apparent. There are techniques such as surveys that can ensure the reliability and validity of qualitative indicators. An important principle to remember is that the use of qualitative indicators can play an important role in the promotion and understanding of stakeholder perspectives, particularly those relating to women,85 and therefore fostering participation. Developing gender-sensitive indicators in a participatory fashion requires a focus on including people’s own indicators of development.86

Guidelines for Setting Gender-sensitive Indicators for ICT Initiatives87
ICT indicators should be linked with the goals and purpose of an organization, an activity or a project. Goals can be long-term or short-term. For example, indicators for computer education projects that aim to provide skills for young people so that they can have better employment opportunities will need to measure the long-term and broader impact in relation to the creation of jobs, the types of jobs available, the number of girls and boys in these courses, the changes in the economic status of young people who become part of these programmes, the other opportunities that open up as a result of these programmes. Considerations that need to be taken into account in setting gender-sensitive indicators for ICT initiatives include:

1. Indicators change during the process of implementation
It is sound practice to define indicators at the beginning of a project or an initiative. This will make it easier to track the progress and to evaluate the outcomes and impact of the projects. However, it is important to keep in mind that indicators can change during the process of project implementation. Indicators that were not anticipated can manifest themselves or become accentuated along the way.

2. Indicators reflect specific realities and experiences
Indicators are determined based on the specific realities and experiences of the stakeholders of any project or initiative. The findings and critical issues identified in the evaluation must reflect the realities of the communities and the analysis should be organic to the community. It is important to recognize the realities of women’s lives when dealing with the performance of people within projects or initiatives. For example, it should be recognized that there are many factors including personal factors that affect women’s performance in and responses to projects and initiatives. If the evaluation framework aims to find out how ICT use changes lives, then the documentation should be done in a manner that respects the integrity of the whole process. Care should be given to translations or interpretations such that complete stories of communities are documented.

3. Technology indicators and gender differences
Gender inequalities are mirrored in the development of access to and use of ICTs. While ICTs can be used as transformative tools that can change power relations between women and men, they can also end up bringing women back to their domesticated status. For example, a number of feminist researches are now interrogating the impact of ICTs for women who are now able to work at home and who may unwittingly be potentially placed in a position to assume additional domestic activities. Indicators should be able to point out if ICTs contribute to empowering or marginalizing women or if ICTs reproduce or transform gender roles. It is also important to be mindful of unintended consequences brought about by projects or initiatives and be aware that ICTs also impact on women who do not have access to it. For example, in a village, women who produce handicrafts were able to market their products better because they were connected. An indirect consequence of this is that those who were not connected became more marginalized. Example 1: Compared to other technologies, ICTs are more open to women, i.e., more women are participating in ICTs. But women are more active on the information and communications aspects rather than on the technology aspect. This is a reflection of the masculine and feminine assumptions. Example 2: There are issues around access to ICTs. Women have access to becoming users of ICTs as information providers. Some have access to training and support either as trainers and recipients of trainings. But women have less access to the technical part of ICT. At some point in ICTs, there is a bottleneck where women have less access than men. Therefore, using the number of women Internet users is not sufficient to determine how women fare as users of ICTs. The theoretical approach for an ICT evaluation tool must look at many issues: women as users, women as information providers, women as trainers, and women as technicians. Example 3: Measuring differential impacts. One can evaluate an ICT project from a gender perspective even though it is an ICT project not meant to work on gender issues. For example, a project that provides computers to school children that does not consider gender can be evaluated from a gender perspective by finding out how the project benefits girls and boys.

Also, the gender gap may contribute to the stated fact that women face many difficulties in the work place. Employers sometime refuse to hire women, customers may underestimate the work a woman may do, or male co-workers may refuse to engage in teamwork with their female co-workers. Negative attitudes like that are mainly directed at women in higher positions than men. Men do not have an issue with women working for them, however they disagree when women are their superiors and hold higher positions. One of the known differences between genders is their work position. Men hold higher and more distinguishable jobs than women which is common worldwide, although this gap is slowly but surely changing. Also, another difference in most areas and societies between genders is the salary gap and how much they make a year. Men are usually paid more than women even if they are doing the same type of jobs, even though laws for equal pay for equal work exist in most places.

Al-Jenaibi, B. (2010). Differences Between Gender Treatments in the Work Force. Cross-Cultural Communication, 6(2), 63-74. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

4. Access indicators
Access means not only access to technology but also access to information and know-how. Access is affected by age, class, gender, race or by one’s socio-economic status. The most basic quantitative indicator of access is the number of women and men who have access to computers, telephones and the Internet. The factors affecting this access are usually the presence or absence of telecommunications and Internet infrastructures. However, quantitative indicators of access are only the starting point. The more significant indicators are often qualitative in nature. These include the quality of access to information that is useful, empowering and relevant for women. It also includes information for women who are not literate and in the appropriate languages. Other important indicators are those that reveal the amount of power and control women have over these resources and knowledge. Some of the questions that will help determine indicators are: Who makes decision about access to technology? Who creates the content? Who has the right to create content and language? How do women use the information they access?

5. ICTs strengthen networking
One of the most valuable advantages of ICT is its potential to strengthen and expand links, networks and networking initiatives. Many of the early studies of women’s use of email have shown that women use new technologies to network with each other. While it is not easy to isolate the impact of networking, a useful indicator of success could be how ICTs helps link women and groups with similar interests who might otherwise not be in contact or how ICTs bring together networks of individuals or groups for promotion and action.

6. ICTs support advocacy and substantive consultation
Advocacy is broadly defined as a process of bringing about change. Many advocacy campaigns are directed at generating policy changes at government, institutions and other levels where policies are made. ICTs are increasingly being used as tools in most advocacy undertaking because of their effectiveness in group communication and interactivity. The outcomes of these campaigns, whether actual policy change occurs, are indicators of the success of the advocacy campaigns and to a certain extent the effectiveness of ICT tools for advocacy. In the short term, it may be possible to gauge if one is making a difference by examining whether the use of ICT tools generates discussion and support for women’s concerns and issues, and catalyzes more action.

7. ICTs promote a non-hierarchical and empowering organizational culture
Access to strategic information can modify the way staff or members relate among themselves and can promote democracy in the organizations. Access can catalyze changes in the power structures of an organization because it enables women to participate more actively in decisionmaking.

8. ICTs should promote democratic communication towards e-governance
ICTs are increasingly being used as necessary and effective ingredients in communications strategies. The potential of these new technologies for participatory and democratic communication and the opening up of new communication spaces are seen as main contributions to social development and transformation. One must be mindful however that these spaces can exclude and alienate women who are less articulate and who may not speak the dominant international languages that are often used in these discussions. Indicators should take account of the means available that enable people/communities to feed their voices into debate and dialogue. The underlying assumption of the use of ICTs for information sharing and communication is that it provides a means for the sharing of knowledge and information directly by those who generate them. The quality rather than the volume or quantity of information generated is more meaningful as an indicator.

While women’s increased participation in communication spaces is an indicator for the positive use of ICTs, it is even more important to measure their role in these spaces. Some of the indicators could be their involvement in the major decisions related to the initiative. This will ensure relevance and meaning – a vital component for any intervention.

The Need to Strengthen National Women’s Machineries
Louise Chamberlain (2002) stresses that gender analysis is an exercise to understand differential impacts of projects or policy design, implementation, and outcomes for women and men. A wider application of gender analysis to ICT projects in the public and private sectors, particularly if they result in quantitative evidence, can bring key gender concerns to the attention of policy makers.88 However, a number of major constraints continue to be faced in gender mainstreaming efforts, as addressing gender inequality

issues are sometimes viewed as an externally imposed political agenda. This is particularly evident when despite the location of national women’s machineries in the highest level of government,89 the lack of political support in terms of clear and strong mandates as well as resource allocation deters the implementation of planned programmes. This results in poor coordination of collaborating units, inability to develop viable policies and vulnerability to change in the political environment.90 If the national women’s machinery is to be effective (for lack of a Gender Unit), a solid constitutional and legal status is crucial, as is a policy that specifies goals, clear lines of institutional responsibility and accountability. These should be supported by definitive planning procedures and a management structure that can transform policy into practice. However, such a structure usually exists in a political and financial vacuum in many countries which inhibits the achievement of demonstrable results. In addition, structure, functions and powers of national machineries may not be congruent, i.e. national machineries have more functions than they could be expected to implement in the light of their structure, powers and resources. While assistance in policy formulation can be a mandate, these bodies are bogged down by other welfare-related activities. Some of the functions are too difficult or inappropriate as they are presently constituted and supported. As part of a distinctive ministry (e.g. planning, social welfare), the unit might be expected to perform functions expected of the ministry per se. At times, there is the tendency to treat gender and women’s issue as separate and stand-alone concerns with plans separate from national and local concerns (e.g. separate plans for gender and women). An isolated focus would deter efforts to mainstream gender in government policy and programmes. There is a need to ensure that gender and women’s issues are not marginalized in government plans and mechanisms, and that procedures for gender planning within sectors are strengthened. Sectoral and local interests and priorities mitigate against cross-cutting gender issues in plans and programmes. Issues that are considered vital by ministries and local agencies may be given priority thus sidetracking gender concerns. This becomes pressing in the light of limited resources under which these agencies operate (see Box 15).

Implications for Technical and Financial Resources
The Regional Meeting of National Machineries for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific: Towards a Forward Looking Agenda held on 12–14 November 2003 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, identifies that the inability to shift from a woman in development paradigm to a gender and development paradigm is partially due to budgetary constraints.91 The failure by national and local leaders to appreciate the concepts and goals of gender equality is a serious deterrent to mainstreaming gender in the bureaucracy. Gender plans are viewed as marginal in budgetary planning. Policy commitments are not thought through to their budget implications. Therefore, it is likely that programmes are under-funded and vulnerable to arbitrary budget reduction. As such, this lack of resources forces national women’s machineries92 to adopt coping strategies, where they end up dealing with one activity at a time, branching into small projects which should be the work of other agencies and use of existing networks (Moser, 1995: p. 125). Hence, assessment of projects and programmes implemented by national women machineries indicates a predominance of welfare-oriented activities (income-generation, microfinance, cooperatives, microcredit).93 The same scenario in all likelihood will be duplicated by the ICT sector if budgetary considerations in policy, programme and project planning to address gender inequalities are not included consciously.

In many countries, national women/gender machineries have been instrumental in shaping national policies and programmes. Of particular importance are developments in incorporating the gender perspective into national and sectoral plans, budgeting, accounting and auditing. Linking gender concerns to budgeting and auditing is an effective means for making governments accountable and for raising planners’ consciousness of the differential impact of budgetary decisions on women and men. In the Philippines, for example, government agencies and departments are enjoined to prepare a budget document disaggregating outlays in terms of impact on both women and men. In Indonesia, the national machinery ensures that the government’s commitment to mainstreaming gender is reflected in national, sectoral and local plans. Addressing gender means addressing the drawbacks in the socialization of women and men which result in discrimination and disempowerment. However, unravelling socialization is a very slow process, and needs to be undertaken at a highly conscientious level. Such demands require sustained funding and deployment of resources at its most optimal level, and attention to effectiveness rather than speed. Such demands may even mean a more purposive outreach rather than a blanket approach to servicing a community. The heavy emphasis of development aid on innovation and immediate sustainability leaves little room to spearhead adaptation, replication and upscaling, let alone room to substantively address gender issues in the area of ICT.