Gender Evaluation Methodology for Internet and ICTs: A ...old.apc.org/english/capacity/policy/mmtk_gender_ictpol_gem... · This year, APCWNSP is celebrating 10 years of networking

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Gender Evaluation Methodology for internet and ICTs

Gender Evaluation Methodologyfor Internet and ICTs:

A Learning Tool for Change and Empowerment

Association for Progressive CommunicationsWomen’s Networking Support Programme

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Editor: Chat Garcia Ramilo

Cover Illustrator and Graphic Design: Josefina Leal Quiroz and Amando Ramirez Fuentes

Contributors

GEM Project Team

GEM Global Coordinator: Chat Garcia Ramilo, [email protected] Africa: Fatma Alloo, [email protected] Asia: Cheekay Cinco, [email protected] Central and Eastern Europe: Katerina Fialova, [email protected]

Lenka Simerska, [email protected] Latin America: Dafne Plou, [email protected] Sharing Site Managers: Erika Smith, [email protected]

Josefina Leal Quiróz, [email protected] Coordinator: Karen Banks, [email protected]

GEM TestersWomen’sNet, http://www.womensnet.org.zaPhilippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) / Multi-Purpose CommunityTelecentres (MCT), http://www.barangay-mct.orgMothers for Mothers, http://www.ehomemakers.netZamirnet, http://www.zamirnet.hrBulgarian Gender Research Foundation, http://www.bgrf.orgModemmujer, http://www.Modemmujer.org

Editorial Support: Mylene Soto, Anna Hidalgo, Jenny Radloff and Ernesto Hilario

Special thanks to the following organisations for supporting the GEM project: Department forInternational Development (DFID), United Kingdom Engineering Knowledge and Research Programme;International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada; UNIFEM, New York

APCWNSP Address: 2nd Floor, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United [email protected] , www.apcwomen.orgAPC Address: P O Box 29755, Melville, 2109, South [email protected], www.apc.org

Published December, 2003

This work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.Under this license, you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work; or to make derivative worksunder the following conditions:Attribution. You must give the original author credit.Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under alicense identical to this one.For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the author. Your fair use and other rights are inno way affected by the above.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Global Summary: Tool Building, Testing and Training 9

About the GEM Project 9

GEM Tool Overview 10

Testing GEM 12

Lessons from the Field 14

Evaluation Plus: GEM’s Other Uses 20

GEM in 2004 23

Part 2: Case Studies: Evaluation Findings from Six GEM Testers 25

Evaluating the Women’s Pilot 25Training Program in Rural South Africa

GEM and the Community Telecentres: 31How Participatory Evaluations Really Work

A Study on How Gender Dynamics 37Affect Teleworkers’ Performance in Malaysia

Using GEM to Evaluate Effectiveness

of ICTs for Campaigning among Youth 45

ZaMirNET’s Jobs Search Training Evaluation 51

Women’s Information for Empowerment 59

Part 3: Who Is Using GEM: Overview of All GEM Testers 63

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ASSOCIATION FOR PROGRESSIVECOMMUNICATIONS WOMEN’S NETWORKINGSUPPORT PROGRAMMENetworking for change and women’s empowerment since 1993http://www.apcwomen.org

APCWNSP is a global network of women who support women’snetworking for social change and women’s empowerment, through theuse of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

APCWNSP aims to promote the consideration and incorporation ofgender in ICT policy-making bodies and forums; initiate and implementresearch activities in the field of gender and ICT; advance the body ofknowledge, understanding, and skills in the field of gender and ICT byimplementing training activities and; facilitate access to informationresources in the field of gender and ICT.

We engage in research, evaluation, training, information, and supportactivities in the field of ICT policy, skills-sharing in the access and use ofICT, and women’s network-building. The programme works primarily in anworld. Using a combination of email, mailing lists and real time text andvoice‘chat’, we are able to coordinate, develop action plans, implementactivities, support and mentor one another while maintaining andstrengthening our organisational and personal relationships. We meetface-to-face whenever opportunities present themselves (such asnational, regional or international workshops and conference) or throughexplicitly funded workshops and meetings of the programme.

APCWNSP is a part of the Association for ProgressiveCommunications (APC), an international network of civil societyorganisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups andindividuals working for peace, human rights, development andprotection of the environment, through the strategic use ofinformation and communication technologies (ICTs), including theinternet.

Contacts:APCWNSP global network contact: [email protected] contact: [email protected] and the Pacific contact: [email protected] American and the Caribbean contact: [email protected] and Eastern Europe contact: [email protected]

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Introduction

It took10 months of research, workshops, meetings and painstakingwriting before we completed the first version of the Gender EvaluationMethodology (GEM) tool. Finally, in October 2001, we published the firstversion of the GEM tool . Since then GEM has been through severalincarnations coming from the combined wisdom and experience of atalented community of ICT practitioners, gender specialists andevaluators who contributed as researchers, critical reviewers, resourcepersons and workshop facilitators.

In January 2002, we were ready to test and refine the GEM tool andbegan the GEM project. Through the support of the Department forInternational Development, International Development Research Centreand UNIFEM, we implemented a two-year programme of tool-building,resource sharing and field-testing. Our multicultural and multilingual GEMProject Team and the whole APCWNSP network have gone through anincredible learning experience in this period and have amassed a wealthof knowledge in gender and ICT evaluation. In the last 18 months weworked with partners in 20 countries in 4 world regions evaluating 26projects, organised and facilitated 20 workshops with over 300participants and presented GEM in over 50 events in about 25 countries.

As we approach the final phase of our project, we have started to harvestthe lessons and findings from this experience. This publication is our firstcrop. Part 1 is a synthesis of our experience in tool building, testing andtraining globally. Part 2 is a presentation of the evaluation findings of sixGEM testers from South Africa, Philippines, Malaysia, Croatia, Bulgariaand Mexico. Through these examples, we have tried to demonstrate thenumerous dimensions of gender issues in a variety of ICT initiatives –telecentres, teleworking, training, advocacy and networking. In no waywas our selection of case studies an indication that the rest of our GEMtesters are of less quality. Many of our partner organisation’s evaluationactivities are still ongoing. And finally, Part 3 is an overview of all the 26GEM testers in 20 countries.

This year, APCWNSP is celebrating 10 years of networking support forwomen’s actions and agenda. We dedicate this publication to the manywomen and some men who have persevered in making sure that genderequality and women’s empowerment remain at the centre of the ICTagenda.

Chat Garcia RamiloGEM Global CoordinatorManila, Philippines

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Acknowledgements

APCWNSP would like to thank the community of ICTpractitioners, gender specialists, educators andevaluators who have contributed to the creation ofthe GEM tool.

Anriette Esterhuysen, Maureen James, RebeccaHolmes, Sonia Jorge, Sarah Earl, Sara HlupekileLongwe, Natasha Primo, Anita Seibert, JoellePalmieri, the Popular Education for People’sEmpowerment, Angela Nicolettou and special thanksto Gilles Cliché.

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About the GEM Project

The Gender Evaluation Methodology(GEM) for ICT initiatives is an

innovative evalu ation guide for ICTpractitioners seeking an appropriategender framework and analysis tools fortheir information and communicationtechnology (ICT) interventions.

GEM was developed by the Associationfor Progressive CommunicationsWomen’s Networking SupportProgramme (APCWNSP), a globalnetwork that facilitates the strategic useof ICTs in support of women’s actions andagendas. Since 1994, APCWNSP hasworked globally, co-ordinating researchand “on-the-ground” activities that havehighlighted the need for strengtheningconsideration of gender concerns in theplanning and implementation of ICTinitiatives.

In 1997, as a contribution to the Glo-bal Knowledge conference held inToronto, the APCWNSP began anevaluation of its own research activitiesto contribute to the development of ageneric ICT audit tool designed to learnmore about the role and impact of ICTson development projects. APCWNSPsaw that more comprehensive tools andcriteria were needed when evaluating therole and use of ICTs from a genderperspective. From this experience, weinitiated a ‘Lessons Learned’ Project tocontribute to the development andstrengthening of practical, relevant andsustainable women’s networkinginitiatives at the global, regional andnational level in 1999. Through thisproject, we began the process of creatinga framework and developingmethodologies that will help us determi-ne if ICTs have really improved women’slives. As more and more of today’sdevelopment work and money ischannelled into projects that employ ICTs,their effects on women are of greatimportance. For women, the accessibilityof ICTs requires adequate equipment,information, financing, organisation,training and time. Evaluation of ICTdevelopment work is therefore critical toensure gender equality and women’sempowerment are addressed.

Part 1Global Summary:Tool Building, Testing and Training

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The first step in this process was takenin Manila, Philippines. In January 2001,35 ICT practitioners from 16 countriesgathered for a workshop on “Building AnICT Gender Evaluation Tool”. Thediscussion at this workshop was ourstarting point in developing the GEM tool.The first version of the tool was completedin October 2001. After six months, wepublished the revised version and wewere ready to test the tool. The GEMproject was our main testing ground

The GEM project’s aim is to strengthenand sustain gender accountability in glo-bal, regional and national ICT networkinginitiatives by:

• developing evaluationmethodologies for ICT initiatives

• generating research on the genderdimensions of ICT, particularly itsimpact on gender equality, women’sempowerment and socialtransformation

• catalysing a process of resourcesharing and tools-building

• providing insights and newdirections for projects and initiatives,policy interventions and moremeaningful use of ICTs for and bywomen worldwide

• providing training to undertakegender evaluation of ICT initiatives

• facilitating the creation of anetwork of “gender equality and ICTchampions” (both individuals andorganisations), with increased capacityin evaluation, policy, advocacy, andtraining

Through the GEM project, theevaluation tool has undergone testingand refining in the last 18 months.

GEM Tool Overview

The GEM Tool is a guide to integratinggender analysis into evaluations ofinitiatives that use Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) forsocial change.

It provides a means for determiningwhether ICTs are really improvingwomen’s lives and gender relations aswell as promoting empowering change atthe individual, institutional, communityand broader social levels.

The GEM tool contains:

•Theory: a gender analyticalframework as well as basic concepts andprinciples of evaluation.

•Practice: practical ‘how-to’approaches and worksheets to help youconduct your own evaluation.

GEM can be used by practitioners,including:

• Organisations using ICT fordevelopment, human rights andother issues

• Project managers and project staffusing ICT in projects without aspecific gender or women’s focus

• Evaluators working in the ICT field• Donors and development agency

staff working in the ICT field• Gender focal points that support

women’s and ICT issues• Policy makers• ICT planners• Consultants in the area of gender

and ICT

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The guide provides users with anoverview of the evaluation process(including links to general evaluationresources) and outlines suggestedstrategies and methodologies forincorporating a gender analysisthroughout the evaluation process. GEMis not simply an evaluation tool. It can alsobe used to ensure that gender concernsare integrated into a project planningprocess.

LEARNING FOR CHANGE

Learning for Change i s the overallframework that we use in the APCWNSPevaluation model. Our model is based onthe notion that learning is continuallyevolving and dynamic. It is interactive andnot static.

The WNSP evaluation model focusexamines how an ICT intervention hasaffected changes at an individual,organisational, community and broadersocial level from a gender perspective.

Special attention is directed to self andsocial change. This means thatthroughout an evaluation process thereis an emphasis on understanding thedynamic relationship between an ICTinitiative and both self and social change.We use the term “self” to mean not onlyindividuals but also the organisations andcommunities involved in an ICT initiative.Focusing on self-change in an evaluationthen means examining the dynamicrelationship between ICT initiatives andthe way individuals, organisations andcommunities operate.

Focusing on social change means thatan evaluation process must scrutinise therelationship between the ICT initiative andthe broader social, political, cultural, andeconomic context and seek to understandhow this context affected an ICT initiativeand vice versa.

GENDER ANALYSIS

Gender analysis in evaluation involvesa systematic assessment of the differentimpacts of project activities on womenand men. Gender analysis within an ICTcontext asserts that power relations

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involving class, race, ethnicity, age, andgeographic location interact with genderto produce complex inequalities relatingto social change in general, and thosechanges brought on by ICTs in particular.Disaggregating data by sex, analysing thesexual division of labour, andunderstanding the gender disparities ofaccess to and control over resources arebasic components of a genderedapproach to evaluation.

GEM KNOWLEDGE SHARING SITE

The GEM websitewww.apcwomen.org/gem was builtthrough a collective process of structuredconsultations, face-to-face discussionsand the collaborative work of ourKnowledge Site managers. The mainfeatures of the GEM site are the GEMtool; information about the GEM project,links to WNSP’s research on gender andICTs and relevant evaluation resources;news about GEM-related activities; andinformation about the community of GEMpractitioners. Printer-friendly versions ofdocuments and a downloadable versionof the GEM tool are also available fromthe site. The site is bilingual in Spanish

and English. The GEM Spanish sitewww.apcwomen.org/gem/esp has totalcorrespondence with the English site. TheGEM tool is also available in Portugueseat www.apcwomen.org/gem/portuguese/index.htm.

GEM Intranet: The GEM Intranet wasdeveloped to enable the WNSP and itsproject team, GEM testers and partners,to work together collaboratively. Currentlythe content includes profiles of GEMtesters and projects, resources such asGEM PowerPoint presentations, GEMarticles and graphics, a quick referenceguide and information about regionalworkshops.

Testing GEM

In 2002, the APCWNSP regionalnetworks, partners and other selectedorganisations began testing GEM toenrich the methodology and customize itto their own ICT networking contexts andsocial spheres. The GEM project teamhas been working with 27 organisationsin evaluating a variety of initiatives spreadover 20 countries. Initiatives include:

GEM Testers Profile

REGION NO. OF TESTERS NUMBER OF COUNTRIES REGIONALINITIATIVES

LATIN AMERICA 6 5 1ASIA 7 5 1AFRICA 7 4 2CENTRAL/EASTERN 6 6 1EUROPETOTAL 26 20 5

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• community telecentres• education and training initiatives for

women• employment and e-commerce

projects• networking and community building

projects• e-governance progammes• advancement of women’s rights

through women’s information activitiesand advocacy campaigns on a range ofwomen’s issues

GEM regional coordinators are workingdirectly with testers from all regions indeveloping evaluation plans andconducting evaluation activities. This isbeing done through means as well asface-to-face meetings. Field visits werecarried out in 8 locations in 7 countries.During field visits regional coordinatorsmet with evaluation teams to finaliseevaluation plans (i.e., setting indicators,methodologies, stakeholders, andevaluation activities). In some cases theyparticipated in evaluation activities likeinterviews and focus group discussions.

NETWORK OF GEM PRACTITIONERS

A total of 192 participants (157 womenand 35 men) from 30 countries have beentrained in the use of the GEM Toolkitthrough regional and local workshops.Some of these workshops focused onraising awareness about gender and ICTissues. Participants represented projectsthat are field testing GEM, members ofthe regional WNSP networks andpartners who intend to use GEM in theirorganisations outside the testingenvironment.

APCWNSP planned a programme oftesting and interpretation work in 4

regions: Latin America, Asia, Africa(Anglophone) and Central and EasternEurope. Participants in the regionaltraining workshop learned about conceptsof gender analysis as they relate to ICTprojects and went through the wholeprocess of developing an evaluation planusing the GEM Toolkit. The trainingequipped them with enough knowledgeto lead the evaluation of theirorganisations/initiatives with the supportof the GEM project team.

At the same time, the GEM projectteam honed their skills as GEM trainersas they developed modules, exercisesand materials to best respond toparticipant feedback. The team’smethodology evolved through facilitationand consistent evaluation of eachworkshop.

LESSONS IN TESTING

The GEM testing experience has beena very instructive process for conductinggender evaluation of ICT initiatives. Theprocess of clarifying the objectives of anevaluation and identifying genderindicators are occasions for learningabout what constitutes a genderperspective and how a gender analyticalframework can be applied in projectsusing ICT.

GEM’s conceptual documents onlearning and evaluation and a socialchange framework for ICT use, steeredtesting organisations onto a solidevaluation track. Participants began toanalyse their own learning experiencesand the way their views and perspectiveshave been influenced by their context,culture, religion and various aspects ofsociety. This understanding about gender

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and its relationship to ICT is one of themost significant outcomes from GEM tooluse in all the regions.

For example, testers from Bulgaria,Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania andRomania gave feedback reports thatusing GEM helped them to understandwhat role ICT can play in women’sempowerment. Generally they also feltthat they have become more aware aboutthe gender and ICT issues in their context.This growing awareness is criticalespecially in Central and Eastern Europewhere there is almost an absence ofgender advocacy in the ICT policy arenaand most of women advocates andorganisations in the region are not fami-liar with the information society policiesand debates nor are they connected withthe existing gender and ICT advocacynetworks.

The most immediate result of thetesting is the discovery that most of theorganisations did not have plans forevaluating their projects nor any clearlydefined indicators, whether gender orgeneral indicators, to measure theeffectiveness of their interventions. Afterdeveloping their evaluation plans, all ofthe GEM testers affirmed the usefulnessof this exercise in reviewing their projectplans and most of them realized thesignificance of their evaluation results forinstitutional and project planning.

In addition, the participatory approachespoused by GEM values encouragedorganisations to be inclusive of allstakeholders. From the very beginningthe GEM team emphasized that the GEMtool was to be used by a group or team ofpeople ready to work on equal terms andshare responsibilities and results.

Lessons from the Field

The final evaluation results of GEMtesters are still to be completed; however,our findings from the testing so far haveyielded a number of lessons:

GENDER SENSITIVITY SESSIONS

In most cases, it is necessary toconduct gender and ICT sensitisationworkshops before starting to develop agender evaluation plan. From our GEMtesters’ experience, these workshopscould be customized depending on theneeds of the organisation. This could bea half- or whole-day session that willprovide participants with anunderstanding of the basic concepts ofgender, gender equality, women’sempowerment and the intersections ofgender, social transformation and ICT.Our experience has shown that whilemost organisations grasped the issues ofgender and ICT separately, analysing therelationship between these two issueswas new terrain for them.

This preparatory step is even morerelevant in gender evaluation oftelecentres because these initiatives areusually based in grassroots communitieswhere traditional values and beliefs aboutgender roles and relations are still thenorm. In all of the telecentres that testedthe GEM tool, the evaluation teamsconsciously set in place gendersensitisation strategies promotingreflection and opening opportunities fordialogue to avoid antagonisticconfrontations.

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For example, in two communities in Ecuador, the GEM team was told that the community(i.e., men leaders who make decisions) wouldn’t allow workshops on “feminism”, becausethey had had problems with women’s groups coming to their place to “put women againstmen”. The GEM team decided to use another starting point: “communication, equity andICTs”. In the case of the indigenous groups, another argument is that racial discriminationcomes first and to overcome racial discrimination and work in favour of cultural and racialdiversity should be on top of their aims. In this case, the concept of “equity” was usedwith a broad meaning, including racial, gender, age, cultural and social discrimination.

Hello GEM team,Today I met with Marcelo, Florencio and Givanna

Tipan,who will be working with me in the workshop we’llhave tomorrow in Colinas del Norte, up in the mountainsoutside Quito. Giovanna is in charge of the manual ongender issues for telecentres.

The workshop will take place with the young people’scommunity organisation. It will be centred in the work they are doing for their community journal, that comes outonce a month and it’s run by them. They are also in charge of the local telecentre, where the journal is produced.

It is interesting to see Gem’s development so far. Foundation ERPE will use it for planning their work in thetelecentres from the very start and they think the tool will help them to address equity, which for them includes notonly gender issues, but also class and racial issues. Discrimination of indigenous people in Riobamba is rampant.I had never seen it so clearly. Colleagues told me that not so many years ago indigenous people were not evenallowed to take the local buses. It’s interesting to see how GEM can widen its outreach in local use. I think it’s verychallenging!!!

As for Colinas del Norte, as it is a poor neighbourhood outside Quito, people there also feel discriminatedbecause of class issues, so gender issues will also be considered within a wider perspective. They are planning touse GEM to sensitise on gender issues first, then to evaluate what they are doing in their local newspaper and asa third step, to plan their work in the very new telecentre that they are starting to run.

Remember I told you about “The Queens” group? Today, Chasquinet colleagues told me that the full name is“Queens Association” and it is not a name the girls choose for themselves, but that the community gave thembecause the community created that group for the girls that have been candidates or have won beauty awards inthe community. So in a way from the beginning their image has been very much attached to sexism.

Girls complain that they are treated as “empty heads” or “decorative objects” and that they want theircommunity to understand their real interests and commitments. So they are very excited about taking part in theworkshop. They also plan to work with the group of older women who have their small business of arts and craftsin the community. They want to show that they can do other things and not only be there to be invited tocommunity events as pretty faces. And, of course, they also want to take more active part in the local newspaper,not only in the photographs, but in the content.

As always, I think that GEM is opening more fields for work than expected.

Cordially,Dafne

From: [email protected]: [email protected]: [Gem-team] Workshop in Colinas del NorteReply-To: [email protected]: [email protected]: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 13:37:38 -0300 (GMT+3)

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SETTING GENDERAND ICT INDICATORS

Identifying gender indicators in ICTinitiatives, whether in policies, strategies,programs, projects and activities can bean effective way of ensuring that women’sparticular needs are considered inplanning processes. Gender-sensitiveindicators are useful tools in measuringor evaluating the impact of developmentinitiatives in general and can be appliedin the ICT field. While there is a rich bodyof gender indicators that have beendeveloped in areas like health, education,human rights and political empowerment,development of gender indicators or evengeneral development and social changeindicators for ICT initiatives is only justbeginning.

One important section of the GEM tooldeals with identifying gender and ICTindicators for projects that are beingevaluated. This exercise has been themost challenging step for most GEMtesters when preparing evaluation plans.At the same time, it has been the keycomponent in determining how and whyspecific ICT initiatives lead to changingwomen’s conditions, gender roles orgender relations. Identifying quantitativeindicators of access and participation hasbeen straightforward for most of the GEMtesters. What have been morecomplicated to track are qualitativeindicators. Yet, as we know from othergender evaluation methodologies, theseindicators have more vividly illustrated therelationship of ICT interventions andwomen’s empowerment.

For example, five of our testers aretelecentres mostly operating in ruralcommunities in Ecuador, Colombia,

Philippines and Nigeria. Before the GEMevaluation, the telecentres simplydisaggregated their user data by sex.After much probing about gender and ICTindicators, data differentiated by sex onparticipation in decision-making bodies,roles of volunteers and staff, activities ofusers in telecentres, training received andseveral more were identified as additionalqualitative indicators. These could beclassified as indicators of access,participation and use which reflectdifferent levels of empowerment.

One lesson to be learned from theGEM testing process is that ICTs and ICT-based projects do not exist in a vacuumand that they operate within existinggendered social structures such as lawsand traditional cultural beliefs and

“Given the dimensions of a gender issue,and their obvious embeddedness within a

patriarchal system, it becomes obvious thatinterventions on gender issues cannot bedictated by ‘top-down’ planners. On the

contrary, women’s advancement involves theprocess of empowerment, which we may give

the preliminary definition of the process bywhich women achieve increased control over

public decision making. Such empowerment iswomen’s route to changing the practices and

laws that discriminate against them, andachieving an equitable gender division of labourand allocation of resources. Clearly, therefore,

we need a lens to see the process ofempowerment, as the sequence of women’s

action by which a gender issue can be tackled.”

“SPECTACLES FOR SEEING

GENDER IN PROJECT EVALUATION”

Written by Sara Hlupekile Longwe for theAfrica GEM Workshop held in Zanzibar in

November 2002. Sara Longwe participated inthis workshop as the gender evaluation

specialist.

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practices. The gender issues in ICTs donot only exist in the genderdisaggregation of data but, moreimportantly, they exist in the reasons forthe disaggregation. While the numbersmay sometimes show that there is hardlyany gender disparity in the usage andbenefits of ICTs, the stories and reasonsbehind the numbers may reveal differentrealities. In planning and developing ICTpolicies and programmes, this frameworkis crucial if ICTs are to be used for socialdevelopment and gender equality.

ICT FOR INFORMATION SHARING ANDADVOCACY

One of the most valuable uses of ICTwithin the women’s movement is theadvancement of women’s rightsthrough women’s information activitiesand advocacy campaigns on a range ofwomen’s issues. As such, GEM selectedseveral projects from various regions tolearn how effectively ICT tools have beenused. Projects evaluated included specifice-bulletins, radio programmes and e-listsby women’s information centers likeModemmujer in Mexico, Karat Coalitionbased in Poland, Women of UgandaNetwork (WOUGNET) and regionalAMARC networks in Africa and LatinAmerica.

All of these organisations designedand conducted surveys among theiraudience to gauge the effectiveness oftheir medium as well as content. Formany of them, the GEM evaluation gavethem their first opportunity tosystematically ask for feedback from theirpublic. Overall, the survey results wereencouraging in validating the significanceof the information to women in theirlocalities or region.

For example, Karat Coalition receivedfeedback that information from the regionand local social movement groups aregenerally difficult to collect. A lot ofwomen’s activists mentioned their e-bulletin as a very important componentof their daily work, keeping them informedabout the main initiatives, trends in theregion and helping them to learn newexperiences, shape objectives for theirfuture activities, find new partners andgive them ideas for the development oftheir NGOs. Most of the women activists,especially those from the European Unioncandidate countries, are also looking forinformation about the EU enlargementprocess that directly impacts on theeconomic and political situation in thatregion.

A common limitation noted in manyinstances is the need for more contenttranslated into major regional languagesor local languages. Most regions are notlinguistically homogenous, thereforelanguage should be a key indicator thatmeasures accessibility of information.

In an evaluation of a Ugandaninformation network, respondents saidthat WOUGNET’s website and mailinglists contributed to the visibility ofUgandan women’s issues and hadpromoted women’s causes in Uganda.Information provided were repackaged forfurther dissemination by alternativemeans such as radio and printpublications. The need for more localcontent and information in locallanguages was emphasized. In addition,it was noted that while WOUGNET is verybeneficial to all its members, activeparticipation is limited to a few andtherefore more work is needed to enable

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GEM RAISES AWARENESS ABOUT THESIGNIFICANCE OF ICTS ON WOMEN’SLIVES AND SOCIETY

While the objective of the GEMevaluation is to zero in on examiningspecific projects, the process to get to thispoint has led the GEM team and GEMtesters to comprehend critical trends andissues connected with the so-calledinformation or knowledge society.Depending where the testers are from,the issues that have been tackled in GEMworkshops and reports range from thedigital divide, privacy and security,democracy and governance, employmentand economic opportunities and manymore.

A clear recommendation emergingfrom testing is the need to document andpromote models of strategic use of ICTsamong women, as well as otherdisadvantaged groups. Of equalimportance is building awareness amonggender advocates and women‘sorganisations with the strategic aim ofmaking them more familiar with genderissues in ICT and to support thedevelopment of pro-active genderadvocacy in ICT policies.

Through the GEM testing, we havedeepened our understanding of manycritical gender and ICT issues. Some ofthese are elaborated on through the casestudies that are presented in this report.We would like to highlight three significantissues resulting from our regional testing.

WOMEN AND TELEWORKING

ICTs are being touted as opening newopportunities for employment. They arepresented as a novel employment modelwith employees working from the comfortof their homes. In many cases,

more members to fully engage in thenetwork. Respondents also called for ICTawareness and training sessions, greaternetworking among members,consideration of other modes of

information sharing/dissemination –targeting rural access in particular, andsupport in acquiring ICT equipment andinternet services.

An excerpt from Karat Coalition’s GEMreport illustrates how women-focussedinformation resources contribute towomen’s empowerment:

95,5% of the respondents of Karat’squestionnaire think that Karat News helps to

promote women’s issues in the region and thesame percentage thinks that newsletter helps

to show Central and Eastern Europe/CISperspective on gender issues. Only some of

the readers share information from Karat Newsoutside of their organisations by reprinting them

in their own publications, putting them on thewebsites or translating them to the local

language. The others use them mostly for theirown needs as applying for grants, attending

conferences/training they find in the news andlearning about gender

issues in the European Union.

As a Karat News reader puts it:

‘It is the only space where regional info isaccessible in one place. Every other

newsgroup claims to focus on one area orregion, but rarely does this happen. I rarely

read those because it is supposed to be aboutCentral and Eastern Europe and then I get

everything else about Asia and Africa and whatkind of conference is happening in New York. I

read Karat News to follow what is reallyhappening with women in the region, andbecause I know it is relevant and coming

directly from the region’.

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women trained. Indicators of variouslevels of empowerment include thereinforcement of their self-esteem aswomen found themselves able to learn anew and more advanced communicationstechnology, ICT facilitated networking thatin turn has allowed expanded participationin decision-making and strengthenedinternal democracy, led to improving one’schances of finding a job and providedpeople with renewed confidence inthemselves.

Many more women can benefit fromappropriately designed trainingprogrammes in all regions. There is needfor more resources to support traininginitiatives that have demonstrated adevelopmental and empowering impact.

UNIVERSAL ACCESS ISSUES

Access to ICT infrastructure and basicICT skills continue as the most commongender and ICT issues identified by allour GEM testers. The digital divide ismostly linked to developing countries ofAfrica, Asia and Latin America, but it isalso an important issue in Central EastEurope, considering the low access oftraditionally marginalized groups. It iscrucial to focus especially on the womenwho are disadvantaged by several socialfactors, such as single mothers, disabledwomen, older women, women living inrural areas, unemployed women orwomen from low-income groups, womenrefugees and women from ethnicminorities.

Despite statements that universalaccess is a priority in most ICT nationalpolicies for the majority of the countriesincluded in the testing, the use of ICTremains difficult because of the low levels

teleworking is seen as an option amongthose who want to be employed but preferor need to stay home for reasons suchas disabilities, chronic illness or caring forthe children. Women, who are mostlyresponsible for child caring, domesticwork or caregiving for old and chronicallyill members of family, are seen to be oneof the groups that could move into thisnew organisation of work. In many partsof the world, teleworking is becomingmore widespread as a way of home-based work. However, there is a generallack of information regarding the potentialproblematic aspects of teleworking (suchas social security of teleworkers) and itsreal impact on the life and empowermentof women. There is a need to examineand open the discussion about the impactof teleworking on women’s multiple rolesin the family. A teleworking case study ispresented in this report to shed light onthis significant ICT development. Whilethe findings about how teleworkingchallenges traditional male and femaleroles in the home are not conclusive, thereport points out that indicators andbenchmarks in terms of changes ingender roles and relations as a result ofteleworking will be critical in determiningthe long term impact of workarrangement.

ICT TRAINING FOR WOMEN

Five ICT training initiatives areparticipating as GEM testers and areevaluating their projects. These initiativesvary from basic training for rural womenin South Africa to employment skillstraining in Croatia to web-basedinformation management and e-commerce for women’s organisations inAsia-Pacific. In most cases, these trainingopportunities have been positive for the

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of access. Given these limitations,promoting good practice on strategic useof ICTs for women’s empowerment andgender equality becomes more critical.

Evaluation Plus:GEM’s Other Uses

WNSP’S POLICY ADVOCACY WORK

The GEM tool has informed WNSP’spolicy work through its conceptual papersexpounding a critique on gender andICTs. The analysis and positions in thesepapers have been used as the main basisfor WNSP’s advocacy positions in thecurrent preparatory activities for the WorldSummit on the Information Society.Advocacy for integrating a genderperspective in ICT programs and policieswas high on the agenda of WNSP’srecommendations. WNSP has been aleading gender advocate in all WSIS re-gional and global Preparatory Meetingsheld in Bamako, Tokyo, Bucharest,Bavaro and Geneva. APCWNSP ’sgender Issues Paper for WSIS can befound in www.genderit.org and in theAPCPublication “Involving Civil Society in ICTPolicy” http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=14223

There are early indications that in thearea of policy development, GEM’s initialwork in identifying gender and ICTindicators will have an impact. Thedevelopment of gender and ICTindicators has been consistently taken upas part of policy recommendations.

Outside of the WNSP and our partners,we have been asked to present the GEMtool in numerous events and many

organisations have asked us about howto use the tool.

The promotion and dissemination ofGEM has expanded and reached newaudiences. The GEM project waspresented in several internationalactivities including the Second GlobalCongress of Citizens Networks, BuenosAires, Argentina, December, 2001; WorldAssociation of Christian CommunicationWorld Congress, December 2001;Symposium on Gender Equality and ICTsDevelopment in Hong Kong, Hong Kong,April 2002; KnowHow Conference,Kampala, Uganda, August 2002; AWIDForum, Guadalajara, Mexico, October2002; Global Communities Network,Montreal, Canada, October, 2002; PacificIslands Regional ICT Consultation, Suva,Fiji, April 9-11, 2003; UNESCO ExpertGroup Meeting on “Digital Inclusion andSocial Change: Technologies andStrategies”, Paris, France, July 14, 2003;and the Forum on ICT and Gender, Kuala,Lumpur, Malaysia, August 27-30, 2003.

GEM SERVICE

In keeping with APC WNSP’s focus onbuilding its overall capacity in deliveringsustainable GEM service to a much wideraudience, the project has involved 26WNSP members from its networkingregions. Members have been trainedthrough the GEM regional workshops andare involved in actual evaluation ofprojects. GEM has also been used as aframework in:

• Mainstreaming gender in nationalICT policy development

• Integrating a gender perspective ine-governance and political participationprograms

•Developing a framework for genderand ICT research

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GEM team members have also successfully applied GEM in gender and ICTconsultancy projects for international agencies.

GEM RELATED CONSULTANCIES

PROJECT INTERNATIONAL AGENCY GEM APPLICATION OUTPUT

E-Governance for Efficiencyand Effectiveness Program,Bilateral Co-operation withPhilippine Government

Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency

Assess capacity ofPhilippinegovernment tomainstream genderin e-governanceproject using GEMframework

Gender Auditof current e-governanceprogramsGenderindicators e-governanceprogram

UNIFEM Support For E-Quality in The InformationSociety (Eastern Europe)

UNIFEM Provision oftechnical advice ongender and ICTissues in relation tooverall WSISprocess includingintegration of genderdimension inEuropean EconomicCommission policypaper.Recommendationsin developing agender and ICTprogram to helpstrengthen womenassociations andmovements inEastern Europe

UNIFEMPolicy paperandpresentation atWSIS regionalmeeting inBratislava onNovember 7.GEM Teammembers actas resourcepersons forUNIFEM’sprogramdevelopmentworkshop.

Gender and ICT in CEE/CIS:Assessment of the state ofICT from gender perspective

United NationsDevelopment Program/UNIFEM Central andEastern Europe Office

Identification of bestpractices,challenges andlessons learned;Gender analysis ofkey initiatives,activities,programmes,projects undertaken(or planned) bydifferentstakeholders in theregion

Report mappingthe situationwith regardGender & ICT,identifyingproblems andprovidingrecommendations

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PROJECT INTERNATIONAL AGENCY GEM APPLICATION OUTPUT

Gender and ICT in CEE/CIS:Engendering the E-governance Academy UNDPProject, Estonia

United NationsDevelopment Program,Central and Eastern EuropeOffice

GEM methodologywill be applied to theexisting coursecurriculum, with aview to advising asto how thecurriculum could bemodified toincorporate a genderperspective

Guideline formainstreaminggender intothe currentcurriculumof E-governanceAcademy

International Seminar- Equalityand Gender Unit

Equality and Gender Unit,Regional Government ofAndalucia, Spain

Introducing GEM tolocal nationalgovernment of Spainand local andregional governmentof Andalucia, peopleworking in theStructural Fundsinitiatives, GenderEquality Machineryall over Spain,Universities andgender experts.

Conductedtwoworkshopsfor over 100participants.

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GEM in 2004

Two thousand and four will be abumper year for the GEM project. Aftertwo years of field-testing, refining theGEM tool, training a network of GEMpractitioners and presenting GEM innumerous forums all over the world,WNSP will reap a rich harvest ofresources, lessons and skills. We offerthese significant insights and newdirections for projects and initiatives,policy interventions and more meaningfuluse of ICTs for and by women worldwide.And, we expect that this process will alsofacilitate the creation of a network of“gender equality and ICT champions”(both individuals and organisations), withincreased capacity in evaluation, policyadvocacy, and training. We hope that thisbumper crop will be a significantcontribution towards sustainability ofwomen’s ICT networking initiatives andthe strengthening of gender accountabilityin ICT initiatives and projects in general.

When you visit the APCWNSP – GEMknowledge sharing site next year, expecta new, revised version of the GEM toolthat you can use or download, with moreexercises, examples of indicators andmethodologies and reports of GEMtesters’ evaluations. The site will includean interactive feature for GEM users andyou will be able to add your own indicatorsand methodologies.

We will also include GEM guides forspecific uses such as GEM forTelecentres (a resource being developedChasquinet, one of our GEM testers),GEM for planning and GEM for ICT policyanalysis. The GEM tool will also betranslated in more languages includingFrench and Arabic.

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The APCWNSP network sees thiswork as part of our advocacy to promotethe strategic use of ICTs for women’sempowerment and equality.

The six reports in this section werewritten by GEM regional coordinators

based on initial reports and findings byGEM tester organisations,except in the

Part 2Case Studies:Evaluation Findings fromSix GEM Testers

case of Modemmujer. The Modemmujerreport included here is a brief summaryof their final report. GEM regionalcoordinators worked closely with testersin all phases of the evaluation process –from developing evaluation plans,conducting GEM workshops withevaluation teams, designing survey formsand questionnaires, visiting sites,conducting interviews and focus groupdiscussions, and writing up evaluationreports. Most of GEM’s testing partnersare currently completing their evaluation

WOMEN’SNET IS A VIBRANT and innovativenetworking support programme designed toenable and empower South African womenand girls to access the people, issues,

resources and tools they need to advance gender equitythrough the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

Correspondingly, Women’sNet has progressively engaged in building skills among indi-vidual women and women’s organisations in the use of ICTs, while drawing on theknowledge and expertise of the organisations in developing the information architecturefor sites on human rights issues, and resources available to women in South Africa.

We women, we can bend, we can do everything. It’s our time!(Trainee-Interview September 2003)

EVALUATING A WOMEN’S PILOT TRAINING

PROGRAMME IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA

Project:

LIMPOPO PROVINCE WOMEN’S TRAINING PROGRAMME

Organization: WOMEN’SNET

Country: SOUTH AFRICA

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and final reports will be submitted by theend of 2003. Once all these reports arein, the GEM team will put together acomprehensive report for publication in2004.

Background

There are 29 Telecentres in theLimpopo Regions, and three multi-purpose community centres. Limpopo isthe fourth most populated province inSouth Africa, with 250 000 moreunemployed people than employedpeople, and less than half the people whostart school complete a high schooleducation. The vast majority of peopleaccess telephony through publictelephones, with a minority of peoplehaving cell phones.

The Project

In 2000 and 2001, Women’sNet, withthe support of Alternatives Canada,undertook a training initiative in theLimpopo province (previously, theNorthern Province). Two communitieswere selected for the training: Botlkowaand Mohodi (both about 50km outside oftown). These communities were selectedbecause of their access to computers andtheir connectivity – Mohodi through acomputer lab at the school, and Botlokwathrough a telecentre and community ra-dio station. In Mohodi, we are in theprocess of establishing a TrainersCommittee to roll out a trainingprogramme to the community who werenot included in the initial training. TheMohodi Telecentre is managed by awoman and two of its additional staff areboth men. While the telecentre is busy, itis attached to the community radio stationand is leasing space to the radio station.

The centre is community owned andmanaged by a board of directors. Asecondary reason for their selection wasthe existence of myriad women’s groupswithin each community that could benefitfrom the sharing of ideas and resourcesaccessible via the radio station and thetelecentre.

Our vision was to provide a trainingprogramme, free of charge, for the staffat community radio stations and localwomen’s and gender-basedorganisations, as well as to providetraining and access to training materialsthat community telecentres can replicatein their future training plans.

The primary aims were:

• To build the community’s skillscapacity around using newer informationand communication technologies (suchas computers, e-mail and the internet);

• Provide a platform for communityradio stations and women/gender-based organisations to work together toimprove the flow of informationon issues that concern women andgender organisations into news andprogramming content; and

• Where requested, to provideadditional training to telecentre managersand staff, in exchange for the use of theirfacility for the duration of thepilot project. Telecentre managers wouldalso be provided with trainingmaterials to be used—so that they couldcontinue the skills developmentproject in the community once our pilottraining project was complete.

Alternatives Canada supported theproject by providing an Intern who was

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tasked with conducting the training in thetwo areas. Based on her accounts of thetraining initiatives, setting up the trainingwas not an easy feat.

“As this was a pilot project, we learneda lot about potential obstacles that ariseat every level of a project. In the beginningthey consisted of: making the necessarycontacts, investigating options, obtainingbureaucratic approval, arranging for thenecessary hardware/software andworkspace, dodging egos and jugglingindividually driven expectations. Some ofthe challenges experienced duringtraining were as follows: jealousy as towho got to participate, having participantsdisappear during training due to workrelated obligations, getting students tocomfortably call on you for help, strugglingto establish internet connections at boththe telecentres, dealing with conflictsbetween various groups within communityand dealing with chronic power failuresin Botlokwa.”

THE INITIATIVE HAD TWO PHASES:

Phase 1 – July and August 2001:Entailed the training of communityradio stations and local women’sorganisations in basic computerliteracy as well as the use of soft-ware packages that allow for digitalediting of radio content.

The telecentre benefited from theinitiative in that we gave the mana-gers free access to the trainingmaterials which they could thenduplicate for future courses thetelecentre might want to offer. Inaddition, we also offered tips on

computer usage and maintenance.Unfortunately, due to manytechnical problems, bothtelecentres were unable to accessthe internet.

Phase 2 - September/October 2001:This training was on use of open sourcesoftware - which is software that is freelyavailable - on how to publish informationon the internet. Training in the use of theAction Apps software makes publishingon the internet easy as it requires basicknowledge of how to transfer informationfrom one source to another (throughcutting and pasting, for example). It doesnot require skill in complicated HTMLcoding procedures.

Measuring the Impacts of theInitiative on the Communities

Through GEM, Women’sNet aims tobuild a methodology for working with ru-ral women and ICTs in South Africa.

It has been a long-term goal of theorganisation to target disadvantagedwomen – in South Africa where ruralwomen predominate among the poor,unemployed and non-literate. Ruralwomen also face gender discriminationand have fewer resources to address this.The central evaluation question waswhether the project addressed thesedisadvantages through its training activity.

In so doing, Women’sNet hopes todevelop a more effective methodology toeffectively work with gender and ICTissues with rural women and ruralwomen’s networks.

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METHODOLOGY

Most of the work developing amethodology and indicators for our GEMwork was done in December 2002 inTanzania at the WNSP GEM Workshop.With GEM experts and members of otherAfrican organisations there, we had theopportunity to discuss and get feedbackfor our ideas on evaluating the project,as well as come to grips with themethodology.

This year, Women’sNet designed twoquestionnaires – one for telecentre ma-nagers and the other for participants. Wemade announcements at the communityradio stations that we would be in thecommunity for the day interviewingtrainees. We also made personal contactwith as many participants as we could.

Interviews took place over the courseof a day, at the community radio station(which is adjacent to the telecentre and

across the road from V.P. High School,where the training took place).

Of the 32 people trained in Mohodi, 10people came for interviews at the radiostation. Interviews were done by threestaff members – including the originaltrainer. Interviews were conducted inEnglish and Sotho. We also had thebenefit of interviews conducted by astudent from the University ofPotchefstroom, done in 2003.

The process included the structuredinterview as well as an informal,unstructured discussion with intervieweesabout their experience of the training andtheir ideas for further work.

Unfortunately, just less than half of theparticipants were interviewed and morethan a year has gone by since the training.Many of the people trained had followed

The Women’sNet training was very well received by both the female and male constituency. TheNorthern Province communities expressed a great deal of gratitude for our work there. The fact that theworkshops were offered at no cost provided the communities with the opportunity to acquire new skills

that are often required when job searching. But beyond being able to cite such skills on a CV, thetraining imbued the participants with a sense of confidence and appreciation for Information and

Communication Technologies; something that had been previously shrouded in mystery and fear formost. The participants expressed an overwhelming interest in receiving further training.

The women were especially grateful for be being able to participating in a community developmentproject that focused on them. Many felt that they would be able to transfer their new skills into other

areas of their lives as well. The Botlokwa training group immensely enjoyed the segment on Starting aSmall Business, especially since it entailed watching a two-hour video and spending the day talking

about starting a small business. We discussed many things and they were assigned specificassessment reports, which included among other things, a personal assessment of the strengths and

weakness that they felt they had. Getting them to think in ways that they were not necessarilyaccustomed to, really contributed to the workshop.

From Elizabeth Araujo, Women’sNet Intern and Trainer

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employment opportunities elsewhere andwere no longer contactable.

Summary of Evaluation Results

IMPROVING THE LIVES OF WOMEN

“When you need a job, you are notnecessarily equipped. You need pride.”

Two of the people interviewed wereemployed as a result of the experiencethey gained at the training. Other peopleinterviewed said the training gave themconfidence and encouraged them to learnmore. However, all people interviewedstated that they would like more trainingon operating and running a business,accessing finance and linking “office”work with the training.

CHANGING GENDER RELATIONS

“Women and men can come – somemen need to be empowered too.”

This comment was made by a femaletrainee and member of the trainerscommittee. She felt that while women

should get access to opportunities, it wasgood to involve men. The sameinterviewee felt that problems with accesshad to do with ownership – the computersat the school were ‘owned’ by the school,and the telecentre, although communityowned, was a source of income.

A telecentre employee stated, inanswer to whether more women wereaccessing telecentre services: “Thechanges are there, even though somepeople could not afford it. Before and afterthe training, there have been changes.”The same employee said that thetelecentre has no activities to specificallyencourage women to access computersat the telecentre.

Access at the high school, where thetraining took place, is now non-existent.Although Women’sNet had obtained anagreement with the school for access fortrainees, internal issues have preventedthis access. Therefore the sustainabilityand long-term benefit of the project hasbeen compromised.

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THE MULTI-PURPOSE COMMUNITYTELECENTRE (MCT) is a project initiated in2000 by the Philippine Council for HealthResearch and Development (PCHRD), an

agency of the Philippine Department of Science andTechnology (DOST), in an effort to address universal access issues

in the Philippines and to provide rural communities access to information, resourcesand expertise through ICTs.

GEM AND THE COMMUNITY TELECENTRES: HOW

PARTICIPATORY EVALUATIONS REALLY WORK

Project:

MULTI-PURPOSECOMMUNITY TELECENTRES

Organization: PHILIPPINE COUNCIL FOR HEALTH

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Country: PHILIPPINES

Project Background

The Multi-Purpose CommunityTelecentre (MCT) brought seven perso-nal computers and internet access toremote areas in the Philippines. There arecurrently four pilot sites in Lanao del Norteand Agusan for the MCT project:Malingao, Taguitic, Jaliobong, andMaginda. The facilities were handed overto the local government units (LGU) in thecommunities. Both MCTs are being runby a group of volunteers from thebarangays. Volunteers were trained inbasic computer use, maintenance andsupport.

One of the valuable lessons from thefirst stages of project implementation isthe importance of community organisingin ensuring that the MCTs are utilised.Initial efforts hardly succeeded inencouraging community members to usethe facilities provided because they didnot see the need and value of the MCTs.After an initial evaluation, PCHRDrealised the oversight and corrected itthrough the help of e-DevelopmentInitiatives (eDI), a non-governmental

organisation that aims to promote the useof ICTs in rural areas through communityorganising efforts. eDI has been workingin Malingao and Taguitic for severalmonths, organising the various sectors inthe community around the MCTs andfacilitating community participation in theproject. As a result, in June 2003, theMCTs in Malingao and Taguitic wereturned over to independent local bodiesmade up of the different sectors in thecommunities. The turnover signified thatthe communities truly and finally ownedthe MCTs, and that the MCTs were to beshaped according to the needs of thecommunities.

GEM Evaluation on the MCTs

Since the Asia GEM Workshop held inManila in September 2002, PCHRD hasbeen involved in implementing a genderevaluation of the use of the MCTs inMalingao and Taguitic. Apart fromgathering gender-disaggregated data onMCT use, the evaluation aimed to lookinto the particular ICT and informationneeds of the communities for furtherproject planning and implementation. It

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also wanted to test evaluationmethodologies and a framework that canbe applied to the two other project sitesin Agusan.

The MCT evaluation employed acombination of traditional quantitative andcreative qualitative methodologies. Oncethe MCT GEM evaluation plans were inplace, PCHRD began monitoring theMCT logbooks and made sure that thedata gathered were sex-disaggregated.Members of the GEM Team visited theMCTs on 23-24 June 2003. During thevisit, the members of the GEM Team wereable to hold a brief focus group discussion(FGD), as well as informal interviews, withmembers of the communities on how theyhave been using the MCTs. eDI also heldvarious workshops and FGDs with the twocommunities throughout the evaluationprocess, among which were gendersensitivity workshops, health workshopsfor the women, and workshops to gatherinformation on the communities’information needs.

PCHRD and eDI gathered stories fromcommunity members and MCTvolunteers about how their lives arechanging as a result of the MCTs. Thesestories were gathered through one-on-one interviews, FGDs and journals thatall MCT volunteers were required to keep.

STORYTELLING AS A METHODOLOGY

During the final workshop of the MCTevaluation, the participants said thestorytelling process allowed them to sharetheir thoughts and experiences in theirown language at their own pace. One ofthe volunteers also admitted that keepingthe journal was initially only somethingthat they were required to do as part of

their tasks as volunteers. Eventually,keeping the journal became a good wayfor him (and the other volunteers) toreflect on their work and documentchanges because of their participation inthe MCTs.

The communities also discussed howstorytelling as a methodology was usefulto them:

• for monitoring, both the volunteersand the telecentre

• for determining what specificaction(s) to take

• to serve as basis for planning• to provide input in decision making• to express their feelings• to learn from oneself and other

volunteers• to develop writing skills• to serve as a record of events and

project history (milestones)• to learn the stories behind user

statistics• to serve as a reflection of people

who work at the telecentre, i.e., theirbeliefs, culture, values, perspectives, anddynamics

• to reflect/record changes incommunity participation and governance

• to look into gender/family relationsin the community

• to conceptualise social and powerstructure/relations within the community

PARTICIPATORY DATA ANALYSIS

The MCT evaluation includedcommunity members in the process. Itwas designed not only to allow thecommunity members to participate in theevaluation as subjects and respondents.In the final workshop held for the GEM

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testing, community representatives wereinvited to help in analysing the data andinformation gathered about MCT usage.What became apparent during theworkshop was the practical value ofensuring the widest possible participatoryevaluation process: that without theparticipation of the community members,the analysis of the information might havebeen incomplete, at the least, or false, atthe most.

The importance of a participatoryapproach is that it ensures that allperspectives (the project implementers,the community organisers, the communitymembers) are canvassed and thatcommunity members will own theevaluation of the MCT, too. The feedbackfrom the community members at the endof the workshop showed that they werehappy to understand the evaluationprocess and they were sure that theevaluation results would help them makefurther plans for the MCTs.

Overall, the MCT evaluation processis a good model that other similarinitiatives could benefit from.

WRITTEN BY EDILBERTO LIMARE, EDI

Letty Tano, 56, is a member of theBoard of Trustees of the Multi-Purpose Community Telecentre.

Along with her husband, she tills a four-hectare farm planted to banana andcoconut. Farming is the only means of li-ving she knows because she only finishedgrade school.

Letty is a busy and hardworking woman.She has gone to big cities like Manila butprefers the wide open space that countrylife offers. She does household chores assoon as she arrives home. She has agarden where she spends her leisurehours. She seldom goes out to socialize,except when she goes to trainings orseminars.

People recognize her capabilities in hercommunity and she was recommended asone of the members of the MCT Board ofTrustees. Perhaps that is because of herreputation as a strong-willed woman. Shealso has a strong drive for knowledge. Sheattended seminars, lectures, training andnon-formal education classes or anythingthat could somehow augment herknowledge or skills. She even begged theBarangay Captain to be included in a one-year educational program to determineone’s equivalence in the educational ladder.She was refused due to advanced age. Buteducation is her top motivation, saying thatshe has worked hard and invested muchfor the education of her children.

She looks at her involvement in the MCTas a new opportunity for learning. Shebecame even busier with her involvement

A GEM Story from the MCT

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with the MCT, but her husbandunderstands. He does her chores and seesto it that food is ready when Letty arrivesfrom her meetings. Sometimes when shefeels too tired to attend meetings after aday in the farm, her husband would tell herthat she better quit if she didn’t want to go.

It was a long struggle for Lettyto get her husband to support her.Her husband used to be verydomineering and would not listento her, even forbidding her fromattending seminars. His attitudeonly changed when he attendeda seminar about basic awareness.From thereon they becameclassmates in similar occasionsand Letty began to have a sharein the decision-making. This ex-tended also to the children. Herhusband had realized how he treated herand the children, having been raised in abroken family with a father who was verystrict and domineering.

As member of the MCT Board ofTrustees, Letty is an exemplar ofpunctuality. She is invariably the first toarrive in the meeting place. She is seriousin her participation. She said that manymeetings she attended in the past wasteda lot of time. Agenda were not clearlydefined so, oftentimes the discussions wentnowhere. Now she expects clear output inevery meeting. She has become observantand talks only when she thinks it isnecessary. She has watched the eDI stafffacilitate meetings and is confident that shecan handle the task if entrusted with theresponsibility.

She shared to her daughter with prideher experience in the eHealth conferencein Opol, Misamis Oriental. She felt

empowered meeting with people holdingkey positions in the government. Sheunderstood the dynamics of the conferencebut confessed that she did not understandmuch of what the speakers were saying,except that the telecentre is a new conceptemploying ICT to provide rural communitiesequal access to information.

Letty is a good observer. Sherecalled the time whenanswering back to parents wasconstrued as disrespect.Today’s generation, sherealizes, does not cling to oldvalues. Instead, the family isgoverned on the concept ofdemocracy, with familymembers showing mutualrespect for one another anddifferences healed through dia-

logue. She resented the old system inwhich women, as she described it, wereviewed as “taman ra sa lampin” (good forthe nappies only), and the men were givenpriority in educational access. She alsodismissed the notion that responsibilityrests solely on the shoulders of men. Life,according to her, has become so difficultthat it has become necessary for wives tohelp their husbands.

When a telecentre staff member visitedher, she asked for help in her research onthe internet for better management of ba-nana diseases. While she is hopeful thatshe could get information in the internet,she still has to learn how to operate thecomputer for research. But she hopes thatthe telecentre will be able to reach out tothe youth, especially the out-of-schoolones, and empower them througheducation.

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Results of the MCT Evaluation

The evaluation focused mainly on howcommunity members are using andbenefiting from the MCTs. There was aconscious effort to gather sex-disaggregated data and to ensure thatdifferent community sectors wererepresented in data gathering. The useof the MCTs in Malingao and Taguitic isstill very basic. Most of the communitymembers are just learning how to use thecomputer and to surf the internet. TheMCTs are most useful to the students inthe communities for word-processing andresearch for their schoolwork. Otherfrequent users of the MCTs includemembers of the Board of Trustees andthe local government unit who mostlyavail of printing and word-processingservices.

“In March, more females visited theMCT, mostly students and teachers.According to Ms. Teresita Payumo,female students are more studiouscompared to male students. Also, Mr.Lagula said that most of the teacherswho visited the MCT are female, sinceteaching is traditionally considered ajob for women. Mr. Rasonabe addedthat in general, male users are notkeen on writing logbooks. Hence, theremight be more male users but theymay have failed to register in thelogbook. On the other hand, there weremore male users in May becausemany of them were MCT volunteers,who are mostly males.”

-from the Final Report of the MCTEvaluation

One of the primary beneficiaries of theMCTs are the young people whovolunteer for the MCTs. For them, thetelecentres provide extra income and anopportunity to learn new skills. The MCTsserve as an alternative venue for skillsdevelopment for out-of-school youth aswell as a more productive way ofspending their time. The volunteersreported an increase in their self-esteemand better employment opportunities.Majority of the users are female, many ofwhom are volunteers. Moreover, most ofthe males are busy in the farm.

The MCTs also proved beneficial at thecommunity level. One of the immediatebenefits of the MCT initiative is that itprovided an opportunity to rebuild andstrengthen various sectoral groups in thecommunity. Sectors such as farmers,fisher folk, senior citizens and womenhave participated in and supported theMCTs. Community organising in Malingaoand Taguitic has been centred on theMCTs ever since eDI took on the task ofensuring community participation in MCTimplementation. The communities alsohave other plans to make sure that theircommunity further benefits from the MCT.One of their top priorities is to promotethe use of and access to communitymembers. Through the evaluation, theorganisers and the community membershave realised the importance of providingservices for other community membersthat do not have obvious and immediateneeds. Aside from this, they have alsobegun exploring ways of gathering andproviding information that will be relevantto the community’s livelihood.

One of the needs the communities hadexpressed is for direct contact with buyers

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for their products. The communities seethe internet, through the MCTs, as ameans for them to do away withmiddlemen and go into direct selling oftheir goods (Malingao’s main produce isbananas and Taguitic’s is crabs). Theysaid that this would make them earnmore. They also want information on thecurrent market rates for their goods. Thecommunity sells their products throughmiddlemen and have no directinformation about market prices.

On the other hand, the women in thecommunity expressed the wish to havemore information on health issues.Already, the MCTs are working ondeveloping content and ICT-basedapplications on health, education,agriculture/fisheries/natural resources,and rural enterprise development, withthe help of the communities and projectpartners. MCT envisions providingtelehealth/e-health services, distanceeducation/e-learning tools, and onlinemarketing access to the ruralcommunities.

However, not all of the effects of theMCTs on the community are positive. Oneof the potentially negative effects of theMCTs in the communities is the creationof new hierarchies within thecommunities. This was apparent duringan interview with one of the communitymembers. “She contemplated thatpatrons would multiply rapidly if it wouldhave a separate building from thebarangay. She added that only prominentpeople in the community entered theTelecentre. Simple farmers, vendors,drivers would not feel at ease going insidethe barangay hall. Much less in an air-conditioned telecentre inside thebarangay hall with computers and all theair of technological sophistication alien to

the rural folks. Her friend complementedthe suggestion citing the experience ofher son who once tried to avail of thecomputer services but did not enter whenhe saw that there was a BarangayDevelopment Council meeting held in thehall. Tessie continued to say that she evenbelieved that many farmers do not knowabout the Telecentre because what theycan see is a barangay hall.” She furtheradded that, “Even inside the Telecentreitself, I heard that the most prominentvolunteers have the run of the place. Nowthe volunteers are heard quarrellingamong themselves.”

The evaluation helped in drawing outthese potentially problematic issues andas a result the MCT volunteers andorganisers have already discussed theseissues and have taken into considerationthe non-users’ needs in further planningfor the MCTs.

Beyond Malingao and Taguitic

As a result of the participatoryevaluation design for the MCT evaluation,Malingao and Taguitic have alreadycommitted to continuous and on-goingevaluation based on the plans madethrough the GEM Testing. The value ofthe evaluation process, and morespecifically, a gender evaluation process,has already been promoted and acceptedwithin those two communities. Right afterthe final workshop for the GEMevaluation, the communities held anothermeeting to discuss the sustainability ofthe MCTs and continued implementationof the GEM evaluation plans was includedin the agenda. The two other MCT sitesin Agusan are also set to implement the

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plans and methodologies that were usedin Taguitic and Malingao, as the originalplans for the GEM testing included fine-tuning the evaluation plans so that theother two MCT sites can use them.

However, there is also a need todeepen the gender and ICT issuescovered by the evaluation. At this stageof MCT implementation, the evaluationframework and plans are appropriate, butas the communities use the MCTs furtherand MCT services in the communitiesincrease and diversify, the evaluation planwill need to be assessed and furtherdeveloped. The value of the recentlyaccomplished MCT evaluation is that ithas already laid down the ground workfor further and deeper gender evaluationin the future that will draw out othergender and ICT issues and lessons.

The MCT initiative is not the only oneof its kind in the Philippines. There areother telecentre initiatives in various areasin the country. The Philippine InformationTechnology and E-Commerce Council(ITECC), the implementing agency of thegovernment’s IT plans, has developed a

national plan to establish Community E-Centres (CEC) in various provinces andlocalities in the country. The CEC isenvisioned as a one-stop shop for all ICTservices and facilities for differentcommunities, and all other governmenttelecentre initiatives will be under theumbrella of this programme. This is thePhilippine government’s way of bringingICT access to rural areas throughout thecountry.

In the light of such a programme, thelessons learnt from the MCT evaluationwill be very valuable. Already, somelessons, such as the need for communityparticipation and support for telecentreinitiatives to ensure its success, areimmediately useful. Another practicallesson is the value of gender evaluationsand ensuring that women and men in thecommunity will equally benefit from thetelecentre initiative. There is a need toshare the results and the lessons learntfrom the MCT GEM testing to the ITECC,and to promote the framework andmethodologies used in this evaluation. Ifthis is done, then the national programmewill have a better chance of success.

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MOTHERS FOR MOTHERS (M4M), formedin 1998, is a network of mothers from multi-ethnic communities and ages involved inwomen’s networking activities to promote the

concept of working from home. The networkbelieves that through ICT, women can earn an income without

having to leave their homes and sacrificing their responsibilities to their families.How ICTs can benefit women in this situation is clear enough: technology has been ableto provide women the “best of both worlds”, enjoying both a successful home life and acareer.

A STUDY ON HOW GENDER DYNAMICS AFFECT

TELEWORKERS' PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA

Project: A STUDY ON HOW GENDER DYNAMICS

AFFECT TELEWORKERS' PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA

Organization: MOTHERS FOR MOTHERS

Country: MALAYSIA

As a GEM Testing Partner, M4Mdrafted an evaluation plan called “A Studyon How

Gender Dynamics Affect Teleworkers’Performance in Malaysia”. The mainobjective of the evaluation was to explo-re how women’s family lives and homesituations affect teleworking and their jobperformance. More specifically, theevaluation aimed to answer the followingquestions:

• How ICTs and gender issues affecttelecommuting

• How (if at all) ICT can truly affectthe efficiency, and productivity of a

teleworker• How a teleworker can use ICT as a

tool to balance homelife with worklife, andstill be efficient and productive in her workperformance

• What are the conditions that enablewomen to be efficient teleworkers?

The results of the evaluation will beused to promote telecommuting to the

Malaysian government as well as toconvince corporations to considerteleworking and create a virtual officeenvironment for their employees. Thefindings of the evaluation are valuableespecially to organisations that have triedtelecommuting unsuccessfully. It is alsoimportant to mothers who have given uptheir successful careers due to childcareand household chores. The study will alsobe used as guide for M4M to launch anational campaign to promote teleworkingfor women as well as a basis for furtherproject development and fundraising.

Findings fromthe Interviews and FGDs

M4M’s evaluation team used acombination of methodologies includinghome visits, focus group discussions anda survey using by administering aquestionnaire. Initially, GEM’s regionalcoordinator spent two weeks in Kuala

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Lumpur and participated directly in thehome visits and focus group discussionswith members of the M4M Virtual Team(staff members, who all work from home)and E-homemakers members, a virtualnetwork of homemakers, homeworkersand teleworkers who choose parenthoodas their primary responsibility. Interviewsand home-visits were held with the M4MVirtual Team (VT) from 11-19 July 2003.The VT consists of six women and twomen. Two focused group discussions(FGD) were also held with the E-homemaker members and M4M part-timers on 12 July and 21 July 2003. Thefindings and conclusions discussed beloware based on the report filed by the GEMregional coordinator.

The objectives of the interviews andthe FGD are the following:

1. Identify the barriers faced by womenworking from home

2. Identify the ways in which workingfrom home has impacted on the women’slives and on their families

3. Observe the home office set-up andsituation of the virtual team members

4. Identify the characteristics and skillsneeded by a woman to be able to benefitfully from working from home

5. Identify how to address thechallenges and barriers faced by thewomen working from home

REASONS FOR GETTING INTO HOME-BASED WORK

All of the VT members haveexperience in working from an office.Some of the women gave up their jobswhen they had children to be full-timehomemakers for a few years and hadgotten into home-based work after their

children were grown up enough. Othermembers got into home-based work as aresult of being re-trenched from theirprevious office work. Most are marriedwith children while one was a singlemother. Some of them have beenhousewives for a long time before goinginto home-based work.

Many of the female VT members saidthey decided to join the workforce againnot because of financial need (as mostof their husbands were employed). It wasmore to do with being involved insomething else besides looking after theirfamily. Before they got married, all of themhad fulltime careers. The situation ofothers were:

• Two VT members work from homeas the main breadwinner in the family.

• Two of the female and one male VTmembers work from home to augment thefamily income. One has a full-time office-based job and works from home afteroffice hours on a time/work-share basiswith her spouse. The other two work fromhome full-time.

• One member said the reason whyshe got into home-based work wasbecause her clients kept on calling. Shewould have preferred to be a full-timemother and homemaker but then herclients depended on her so she had togo back to work.

BENEFITS OF TELEWORKING

All of the respondents agreed that thebiggest benefit of working from home isflexibility in terms of time management.The female respondents made it clearthat their first priority will always be theirfamilies and that most of them had lefttheir former careers to raise their children.They said that unlike office-based work,

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they can manage their own timeaccording to their tasks at home. Workingfrom home allows them to spend time withtheir families and work at the same time.It also allows them to spend more timewith their children and have more controlover their upbringing, ensuring that theirchildren are cared for and raised right.

Some of the women mentioned thatone of the benefits of working from home,as compared to being full-timehomemakers, is increased confidence.Some of it comes from having their ownincome and not having to rely on theirhusbands for their expenses. However,most of it comes from being involved insomething outside their husband andkids. They said that it is important forwomen to have interests beyond thehome and that it improves their overallrelationship with their husbands andchildren. Others also mentioned that theirICT skills have greatly improved becauseunlike in the office, they had to learn howto troubleshoot minor computer problemson their own.

One correspondent related how she isable to negotiate with her husband to starttaking on some of the household tasks.She said that prior to her home-basedbusiness, she was expected to doeverything at home with her husbandsaying that he was too tired from work tohelp out at home. Now, she has used thesame reason (being too tired becauseshe’s working) to get her husband to dosome of the tasks himself.

For another respondent, working fromhome was the “best of both worlds”,having more time to spend with theirchildren and being on hand for theirneeds, and being able to pursue a careerwithout sacrificing their homelife.

Other benefits cited include, not havingto deal with the traffic in Malaysia, whichsaves them time; not having to deal withoffice politics and not having to worryabout office wardrobe and “how you look”.

Factors thatAffect Home-based Work

PERCEPTION OF HOME-BASED WORK

One of the barriers the respondentsencountered in working from home is theperception of their families and peersabout home-based work. Home-basedwork is not considered a “real job” anddid not get support from their families andcommunities. One of the results of thisperception is that family members wouldoften disturb their work and assume thatsince they are at home, they are availablefor visit, to run errands and do thehousehold work.

For the male respondents, there wasan added pressure of not appearing tobe fulfilling the breadwinner role of thehusband. One of them mentioned thedifficulty of being a “modern husband” andthat Malaysian culture expects husbandsto work from the office as the sole (or atleast the primary) breadwinner in thefamily.

They also said that they experiencedthis during the first few months but theyhave found ways of letting their familiesand communities know that teleworkingis just as serious and as valid as office-based work by explaining to them whatthey do and how they work from home.As a result these distractions from familymembers are not as prevalent.

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SUPPORT FROM FAMILY MEMBERS

The respondents said that supportfrom family members was critical in thesuccess of working from home. Childrenand spouses need to understand thatwhen they’re working, they can’t bedistracted or bothered. Respondents withvery young children have madearrangements with other family members(their mothers, aunts, sisters) to take careof the children during their work hours.Most of the respondents have householdhelp, but they preferred their kids to belooked after by family members. Theyalso said that when starting to set up thehome office, support from familymembers is critical. For example, oneFGD respondent she has a hard timeworking from home because her husbandwon’t allow her to have a space to work.

On the whole however, mostrespondents claimed that they hadsupport from their spouses and thatsupport came in different ways. Othershad spouses who offered technical andwork-related support. Some said that theirhusbands took care of the children whenthey were working, especially duringweekends. Another female respondentrelated how she had become less criticalof how her husband contributes tohousehold tasks. She has since learnedto let go of her “way of doing things athome” and has allowed her husband todo some of the household work even ifthey don’t meet her “standards”.

LACK OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT

For those who use computers in theirhome-based work, respondentsexperienced difficulties from lack oftechnical support at home. When they

have technical problems, they either payfor repair or call on one of the VTmembers for help. Some call on theirhusbands or their children to provide thesupport they need. According to onerespondent, repair services areexpensive and home-based work is moreexpensive than office-based work wheresupport for equipment and the technicalsupport is available.

LABOUR POLICIES IN MALAYSIA

An issues raised by respondents is theneed for Malaysian labour laws torecognise working from home aslegitimate work, including similar benefitsand support given to government givento office-based workers for teleworkers.Women and men who work from home(mostly women because they areexpected to raise the children) do not getany insurance or benefits from their work.

One sector who may benefit fromworking from home are foreign womenliving in Malaysia. Current laws in thecountry do not allow for spouses offoreigners working in Malaysia to beemployed. Most of the time, the husbandswork while their wives take on home-based, informal work for employment. Ifhome-based work is to be formalised inMalaysia, as was suggested previously,it will affect the employment opportunitiesof foreign women in the country.

COST OF ICTS IN MALAYSIA

During the first FGD, the womenmentioned their interest in learning moreICT skills in order to improve theirteleworking opportunities. However, asidefrom a lack of affordable training forwomen who are interested in going into

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computer-based telework, there is alsothe issue of the cost of ICTs. They saidthat this is particularly an issue forhomemakers who are just starting out andhave no support from their families. Theycan’t afford computers and internetaccess so even if they do acquire the skillsnecessary, they still will not be able to takeon computer-related jobs from home.

MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Most of the respondents interviewedtalked about the need for bettermanagement of the VT. They said thatthere is very little opportunity formanagement to monitor and verify thework of the team and that management’s“mind-set” is crucial in ensuring thatteleworkers are able to do their tasksprofessionally. This work arrangementcalls for management to be very clear andfocused on what it expects from the staff.They also mentioned the importance oftransparency from the management interms of payment schemes, decision-making and performance evaluationcriteria.

Recommendations:Creating an EnablingEnvironment forHome-based Work

Given the results of the interviews andthe FGDs, the following arerecommendations towards ensuringthat the right environment for home-based work is in place, particularly forwomen:

INCREASE ICT ACCESS

As Malaysia positions itself as an ICThub in the region and ICT access is

developing in the country, affordable ICTtools and connections for people,particularly women, who are interested ingoing into home-based ICT work shouldbe ensured. Access is not so much aproblem in Kuala Lumpur and the satelliteareas, however, the costs are still toohigh. Currently, the telephone calls inMalaysia are metred, which does notencourage people to stay for long periodsof time, which is necessary for home-based ICT work. The alternative to dial-up access includes DSL and cableconnection but both are expensive.

A person going into home-based workwill require a PC, telephone, printer andinternet access at the minimum. Settingup a home office is not affordable foreveryone, and while the respondents saidthat it was a necessary investment, otherwomen may not have the means to makethat investment.

While the obvious solution is to lowerthe costs there are alternative solutionssuch as loan schemes for home-basedworkers, and affordable communityinternet access centres.

TRAINING AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Beyond ICT access, there should beaffordable ICT training for women who

want to take on home-based ICT work.Based on the interviews and FGDs,training should focus on the following:basic computer use, basic internettraining, troubleshooting, email writingskills, website development, softwareapplications. Affordable training onworking from home should also includethe following topics: time management,setting up home offices, non-ICT based

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work that can be done from home, andbasic financial management.

PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT

Management of home-based workersmust also be professional, but not totally

simulate office-based work. Alternativemanagement plans and schemes forhome-based workers should take intoaccount the multiple roles of women andmen working from home. Clearly,traditional office management systemswill not fit in well with teleworking.

Effective monitoring practices will helpin ensuring that teleworkers are doingtheir tasks and fulfilling their duties. Oneof the benefits of teleworking is timeflexibility that allows the workers to attendto their family roles and responsibilities.Instead of focusing on time use, home-based management schemes must bemore output-driven. This means that thereshould be clear tasks, deliverables anddeadlines for members of the staff.

Management schemes for home-based workers must also take full use ofavailable technologies to ensuretransparency and accountability. Forinstance, M4M’s Virtual Office relieslargely on email as a means ofcommunication and file-sharing. Otherways of file-sharing, such as a VT Intranetwhere all outputs (reports, fundingproposals, financial statements, etc.) areshared among the team, should bedeveloped.

CHANGES IN THENATIONAL LABOUR POLICIES

Current labour policies in Malaysiamust take teleworking into consideration.

This means that the government will haveto offer home-based workers the benefitsit gives office employees. Any newpolicies on home-based work will haveto ensure that the rights of workers areprotected from unfair labour practices andemployers.

Further Thoughts on theLong-term Effect ofTeleworking onWomen and Men’s Lives

Does teleworking truly challenge andchange existing gender roles andinequalities?

It is not easy to draw conclusions onand extrapolate the long-term effects ofteleworking on women’s lives and genderrelations in the family. At first glance,teleworking can be an ideal solution towomen’s multiple roles (as homemakersand as career women and incomeearners). Because of the rapiddevelopment of ICTs, specifically in theMalaysian context, there are moreopportunities for women and men to workfrom home and potentially decrease thetension of juggling both their familyresponsibilities and careers. The resultsof the interviews and the FGDs clearlyreflect this.

However, the long-term and larger-scale effects and implications ofteleworking for women should be studiedas well. Teleworking can be construed asthe fulcrum on which women can balan-ce both family and career and promotingit specifically for women is a picture ofcontradictions.

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On one hand, empowerment at somelevel is achieved, based on therespondents’ claims of increasedconfidence as a result of their work fromhome. Their work allows them to expandtheir interests and their lives, allowingthem to pursue careers without sacrificingtheir roles as mothers and homemakers.How (and if) this will affect theirrelationships with their husbands andchildren is something that should beexplored further.

As one interviewee puts it “Beinghome-based requires much morecourage and mental fortitude, the imagehas to be that of women who althoughembracing motherhood still strive toachieve their fullest potentials.Technology has paved much to make thisprocess a little easier and help createopportunities. It is important to viewhome-based work as WORK, not anALTERNATIVE. We are just soconditioned to office 9 to 5 = working, thatwe ourselves forget that doing anythingelse falls short of working.”

However, teleworking must bevalidated as real and professional work,in the same way that household workmust be recognized as real work. Therehave been several movements towardsrecognising women’s domestic work asunpaid labour for decades now. But priorto this, women’s domestic labour was in-visible and unpaid, with home-makersand housewives being stereotyped ashaving no valuable contribution toproductive work. Teleworking can benefitfrom arguments to recognize theeconomic and social value of housewivesand domestic work as a necessary andimportant role that women have playedthroughout history.

Promoting teleworking as a viablesolution for women and their multipleburdens should be done carefully.Women have fought long and hard to getout of their homes and into offices, toachieve equality with men in theworkplace, and to pursue careers andlives outside of home-making. Promotingteleworking specifically for women hasthe potential of challenging all thosegains.

Given that women in Asia continue tofulfil traditional gender roles, promotingteleworking for women should be donewith full recognition that it will not fullychallenge gender issues and concerns inrelation to work and family. Home-basedwork can clearly address practical genderneeds without necessarily challengingsocially (and internally) accepted roles ofwomen and men in the home. Home-based work can become a compromisefor women so they can continue to fulfilltheir roles as mothers and homemakers.The respondents in this evaluation gaveup their careers and accepted their rolein the family. They believed in theimportance of the mother’s role as themain person in-charge in the upbringingof the children.

But what of the males in the family?Does having a wife who works from homefurther excuse them from being moreinvolved in household work and familyroles?

What is interesting is that the two meninterviewed have said that they are takingon more household work and are moreactive in raising their children as a resultof working from home. Based on theseresults, it might be more logical to say that

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if teleworking is to challenge existinggender roles in the family, it might bebetter to promote it among men. To havethe men physically present in the homecan result in them being more involved inhousehold tasks and concerns therebychanging the division of labour in thefamily. In the Asian context, however,where extended families are still prevalentand household help is quite affordable,men working from home may notnecessarily have to attend to thehousehold work as a result of teleworking.They can easily leave household work toother (female) members of the family orto (female) household help. In this case,having men working from home will notbe challenging gender roles either.

Given that respondents have beenworking from home only for a few yearsand teleworking in Malaysia is in its earlystages, conclusive findings about howteleworking challenges traditional maleand female roles in the home is stillpremature. The long-term effects in terms

of gender relations within the family willnot be truly evident until further evaluationand monitoring is done. What isnecessary, however, is to make sure thatindicators and benchmarks in terms ofchanges in gender relations as a resultof teleworking are developed andevaluation of teleworking from a genderperspective is continuous.

For teleworking to help in achievinggender equality in the family, both womenand men must challenge gender rolesand stereotypes and start with thepremise of equality between husbandsand wives in all aspects of family life —indecision-making, in household work andin family responsibilities. If this is notembedded alongside the promotion ofteleworking, all teleworking for womencan do at best is to provide an opportunityfor women to balance their gender-basedroles and responsibilities better, and atworst, be used to justify women’s multipleburdens of having both a family andcareer life.

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the young generation because it becamedifficult to find a job with an engineeringdiploma, especially for women.

The number of girls enrolling in ICTsubjects in higher education today is nothigher than 25 years ago. In fact, it isdeclining, even though there is a quotasystem for girls—academic institutionsreserve 40% of places to femaleapplicants. The problem lies deeper thanjust the low interest of girls in technicaleducation; it has to do mainly with gender-biased socialization. Girls arediscouraged from technical subjectsbecause the traditional division of rolespredominates. It is quite difficult to changethe gender role set-up in a situation ofhigh unemployment and economic decli-ne. The potential of a literate population,high level of women’s education (asignificant number of them are intechnical courses) and the past regime’spolitical propaganda of emphasizing theequal role of women in the labour sphere,are not being fully utilised in achieving agender-fair and gender-balanced society.

Country Context

Before 1989, as a centrally plannedsocialist economy, Bulgaria was the mainsupplier of electronic and communicationequipment for the entire Soviet bloc.Production was supported by researchinstitutes and specialized technicalprograms at universities, which providedhuman resources and technology forplants that manufactured computers,computer parts and other IT devices. Inthis era of “glorious” development ofBulgarian ICTs within the Soviet bloc,women represented about 20% ofstudents in ICT-related subjects atuniversities and specialists in research orproduction.

After the fall of the “Iron Curtain” andthe transition from a centrally planned toa free market economy, Bulgaria lost itsspecialization in ICTs. The main institutescould no longer support production, firmsclosed down and thousands of electronicand communication engineers, both menand women, lost their jobs. ICTs as asubject of study lost its attractiveness to

THE BULGARIAN GENDER RESEARCHFOUNDATION’S (BGRF, founded in 1998) goalis to promote and facilitate the attainment ofa gender balanced society by disseminating

information and raising awareness about women’srights and gender issues in Bulgaria. The main focus of the

Foundation activities are eradication of violence against women, fighting for so-cial-economic rights of women during the transition, and empowerment of women forlarger political participation. The group consists of lawyers, university professors andwomen’s rights activists. This was BGRF’s first project with an ICT component.

USING GEM TO EVALUATE EFFECTIVENESS OF ICTS

FOR CAMPAIGNING AMONG YOUTH

Project: COMMUNICATION FOR ADVOCACY PLAN

Organization: BULGARIAN GENDER

RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Country: BULGARIA

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Nevertheless, computer courses havebeen introduced at secondary schools.Unfortunately, the content of thesecourses and the over-all curriculum is veryoften quite archaic, so that pupils arehardly motivated to learn, even those(usually boys) whose interest in ICTs isvery high outside school.

Project Background

In 2001, the Bulgarian GenderResearch Foundation (BGRF) decided toexplore the possibility of using ICTs topromote women’s human rights amongthe youth and implement the“Communication for Advocacy Plan”. Thefirst activity of the project was to developa web site in order to widely disseminateamong young people the work being donetowards eradication of violence againstwomen. The web site’s central elementwas a contest for the best poster andessay portraying the issue of violenceagainst women. The kids could submittheir own essay or poster and they couldalso vote on everyone else’s posters andessays displayed on the website. A user-friendly voting device was availabledirectly on the website. The website waspresented to children via their teachersat selected schools (age 13 - 18) in Sofia,the capital of Bulgaria, and a number ofkids found it themselves by browsing. Thefull results of the project can be found athttp://www.bgrf.org/.

This website targeted mainly boys, butalso had specific focus on girls. Theassumption was boys are more familiarwith the internet and have better accessto it at home, at school, and in internetclubs and could more easily develop theirconfidence in using ICTs within their peer

According to ITU’s WorldTelecommunication Development

Report 2002, Bulgaria is classified as alower middle income country. Its

population numbers 8.11 million andthe Bulgarian GDP is US$ 1,473 per

capita. Like other countries in transitionto a market economy, Bulgaria has amuch higher than expected level of

telecommunications development anddespite its declining GDP, has

managed to increase its teledensity.Networks in these countries were

largely constructed during an era inwhich the nominal GDP per capita was

much higher than at present.

There are 55.06 total telephonesubscribers per 100 inhabitants and

84,6% households have a telephone.In 2000, 92,3% phone line demandwas satisfied. The overall country

teledensity is 34,22% and in the capitalcity Sofia it is even higher at 56,40%.

Cellular telephony is developingrapidly. While in 1995 there were only

20,900 subscribers, in 2001 thenumber grew up to 155,000. The

cellular phone users count 19 per 100inhabitants and compose 34,7% oftotal telephone subscribers. As for

telephone fees, the subscription costsconstitute 0,9% of GDP per capita.

internet for 30 hours of use per monthcosts US$ 9,66. There are 26, 926internet hosts, 605,000 users, and

estimated 361,000 PCs, which is 4.43per 100 inhabitants. 51,9% of the

telecommunication staff are women(positions and work qualifications not

specified).

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groups. Given this assumption, theproject hoped to attract boys tounderstand the subject of violence. Bypresenting the theme via the internet andby using technical means like voting, theproject was supposed to motivate boysto participate, to get to know more aboutthe phenomenon of violence and todevelop boys’ understanding of ICTs asa potential tool for defending humanrights. In the case of girls, there was oneadditional aim—to motivate them to useICTs and to dispel the myth that ICTs areonly for male use by showing that internetwork can be done by women, for womenand on women’s topics. The overall aimfor both was to raise their interest on theissues of violence against women, usingthe internet as a tool to reach the youngergeneration.

Using Gem – Goalsof the Evaluation

The project was very successful andgot a lot of excellent feedback from thekids themselves, as well as from teachersand parents. There were winners chosenin both categories, essay and poster,through voting. Two posters were printedand used in the campaign of “16 Days ofActivism” against violence againstwomen.

The only problem that BGRF facedwhen trying to gauge the success of theproject objectively was that there was nodata to measure the real outreach of thewebsite among the teenagers and thepublic in general. Since there is no dataabout internet use by different social andage groups in Bulgaria, BGRF decidedto apply GEM on the project and evaluatethe outreach in a different way.

The first and foremost goal of the GEMevaluation was to assess theeffectiveness and possibility of usinga website for campaigning among theyouth (high school teenagers), and toevaluate the influence of the use of ICTson the participation of teenagers in theinitiatives of NGOs. The specific gendergoal of the evaluation was to get to knowhow this differs between girls and boys.To achieve this evaluation goal, it wasnecessary to obtain more informationabout how ICTs, specifically the internet,are used among this age group of youthattending schools in the capital Sofia.Therefore a questionnaire was seen asthe initial method of acquiring data aboutinternet use.

The evaluation also had other particu-lar goals (these were to be achieved byusing other methods like interviewingschool teachers and educators orreviewing the school curricula and genderaspects of the school system), such as:

• Evaluation of the web site – how itsexistence helped the 16 Days of ActivismCampaign; how its users evaluate itsdesign, contents and different technicaldevices, especially the voting; howdifferent people got to the website andwhat were their reasons; if the interactivefeature of the website (possibility to postopinions) increases the motivation toparticipate in the campaign; what is theeffectiveness of the web forum

• Evaluation of equality of boys andgirls in the access and use of ICTs – whatis the attitude of girls and boys towardsICTs and how is it constructed; what isthe level of school ICT education andwhat role does it play in creatingopportunities and in motivating girls andboys to explore ICTs

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and are taught as “informatics”. Thereforeall the respondents indicated that theyhad passed a training course in the useof computers. But school is the leastfrequent place where young people seemto be using computers. Only 6 boys andnone of the girls responded that they useICTs in school. Frequency of computeruse at home and in internet cafes/clubsis the same (80/80); however, mostly girlshave some sporadic access in friends’houses or elsewhere.

USE OF INTERNET

Place Boys GirlsAt home 37 43Internet cafes/clubs 59 21At school 6 0Elsewhere 5 16

It is interesting to note that the schoolis the place where the use of ICTs andspecifically the internet is less promoted.Among the teenagers, only 6 learned touse the internet in school (only 1 girlamong them). Most of the kids becamefamiliar with the internet in computer clubs(40%), 31% at home, 26% via friends andonly 3% in school. Those using the clubsare mainly boys, but girls tend also to visitthem. The conclusion—and the concernat the same time—is that what is taughtin schools in terms of computer use andinternet is very formal, basic and does notinterest students. Sometimes teenagersare more advanced in using ICTs thantheir teachers. Teachers in informatics aremainly middle-aged women andunfortunately they follow the maincurricula without trying to infuse moreengaging content in their courses.

Boys visit the internet clubs wherethey “chat”, play games, browse, look for

• The potential of such internet-basedprojects to increase gender balance inuse and perception of ICTs among theyoung generation.

The evaluation is still ongoing, but thefollowing report presents the initialfindings of the questionnaire surveyamong teenagers.

Evaluation Results

A questionnaire was prepared as theinitial method of acquiring data about howthe internet is being used by teenage girlsand boys.

Three hundred questionnaires weredistributed among teenagers in schoolswhere the project was earlier introduced.The total number of responses receivedwas only 190, because som e of thestudents who participated had alreadyfinished school. Among the respondents,109 were boys and 81 girls. This mayseem to be an indication of their interestand involvement in ICT. This, in fact, isnot the case as among the participants inthe program there was one technicalschool attended by 95% boys.

The main finding of this poll is that girlsare equally interested in ICTs as boys.Only 5% of the responses receivedindicated a compete disinterest in ICTsand these responses belonged to boys.On the other hand, there were more girlsthan boys who responded that ICTs arenot their priority (14 girls/6 boys). For allthe other respondents, ICTs aresomething very important.

In the regular secondary schools inBulgaria ICTs are included in the curricula

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specific information or simply socialize in“talking” about computers with friends.Girls use ICTs mainly if they or theirparents have a computer at home. Theymainly check their e-mail, or they look forinformation necessary for school, oreventually they surf the Net.

From all respondents only 10% (16boys and 2 girls) were more advanced—using the computers and the internet foruploading a web page for themselves orfor friends. It should be noted that thestudents who participated in the inquirywere aged 16-18. This is the uppersecondary level of the school, where theypractically choose their future studies andprofessional development.

FREQUENCY OF USE OF ICTS

Frequency Boys GirlsEvery day 39 202-3 times per week 43 382-3 times per month 22 10Rarely 10 12

ACTIVITY ON THE INTERNET

Activity Boys GirlsChat 40 11E-mail 35 37Looking for information 20 27Surfing 39 14Uploading web pages 16 2

Concerning the affordability ofservices, it is worth noting that cableinternet connection is still not accessiblefor everybody. It remains an expensiveservice accessible in some locations only.For those using the internet at home, themost common way is a dial-upconnection. The price of the connectionis reasonable, but the cost of phone im-pulses is extremely high and causes a

serious limitation to the spread of internetuse. On the other hand, access to internetclubs is quite cheap and affordable.

This basic questionnaire survey amongteenagers showed basic genderdifferences in perception and use ofinternet. The most affordable andpreferred place to access the internetwere internet clubs. At the same time,clubs are boys’ social places and theyspend their pocket money there. Boys areinterested in games, software, hardwareand web design as well while girls wouldrather stay at the home computer andcheck their e-mails or look for somespecific information needed in school.Since both girls and boys have interestsin modern technologies, we can assumethat girls would also explore it much moreif the environment was more open andinviting for them. If they receive moremotivating signals, perhaps in the formof women’s NGOs campaigns or womenrole models who use the internet inadvanced ways, girls would more interestbe more interested in ICTs.

Moving Forward

The survey showed that the internethas the potential to become an effectivetool to attract young people to think aboutsocial issues, such as violence againstwomen, and to participate in campaigns.The internet is not widely promoted inschools but the interest is there and youngpeople, especially boys, find other waysto access it and learn about it. The internetis probably a more effective tool to reachthe younger generation, because schoolkids are often more advanced than theirteachers and parents. However, tovalidate this assumption, data on its use

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among different age groups would benecessary.

In Bulgaria, like in most countries ofthe former Soviet bloc, women have beenpresent in the labour market for fourgenerations now. However, it wasimposed upon them by communist pro-paganda rather than introduced out of thedesire of the women themselves or as aresult of the leverage of women’smovement (like in most westerneconomies). Moreover, while they wereofficially declared equal to that of men andtheir labour commitment was full-time,they were still left to deal with domesticand family duties. Women have alsopenetrated all strata of economy andeducation fields. However, they haveremained the minority or even a rarity insome technical areas. It is likely that inmany cases where women are workingin technical spheres or using any sort oftechnology for their work, the continuityof their technical advancement in ICTshas been interrupted by political andeconomical changes after 1989.

In this regard, women had to face aset of obstacles in the ’90 when theeconomy started transforming. In theprocess of privatisation a lot of jobs werecancelled and professions were no longerneeded. The unemployment rate rosesharply and many women were rejectedin favor of male applicants when applyingfor jobs. Technology was not compatiblewith that used by developed economiesand extensive update has beennecessary in all strata of production.While all this was happening, the boomof ICTs started globally and new ways ofcommunication spread out with theinternet. Women simply could not keep

up with this fast changeover, especiallythose who had to work in low-skilled jobsnot suitable for their qualification andeducation, or who were left out of thelabour market to make a living in the greyeconomy or in domestic production. Buttaking into account their past workexperience, they certainly hold thepotential to counterbalance the gap.

Therefore, Bulgaria’s future in ICT haspotential, taking into account itsteledensity, the experience and skillsprevailing from the era of before ’89 andits progressive youth. As for the gendergap and the potential of girls to exploitICTs equally with boys, it is highlyrecommended that women’s NGOsacquire information and knowledge onICTs in order to improve their own work,reach the public and motivate girls to “getinto the game”. Many women’s NGOs stillfear technology and would rather use oldways of communication and productionof information.

Lastly, the survey implies arecommendation for schools. The“Communication for Advocacy Plan” itselfas well as its evaluation according to GEMshowed that schools need to becomemuch more proactive in delivering modernways of using ICTs for its students, whilenot using gender-biased methods inteaching as well as in the curriculumcontent. Young people need guidancethat would further develop their personalinterest and invention. That is probablynot happening while playing games in aninternet club or chatting with a friend fromhome. The school should furnish itsstudents with such knowledge and skillsthat can later be utilized in the job market.

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Project Background

In the last two decades, Croatia hasundergone big changes. As a result of thewar that raged from 1991–1995, 9.000people were killed and 28,000 wounded,260,000 housing units were destroyedand more than 300,000 people had toleave their homes. Furthermore, 40% ofCroatian industrial capacity had beenseverely impaired, with total damageestimated at 22 billion USD.

Because of substandard livingconditions and lack of employmentopportunities (in October 2003 18% of thetotal population were unemployed; 58%of unemployed persons are women),many communities were reduced topassivity. According to recent statistics,only 52% of the total number ofunemployed people actively seek jobs.(Source Croatian Bureau of Statistics)

With the objective of providingencouragement to those communitymembers who showed interest inproactively seeking employment, theCroatian NGO ZaMirNET with financialsupport from Mercy Corps developed atraining initiative focused on self-confidence building, strategic approachto labour market analysis, career planningand deconstruction of stereotyping anddiscriminatory practices in the labourmarket based on gender, ethnicity andage.

The Job Search Training is acomponent of the larger project entitled“Revitalisation of the War Affected Areasof Croatia Utilising ICT”. The trainingaimed at improving the potential foremployment of the unemployed, first-timejob seekers and people in careertransition with a special focus on the mostvulnerable groups of the population:youth, women and war veterans, in four

ZAMIRNET IS A NON-GOVERNMENTALorganisation that uses ICT to provide andcreate information relevant for developmentof the civil society in Croatia. ZaMirNET

decided to evaluate their Job Search TrainingProject, a component of the larger program named “Revitalisation

of the War-Affected Areas of Croatia Using ICT”. The project objective is toimprove employability in two post-war, economically deprived, communities in Croatia.Their evaluation aimed to monitor the impact of the course on the increase of skills,knowledge and self-confidence of the participants. Beyond that, they hoped to measureif and how women over 40 benefitted from the training. Since this a pilot project theyplan to integrate the lessons learned into the design and implementation of the trainingpackage, which then will be shared with other organisations.

ZAMIRN ET'S JOB SEARCH TRAINING EVALUATION

Project: JOB SEARCH TRAINING PROJECT

Organization: ZAMIRNET

Country: CROATIA

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post-war, severely economically deprivedmunicipalities in Croatia.

Socio-economic andDemographic Constraints

The small municipalities of Donji Lapacand Kistanje were consideredunderdeveloped even before the war.Inhabitants faced lack of employmentopportunities since most of the factorieshad been rendered inoperative. InKistanje, 90% of inhabitants areunemployed, with only 223 personsemployed out of 3,038 people. Althoughwomen compose the majority ofinhabitants (more than 51%), only 46 ofthem have permanent jobs. In Drnis, thesecond selected municipality, thesituation is a little bit better. Of theapproximately 8,800 inhabitants, 2,086are employed and 40% of these arewomen. Donji Srb and Donji Lapac, wherethe second Job Search Training was held,are in a worse situation, because of theirgeographic isolation and absolute lack ofnew job possibilities. In Kistanje, only 10%of the population have jobs, 30% ofemployed are women. (Source: Censusof Population, Households and Dwellings2001)

Most inhabitants of these municipalitiesare seasonal workers, or people workingin the informal and grey sector. Electricity,water and other supplies only reachvillages close to the main roads. Publictransport connections within these areasare poor. Many of the people are newsettlers.

Training Course Outline

Face-to-face training componentsprovide an opportunity for personal

empowerment and coaching (instrumen-tal for increasing motivation and self-confidence), as well as increasing theparticipants’ capability for independentstudy. Training components were usedin order to increase program cost-effectiveness, enable participants toadapt their study requirements to theirpersonal obligations, and familiarizeparticipants with IT, as only 20% of theCroatian population use the internet.(Source: Vecernji list – daily newspaper,Business World from October 15th, 2003)Based on the survey conducted by IPSAin 2000, the ratio of men and womenusing the internet is 60:40, 40% of usersare younger than 25, and only 2% areolder than 55 (Source: IPSA, March2000), which is seen as a key factor in asuccessful job search in contemporaryCroatia.

The training team included twotrainers, a female (age 31) and a male(age 33). The female trainer, MarinaSkrabalo, is an experienced trainer inpeace building, non-violentcommunication, and empoweringcommunity groups to take action. She isvery familiar with the feminist perspectiveand psychosocial support. She is also amember of the project evaluation team.

The male trainer is a psychologist withexperience in providing professionalorientation to workers at risk of losing theirjobs at the Croatian railways. He hasexperience in psychosocial work withyouth and refugees.

Participants

The first Job Search Training was heldfor municipalities of Drnis and Kistanje,and took place from May 22 to June 19,

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MEN WOMEN TOTAL

GENDER 6 12 18

EMPLOYMENT STATUSFirst-time job seekers 2 2Unemployed 3 8At risk of losing job/ career opportunities 1 2Subtotal: 6 12 18

AGEAge 18-27: 2 6Age 28-39: 3 3Age 40-50: 1 3Subtotal: 6 12 18

EDUCATIONPrimary school 0 0High school 4 9University 2 3Subtotal: 6 12 18

MEN WOMEN TOTAL

GENDER 6 24 30

EMPLOYMENT STATUSFirst-time job seekers 0 0Unemployed 4 19At risk of losing job/ career opportunities 2 5Subtotal: 6 24 30

AGEAge 18-27: 3 4Age 28-39: 0 11Age 40-50: 4 8Subtotal: 7 23 30

EDUCATIONPrimary school 0 0High school 6 16University 2 6Subtotal: 8 22 30

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2003. 17 participants, 6 men and 11women completed the course (5 womenparticipants were in the age group 18-27,3 in 28-39, and 3 over 40)

“One woman declined participationduring the course due to lack ofmotivation. She was in her early thirtiesand got married immediately after highschool. She entered the course with avery pessimistic attitude and actually gotstuck with her lack of work experience.During the workshop session that sheattended, other participants gave herclear and direct feedback that she mightbe more realistic and strategic if shewanted to get her career back on trackbut it seems that at that point she wasnot ready nor motivated to make a per-sonal investment in her careerdevelopment. An important role wasplayed by her relative economic safety,because she is financially supported byher husband.” - from the trainers report

The second Job Search Trainingstarted in Srb and Lapac in October 2003,totalling 30 participants. The evaluationof the second training was yet to becompleted before finalizing the casestudy.

Job Search Trainingand GEM Evaluation

Since the start of February, ZaMirNEThas used GEM to evaluate its Job SearchTraining program. The evaluation focusedon monitoring the impact of the courseon the increase of skills and knowledgeof the participants. Special attention wasgiven to their self-confidence andsensitivity-building as well as theeffectiveness of the content andmethodologies used. Personal, cultural

and social constraints that can playimportant roles in successful careerdevelopment (e.g., gender-related issues,such as lack of family support and burdenof housework and childcare faced bywomen) were also taken intoconsideration. The aim was to test thecourse on the ground and based on thefindings, integrate lessons learnedimmediately to the next Job SearchTraining course. The first course wasimplemented in late spring (May) and thelessons learned were integrated into thedesign and implementation of the nextcourses. Each of the courses deliveredwas evaluated, and additional data andlessons were collected. Based on theseevaluation findings ZaMirNET will developa final training package that can then beapplied by other organisations like theCroatian Railways Project for theProvision of the Croatian Railways’Redundant Employees.

A combination of traditionalmethodologies (such as questionnaires,list serve statistics, individual and groupinterviews, observations by trainers andlocal staff) and less common ones (suchas personal action plans, self-reportingby participants) for gathering quantitativeand qualitative data was used to draw outan increase in participants’ skills and self-confidence.

Because ZaMirNET aimed to measureparticipants’ behaviour change andincrease in self-confidence, theorganisation decided to evaluate theimpact of each course in several steps,which enabled them to track the changes:

· Participant’s pre-assessment withspecial focus on expected outputs

· Monitoring the impact of each of thefour training modules during the course

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based on the participant’s feedback andquality of their independent work asreported by trainers

· Participant’s post-assessment onemonth after the course

· Follow-up group interviews in threemonths upon completion of the course togather stories from participants focusingon how successfully the course helpedbuild their self-confidence and overcomepersonal, cultural and social constraints.All interviews were held in women-onlyand men-only groups.

Each participant was asked to prepa-re a personal career plan andprofessional development plan, includingskills and knowledge they need to learn.The original personal plan was thenrevised as part of the training. Threemonths after the completion of the course,the real progress in job search and careerplanning was tracked based on the per-sonal plan developed. The monitoring ofchanges in personal plans as well as con-crete steps taken by participants, in termsof self-initiative and strategic approach tojob search, career planning andprofessional development, gave the mostaccurate indicators on the impact andusefulness of the course.

Lessons Learned: Evaluationof the First and Second JobSearch Training Course in Mayand September 2003

· FOR ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS, THEWEB-BASED JOB SEARCH RESOURCESPRESENTED DURING THE COURSE WAS ANOVELTY

10% of participants had not used theinternet to search for vital information onloans, employment and business

opportunities before the course.ZaMirNET’s trainer recounts that “It wassurprising to find out that the local Bureauof Employment officer (the Bureau hasan excellent website that has beenawarded among the best in the country)had never searched the web before thecourse and that, by participating in thecourse, she is learning how to use webresources in her work, something that theBureau has not considered as part of theprofessional development of their localstaff in small isolated communities likeDonji Lapac.”

In those communities the traditionallymost important information channel aboutthe new jobs possibilities are relatives andfriends. Before the course, men markedthe internet as the second most commonway of finding information about availablejobs, while the women used to look forjobs through job agencies and institutionsor newspapers. After the course, theinternet became the most importantsource of information for all of theparticipants. Women participants, in par-ticular, whose mobility is constrained dueto their family obligations, found theinternet as a very convenient way ofsearching for new job possibilities andother related information. For example,an unemployed woman from Drnis saidthat thanks to the course, she discovereda completely new world of information.Another temporarily employed womanparticipant discovered a job opening onthe web and immediately applied and gotan interview. She is now waiting for theresults, stressing that even if she doesnot get the job, she is proud of herself forapplying.

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· Where Job Search Trainingshave been held, the use of ICTcomponents and the focus onthe improvement of ICT skillsduring the course helped opennew employment possibilities,secure participants temporaryjobs and increase the chance toearn an income for peopleliving in geographically andsocially isolated communities.

This was especially significant in Srband Lapac, where self-employment wasthe only available job opportunity,considering the low traffic infrastructure,high rate of new settlers and absolute lackof employment opportunities. Althoughthe ICT market is still not very developedand remote working or teleworking forhome-based people is not a very feasibleoption given that only few jobs areavailable for people with very goodtechnical skills, the internet was found asan important tool for self-employedpersons. Generally it was mainly womenwho decided for self-employment in theircareer plans. For most women, self-employment means greater time flexibilityand the chance to work close to wherethey lived, which would allow them tocombine their jobs with childcare andhousekeeping. ICTs would assist themto set up new business contacts outsidetheir locality, search for importantinformation (such as loans availability),support their professional development,and overcome their sense of geographicand social isolation.

A woman participant is currentlyplanning to start a new NGO that will base

its services on a solid database ofcontacts (NGOs, public institutions,education, training and loan programs),ICT access and strong communicationskills. Her plan is to act as a localinformation and advice centre focusingprimarily on women survivors of domesticviolence but also helping other citizensaccess vital information on return issues,human rights violations, employment andself-employment. ZaMirNET’s femaletrainer is helping her to develop a clearconcept for the centre and overcome herfear of public exposure and leadership.

In the post-assessment conducted amonth after the course, many participantsmentioned computer skills as crucial forfinding jobs and said this was one thingthey learned during the course.

But generally, it was mostly the maleparticipants who linked their futurecareers with new technology and theinternet.Although the women appreciatedthe internet as a practical tool in their newemployment, they preferred jobs wherethey could work closely with people, asin the social services, trade (shops) andadministrative work.

· Women need to overcome asense of social isolation,worries and barriers.

Significantly more women than menharboured a sense of social isolation anda fear of leadership and recognizingthemselves as persons who are able torun their own business and makedecisions about their future. During thetraining sessions, men were moreassertive and self-confident. They veryoften tended to dominate the group.

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There is also a difference in self-confidence among younger and olderpersons. The young participants of bothgenders were more self-confident.

Generally, women tended to be moreopen in discussing their fears of failure,exposure and leadership. During thegroup discussions, they often encouragedthemselves to review all of their numerouscompetencies, to look at everything theyhave done, but even then they haddifficulties in overcoming their doubts andfear of failure. As one of the participantsdescribed during the evaluation session,“I am raising two kids by cooking for theconstruction workers but now after I haveheard all of you that you see me as anentrepreneur, that you think I can run afamily farm with village tourism, I see thatI am really a survivor, ready to adapt tonew situations. But I still have a sense ofthis fear in me; will I be able to do it?”

The interactive, open, safe and non-judgemental learning environment,sharing of experience as well as criticalfeedback, and use of ICT tools played animportant role in overcoming thosefeelings and building up the self-confidence of women.

A middle-aged woman participant fromDrnis, applied to the Bureau ofEmployment after many years ofinactivity. She had been employed for tenyears in a company that went bankrupt.She was completely inexperienced in ICTwhen she started the course even thoughshe had a computer at home. She alsofelt isolated from other people andunprepared to enter the labour marketagain. Now she uses the internet regularlyto check job offers while taking care ofher family and home. “I discovered a

whole new world out there, and I can stillbe at home when my family needs me.”Even though it will be tough for her,considering the gap in her career over thepast decade, thanks to the course, shenow feels confident to apply for differentjobs. She also stresses that she is nowmuch more ready to participate in othereducation and training programs offeredto the unemployed.

A young woman, about to graduatefrom high school from Kistanje,emphasized in the follow-up meeting thatthe training course has had a significantimpact on her decision to continue herstudies: “Thanks to the course, I mademy decision based on market research,looking at what would be the comparativeadvantages of studying law, economicsor journalism. I made my decision to studylaw based on factual evidence and notjust my vague ideas. Since the course Inow use the internet regularly to collectand filter info. I feel much more confidentabout my plans now.”

· Middle-age womenparticipants feel less supportfrom their environment (family,household, friends, colleaguesetc.) in their efforts to find jobs.

The younger participants reported thatthey got much support from the familywhile middle-aged women and menobtained less support from their homeenvironment. But generally men obtainmore support from their families thanwomen. Among 18 participants of the firsttraining course, two women reportedproblems in their families related to theirabsence from the home during thecourse. In a post-assessment

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questionnaire, one of women describedit as situation where people around herwere self-centred, and they did not seemto want her to improve her life.

Recommendations

DO NOT PRESUME THE KNOWLEDGE OFICT SKILLS AS SELF-EVIDENT

Skill in ICTs should not be presumedas self-evident for participants in trainingswhere ICTs are used as one of thelearning tools. Ashort training in ICT skillsshould be offered at the beginning of thecourse to help the participants be fami-liar with applications. This training shouldbe based on careful peer examination ofparticipants’ interests, needs andcompetencies. Special attention shouldbe given to women (especially for womenover 40) because, as was observed bythe trainers, they need more support toovercome their fear of technology.

A COMBINATION OF FACE-TO-FACETRAINING AND INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION ISINSTRUMENTAL IN ENHANCING THEPARTICIPANTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE ANDICT SKILLS

Live training components can be highlyinteractive and provide opportunity forexchange of ideas among individuals invery different positions and with verydifferent experiences. It has a particularlypositive impact on women, who aregenerally less confident than men. Directcontact is also important for clarificationof technical aspects of training andincreasing the participants’ capacity forindependent online study. On the otherhand, “do-it-yourself” trainingcomponents increased the program’s

cost-effectiveness, enabled participantsto adapt their studying requirements totheir personal circumstances, and helpedthem to familiarize themselves with IT,seen as a crucial factor for successful jobsearch.

TRAINING GROUPS SHOULD BE DIVIDEDBY GENDER

Based on feedback from trainers whoreported that women need a “soft, warmand supportive” approach while men workwell when put into a “competitive”environment, plus the differences indynamics among women and men andthe tendency of men to dominate thegroup, organising Job Search Trainingin sex-separated groups would be moresuitable and comfortable for femaleparticipants. In that case, the trainingcurriculum should be adapted to includethe occasional cooperation/meeting ofwomen-only and men-only groups topractice communication skills togetherwith the aim of preparing participants forreal-life situations.

COURSE CONTENT SHOULD BE ADAPTEDTO THE SPECIFIC CONDITIONS ANDNEEDS OF PEOPLE LIVING IN THE POST-WAR REGIONS

It is very important to carefully map thespecial needs and limitations of thetraining participants taking gender as wellas living conditions and previous lifeexperiences into account. During thecourse, the trainers realized that theparticipants with refugee experience wereextremely insecure regarding educationand business contacts due to theirethnicity, geographic isolation and brokensocial networks. Because of that, the

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course curriculum had to be modified toadapt to the reality where people are lesseducated and are dealing with severalpsychological barriers. There is also needto integrate job search training contentwith more detailed information on self-employment, which is a highly relevantoption for the post-war regions. Becauseit is widely recognized that most of thoseworking in self-employment projectsbecome a part of the informal labourmarket, it is crucial to raise awarenessamong job search training participantsabout unsound workingconditions in the

informal sector such as low rates, longworking hours, bad working conditions,and lack of social protection and toprovide them with suggestions on howthey can protect themselves.

THE STAFF AND CONTENT NEED TO BEMORE GENDER-SENSITIVE

The whole project staff, as well as thestaff of the computer centres where thetraining takes place, need to go throughgender-sensitive training. The trainingcurriculum should include more women-relevant content and examples.

MODEMMUJER IS A NON-GOVERNMENTALORGANISATION whose mission is tocontribute to the empowerment of womenand organisations in the feministmovement, focusing on the use of

information and communication technologies from agender and social change perspective.

WOMEN'S INFORMATION FOR EMPOWERMENT

Project: MODEMMUJER INFORMATION

SERVICES IMPACT

Organization: MODEMMUJER

Country: MEXICO

One of the first women’s networks inthe region to use e-mail to disseminateinformation to work with their constituencywas Modemmujer. In 1992, BeatrizCavazos Siller, a co-founder ofModemmujer, started to use e-mail tosend information to the southern part ofMexico called Yucatan. Women’sorganisations in this region felt isolatedand had very little access to any kind ofinformation. E-mail was seen as a cheapmeans of communication in contrast tothe cost of telephone, calls, faxes andpost.

In 1995, a few weeks before the UnitedNations World Conference on Women

started, Modemmujer launched aninformation campaign with a small e-mailinfrastructure and some training sessionsto enable its members to work effectively.This initiative became a big success, notonly in Mexico, but also throughout theLatin American continent. Since then,Modemmujer has built a reputation foreffectively adapting electronic tools andintegrating this with other traditionalcommunications tools. Their work hasencouraged participation,intercommunication and linkage amongindividual women and women’sorganisations. Through its trainingactivities, Modemmujer has helped pre-pare women to effectively use ICT and to

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raise their awareness about theimportance of women’s ownership oftechnology. Its information anddocumentation services reach about2,300 subscribers in Mexico and the restof Latin America twice a week.

Always concerned with evaluation andimpact, the entire Modemmujer teamembraced the GEM evaluation as a newtool to measure the nebulous issue ofinternet impact. The GEM evaluationprocess was integrated into their dailywork. This case study examinesModemmujer’s evaluation process ingreater detail, linking defined indicatorsto evaluation results.

The Evaluation Process

The Modemmujer team decided toevaluate its work using the GEM tool,applying the full four elements of GEMduring this process. They started by mee-ting weekly to study the documents,discuss main concepts and ideas and theframework in which they would conductthe evaluation. During this period, a fluidinteraction took place with the GEM re-gional coordinator in order to set theevaluation plan. The team decided toevaluate three of their products: the “SpotInformativo” (information highlights) senttwice weekly to their broad subscriberbase announcing the latest informationand campaigns, and two products linkedto their electronic magazine “Elecciones”(“Choices”) for a specific community of50 users. A visit by the regionalcoordinator for a two-day workshop withthe team helped to establish theevaluation’s main objectives and discussthe meaning of evaluating with a genderperspective. The team was then able toestablish the specific gender objectives

and work on the evaluation questions,indicators and methodologies they woulduse for the evaluation. This first phase ofthe evaluation process took four months,from June to September 2002.

In October 2002, the team launched asurvey among subscribers to evaluate thethree products. They decided toencourage all subscribers to participateand sent invitations to all of them toanswer the questionnaire that was put inModemmujer’s web page. They also didin-depth interviews with key people in thewomen’s movement, women’s NGOs,academics and politicians in order to getto know more about the information anddocumentation service they were giving.All this work took four months, fromOctober 2002 to February 2003.

Analysis of results was another big taskfor the Modemmujer team. Given theamount of feedback and tackling every-day work at the same time, it took themalmost five months to accomplish this,plus two more months to write their report.Initial assessment confirmed that theyhad done a good job, as subscribers notonly appreciated the information they hadreceived during seven years, but alsoconsidered that they had beenempowered by Modemmujer ’sinformation and communications work.

SHARING SOME RESULTS

Modemmujer was able to buildindicators to measure the followingissues:

· contribution to their subscribers’empowerment

· sensitisation of subscribers ongender issues

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· empowerment of subscribers instrategic ICT use

As in every step of the evaluationprocess with Modemmujer, theseindicators were developed as a result ofdebate and consensus in the team, andattempted to delve into empowermentissues, going beyond simple qualitativeindicators.

Using GEM as an evaluation toolhelped Modemmujer to see how theirwork had contributed to strengthen theirsubscribers in their work, encouragingthem to use ICT tools with a strategicperspective in order to take initiatives andcontinue to in work in promoting women’srights.

Contribution tosubscriber’sempowerment

1. Informationencouraged activeparticipation2. Informationencouraged articulation ofactions for inclusion inpublic policies3. Information helped tostrengthen women’snetwork4. Informationempowered subscribers

1. Out of 241 responses, 141participated in signature campaigns,82 sent letters, 57 went todemonstrations

2. Out of 241 responses, 101said information is a tool to articulateactions

3. Out of 241 responses, 231said that Modemmujer helps tostrengthen women’s networks

4. Out of 241 responses, 218said they had been empowered bythe information service

1. Information andbulletin use widened ICTskills and knowledge

2. Type of new ICT skillsachieved

3. Information sharingusing ICT tools

Sensitisation ofsubscribers on genderissues

1. Information encouragedactions to challengediscrimination againstwomen

2. Information helped towiden subscribers’knowledge on gender issues

3. Type of women’s imagebuilt by MM information

1. 36.1% said they wereencouraged to take actionon the issue

2. 72% said they havewidened their knowledge ongender issues

3. 93.3% consider that MMreflects a women’s image associal actors, and decisionmakers

Empowerment ofsubscribers in strategicICT use

1. 130 found moreabout web pages andwomen’s ICT experiences;108 more about surfinginternet

2. Surfing internet: 108Re-sending info: 109e-mail: 87Gender policies and ICT: 64Participation in lists: 44

3. 109 share information,88 do it once a week

THESE ARE SOME OF THE RESULTS THEY OBTAINED:

ISSUE INDICATORS REPLIES

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Part 3Who is using GEM: Overview ofall GEM Testers

Asia

MOTHERS4MOTHERS [MALAYSIA]http://www.mom4mom.com

The Mothers for Mothers (M4M) network, formed in 1998, is a network of mothersfrom multi-ethnic communities and ages, involved in women-connecting-women activities,promoting the concept of working from home. For the GEM testing, M4M looked into thesituation of the M4M Virtual Team members (staff) and the M4M network members,aiming to probe into the barriers that women encounter in teleworking towards proposingrecommendations to the Malaysian governments on the pre-requisites for promotingworking from home on a national scale.

COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS (C2O) / WEB ORIGAMI KIT (WOK) [AUSTRALIA]http://www.c2o.org/

Community Communications (c2o) is anAustralian-based applications service providerthat targets local activist and civil society groups. One of the main services they provideis a web content management tool called Web Origami Kit (WOK), which allows forcollaborative web-based multimedia projects. In particular, c2o tested and implementedan evaluation plan based on GEM on a project called D3, a prototype interactive story-telling engine that runs through the Melbourne Central Business District, gathering imagesand stories. The Australian Centre is currently managing D3 for the Moving Images, withc2o providing creative and technical support for the project. c2o used GEM in projectevaluation, particularly looking into how gender, race and age affected the formal andinformal roles the various project team members played for the duration of thedevelopment of the project. They also used GEM to guide them in developing a user-assessment of the D3 project. c2o aims to use the tools that they have developed throughthe GEM testing in all their other software development project assessment as well as topropose a guide for other software developers in ensuring that gender, race and ageissues are taken into account in project development and implementation.

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CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S RESEARCH (CENWOR)[SRI LANKA]http://www.cenwor.lk/

The Centre for Women’s Research is one of the main women’s organisations in SriLanka promoting the use of ICTs for women’s networking. Through the GEM testing,they aim to assess their internet-based women’s network of researchers and activists,and to look into how the network members have benefited from the network and the useof ICTs. The main goal of their evaluation is to use the results for the expansion of theproject that will take into account how women and women’s groups in Sri Lanka canmaximise the use of ICTs.

INFOCON / DISTANCE EDUCATION PROJECT [MONGOLIA]http://www.infocon.mn/english/projects.htm

InfoCon is a private company that supports ICT for development initiatives in Mongolia.One of their main projects is the Distance Education Project (DEP) that aims to maketraining on various basic subjects (i.e., Math, English, Basic ICT courses, MongolianGrammar, and Gender Education courses) available to teachers and students in ruralcommunities in Mongolia. InfoCon developed web-based training modules that willenhance education programmes in rural Mongolia. For the GEM testing, Infocon lookedinto two levels of project implementation, the gender roles played by the DEP teammembers, and how women and men beneficiaries used the training modules. InfoConintends to use the results of the evaluation for further project planning.

PHILIPPINE COUNCIL FOR HEALTH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (PCHRD) /MULTI-PURPOSE COMMUNITY TELECENTRES [PHILIPPINES]

http://www.barangay-mct.org

The Multi-Purpose Community Telecentre (MCT) is a project initiated in 2000 by thePhilippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), an agency of thePhilippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST), in an effort to address uni-versal access issues in the Philippines and to provide rural communities access toinformation, resources and expertise through ICTs.

FOUNDATION FOR MEDIA ALTERNATIVES [PHILIPPINES]http://www.fma.ph/

Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) is applying GEM to develop an organisationalevaluation and monitoring system as part of its institutional building programme. FMA isa non-government organisation formed in 1986 seeks to enhance the popularisationand social marketing of development-oriented issues and campaigns through media-related interventions, social communication projects, and cultural work. FMA hasstreamlined its programs and services in both traditional and new media towards what itbelieves are strategic interventions in promoting the right to information and the right to

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communicate. FMA also has focused on democratising information and communicationstechnologies, aimed at empowering Philippine civil society through

the critical use of appropriate new media.

WOMEN’S ELECTRONIC NETWORK TRAINING WORKSHOPS [ASIA-PACIFIC]www.iwent.net

The Women’s Electronic Network Training workshop or WENT aims to build thecapacities of women in the field of information and communication technology andstrengthen women’s organisations and networks in Asia and the Pacific. WENT hastrained 135 women from 19 countries around this region. WENT’s participatory approachand focus on ICT training by women, for women has inspired similar training initiatives inother regions of the world including a global WENT training, national WENT-modelledworkshops in Korea, Philippines, Malaysia and India. The evaluation of WENT will focuson finding out is the training programme has fulfilled the ICT needs of women and theirorganisations in Asia and the Pacific and how WENT has been able to increase thecapacity of women information and communication providers to make decisions regardingthe use of ICT within their organisation.

Central and Eastern Europe

KARAT COALITION [CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE]http://www.karat.org/

KARAT is a regional coalition of organisations and individuals from 18 countries. TheCoalition works to ensure gender equality in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) andthe Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Karat Coalition evaluatedKarat NEWS - an electronic news bulletin distributed to the members and non-memberorganisations and individuals throughout CEE and CIS countries. The bulletin highlightsgender equality issues, both at the national and regional level. Karat sought to determineif their publication, initiated one year ago, meets reader needs. The evaluation focusseson key gender and ICT issues such as access to information and internet, the relationshipand impact of ICT use on women’s empowerment, as well as content and language.

ZAMIRNET [CROATIA]http://www.zamir.net/

ZaMirNET is a non-governmental organisation that uses ICT to provide and createinformation relevant for civil society development in Croatia. ZaMirNET decided to evaluatetheir Job Search Training Project, a component of the larger program named “Revitalisationof the War-Affected Areas of Croatia Using ICT”. The project objective is to improveemployability in two post-war, economically deprived, communities in Croatia. Theirevaluation aimed to monitor the impact of the course on the increase of skills, knowledgeand self-confidence of the participants. Beyond that they measure if and how specificallyolder women (over 40) benefit from the training. Since this a pilot project, ZaMirNET

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hopes to integrate lessons learned into the design and implementation of their trainingpackage, which will then be shared with other organisations.

INITIATIVE FIFTH WOMAN [SLOVAKIA]http://www.stopnasiliu.sk

The Initiative Fifth Women is a joint effort of seven Slovakian women’s organisationswith an active history in working against violence against women. The campaign FifthWoman was the first media campaign against violence against women carried out at anational level in Slovakia. Since the impact of the campaign was already evaluated,GEM was used to evaluate subordinate objectives: what type of ICTs (radio, TV, internet)are the most efficient tools in campaign’s against violence, including identifying limitationsand who controls the use of ICTs in the feminist organisations working against violenceagainst women.

WOMEN’S ISSUES INFORMATION CENTRE [LITHUANIA]http://www.lygus.lt

The Women’s Issues Information Centre (WIIC) is a focal point for women’s issues inLithuanian society, and acts as a catalyst around the most pressing problems facingwomen. Their work focuses on gender awareness, education and information provisionwithin the national context of Lithuanian society.

WIIC is evaluating its “Capacity Building of Lithuanian Women Through ICT andNetworking” project with GEM. This project is implemented by WIIC in Vilnius and theWomen Employment Information Centre of Kaunas. Aimed at women in rural areas, thisis an education campaign which offers seminars and training courses, creates andmaintains an electronic library containing information on Women’s issues, and establishedand updates a Women Information Portal in Lithuanian. The project supported the esta-blishment of 5 computer classes at five different local women’s NGOs, which are situatedin different regions of Lithuania.

The computer classes are run by: Women’s Activity Centre of Marijampole County,Alytus Women’s Crisis Centre,Anyksciai Women’s Club, Jurbarkas Women’s Employmentand Information Centre, Kretinga’s Women Information and Training Centre. Computerclasses started on 1st of June 2003. These courses for women are free of charge. As ofNovember 1, 2003, 485 women have been trained. Their internet portal (http://www.lygus.lt) for women was created and officially launched in October 2003. “Lygus”means “equal” in English.

SEF FOUNDATION (EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN)[ROMANIA]http://www.sef.ro/

Sanse Egale pentru Femei/Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation is alocal human rights organisation based in IASI, Romania that promotes equal opportunities

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for women and men, working for the protection and defense of women. Women Mayors’Link (WML) is an initiative of the Stability Pact Gender Task Force (SP GTF), a projectdeveloped in the 11 countries of the Stability Pact (SP) Region.

The SEF Foundation is exploring the impact of Women Mayors’ Link, a networkinginitiative to build leadership and skills among women mayors in Romania, at the localcommunity level as well as nationally in the Stability Pact Region and developed UNECEcountries. The initiative, in addition to facilitating cooperation and information flow, isgeared towards building social consensus and gender-balanced development at thecommunity level.

BULGARIAN GENDER RESEARCH FOUNDATION [BULGARIA]http://www.bgrf.org

The Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation is an independent non-governmentalorganisation that promotes social equality and women’s human rights in Bulgaria throughresearch, education and advocacy programs. BGRF has used GEM to evaluate theiradvocacy campaign around violence against women and issues of gender equality, whichwas aimed at young men and women to encourage their awareness and action in thearea.

Africa

WOMEN OF UGANDA NETWORK (WOUGNET) [UGANDA]http://www.wougnet.org

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisationestablished in May 2000 by several women organisations in Uganda to develop the useof information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to shareinformation and address issues collectively. WOUGNET’s emphasis is directed towardsemail and the web, and how these technologies can be integrated with the traditionalmeans of information exchange and dissemination for maximum outreach. WOUGNET’svision is to improve the living conditions of Ugandan women by enhancing their capacitiesand opportunities to exchange and share information, and to collaborate. WOUGNETused GEM to evaluate its website and mailing lists.

AFRICAN WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK (FEMNET)[AFRICA REGION]

http://www.femnet.or.ke

Based in Kenya, FEMNET is a network of NGO’s, community-based organisations,and national NGO networks which advocate for African women’s human rights. FEMNEThas played a key role in Beijing review in the Africa region. The ParticipatoryCommunication for Advocacy initiative aims to enable the participatory collection, analysisand dissemination of strategic information on African women’s development, equality

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and human rights through capacity building, to enhance advocacy efforts around gender.

FANTSUAM FOUNDATION [NIGERIA]http://www.fantsuam.com/

Fantsuam Foundation’s Bayanloco Community Learning Centre initiative is the focusof their GEM evaluation. The project aims to use ICT as an additional tool for povertyalleviation in rural communities in Nigeria, by promoting access to ICT facilities andrelevant skills for rural women. Community Learning Centres with a library, computeraccess and community radio, are being established in rural communities with no accessto telephone or electricity. Project components include training in computer literacy andmicro-finance. In exchange for getting a desktop, laptop, and satellite phone, communitiescommit to maintaining the CLC, investing in a car battery to power the computers, andkeeping up community databases.

WOMEN’SNET [SOUTH AFRICA]www.womensnet.org.za

Women’sNet is a networking support programme designed to enable and empowerSouth African women and girls to access the people, issues, resources and tools theyneed to advance gender equity through the use of Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICTs). Correspondingly, Women’sNet has progressively engaged in buil-ding skills among individual women and women’s organisations in the use of ICTs, whiledrawing on the knowledge and expertise of the organisations in developing the informationarchitecture for sites on human rights issues, and resources available to women in SouthAfrica.

The GEM evaluation process entailed questionnaires and interviews of trainees andtelecentre managers in rural telecentres, one year after an intensive training process.Through GEM, Women’sNet aims to build a more effective methodology for working withrural women around gender and ICT issues in South Africa.

AMARC AFRICA [AFRICA REGION]http://africa.amarc.org/english/index.htm

AMARCAfrica used GEM to evaluate their Women in Community Radio (WIN) initiative,exploring member ICT needs and expectations. WIN promotes women’s right tocommunicate as a basic human right expressed through community radio, and promotesthe use of ICTs for women in community radio. The project offers research and training,focusing on all women working in community radio in the region, as well as on mediawomen and media organisations. Results obtained from the GEM survey will guide futuretraining and priorities for WIN members.

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ISIS-WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL CROSS CULTURAL EXCHANGE (ISIS-WICCE)[UGANDA]

http://www.isis.or.ug/

Isis-WICCE relocated to Kampala, Uganda at the end of 1993 with an objective oftapping African women’s ideas, views and problems and sharing this information withwomen at the international level. Since the move to Kampala, Isis-WICCE started nationaland regional level programmes to facilitate the flow of information from Uganda to otherparts of Africa and the rest of the world, and to contribute towards the strengthening ofthe Uganda and African women’s movement. Isis-WICCE exists to promote Justice, andempowerment of women globally through documenting violations of women’s rights andfacilitating the exchange of information and skills, to strengthen women’s capacities,potential, and visibility.

Isis-WICCE is using GEM to evaluate its rural women’s information center project.The rural women’s information centers involve the sharing of a tape recorder with ruralwomen, to communicate with women from other villages and record life stories.

ZIMBABWE WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER AND NETWORK (ZWRCN) – ZIMBABWEhttp://www.zwrcn.org.zw/

ZWRCN’s internet cafe, offering preferential service to women and girls, is the focusof their GEM evaluation process. The internet cafe offers access and training and isopen to women, girls, and other members of the community. ZWRCN is examining othermodels of telecentres in Zimbabwe to compare the impact on girls and women, and seehow to improve their own services. Zimbabwe faces a difficult climate in terms of ICTpolicy, including recent legislation curtailing the right to access and disseminateinformation. ZWRCN struggles to create greater interest in gender and ICT issues, bothamong the general public and women’s organisations.

Latin America

MODEMMUJER [MÉXICO]www.Modemmujer.org

Modemmujer is a non-governmental organisation established in 1997. Their missionis to contribute to the empowerment of women and organisations in the feminist movement,focusing on the use of information and communication technologies from a gender andsocial change perspective.

Modemmujer’s tester team plans used GEM to review the gender perspective ofModemmujer’s dissemination activities, as well as the extent to which Modemmujer’swork contributes to women’s empowerment. GEM results have helped to reaffirmstrategies and develop new possibilities for improving their work.

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CHASQUINET AND COLINAS DEL NORTE [ECUADOR]

Chasquinet will use GEM to support planning and evaluation of a unique participatorycommunity telecentre initiative in Colinas del Norte, located in the mountains that surroundQuito, 3,100 meters high, and considered a “model community” by municipal authorities.GEM provides a framework for analysis of the community communication strategies,including internet access, a community newspaper produced with ICT, and the elementaryschool computer lab. Chasquinet is developing a specialized GEM for telecentres andwill put it in practice in Colinas del Norte.

POPULAR RADIO SCHOOLS FOUNDATION [ECUADOR]www.erpe.org.ec

The Popular Radio Schools Foundation has its headquarters in Riobamba, Ecuador.The Foundation started its work in the 60’s by the initiative of local leaders and Mons.Leonidas Proaño, the local Catholic bishop, who was a renowned human rights activistand who struggled for the rights of indigenous people in Ecuador. At present, theFoundation does its work in four areas: health, agro-ecology, education and radio. Threeradio stations function in Riobamba (one medium wave, one short wave and one FM)reaching 12 Equatorian provinces. Via satellite links they reach all of Latin America andthe Radio Netherland network. The broadcasting is done in Spanish and Quechua, anindigenous language spoken in the Andean Region. The radio’s main aim is to buildsolidarity, citizenship and strengthen social movements’ activities in the region. GEM isbeing used as a tool for gender sensitisation and gender evaluation in education and ICTprogrammes.

NEIGHBOURHOOD INFORMATION UNITS, ATI/COLNODO [COLOMBIA]www.uib.colnodo.apc.org

This project formed by three telecentres (Neighbourhood Information Units- NIU) inmarginal areas in Bogotá is using GEM to evaluate the work done so far and to developa proposal to achieve a gender impact in each of the NIUs. The evaluation refers totraining with a gender perspective, increasing women’s participation in the use of thetelecentres and in local development and women’s empowerment and ICTs.

The Association for Interdisciplinary Work (ATI, in Spanish) with the support of Colnodo,APC member in Colombia, works in these local telecentres with the aim of democratisingaccess to new communication technologies and involving the community in thedevelopment of tools and contents according to their information needs and interests.They also aim to strengthen the community’s capacity to reach local governments andexchange ideas and proposals about community development. According to thisprogramme, the local people should participate actively in their communications contentsin order to create “local information systems that are more human, open and ready to beused by everyone, women and men alike”.

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REDE MULHER DE EDUCACAO [BRAZIL]www.redemulher.org.br

This project is based on the need to rethink education in the context of moderntransformations, characterized by the advance of globalisation, including the use of newcommunication and information technologies. Women leaders and educators from RedeMulher, who are also multiplier agents, were trained in 1999 in the use of computers asa communication instrument for community projects, with emphasis in the use of theinternet. At present, Rede Mulher wants to evaluate the way these multiplier agents andleaders have been working during the past three years, using ICTs in their daily work,and the effects that these technologies have generated, including new notions of timeand space, new ways of thinking, feeling and acting.

In this project, GEM evaluates how ICTs and their use affect women leadership. It willalso be used to start a process that will help to review and learn about the connectionbetween communication and education for the training of women leadership.

WOMEN’S NETWORK, AMARC LAC [ECUADOR AND BOLIVIA]www.amarc.org/alc/servicios.htm

The AMARC LAC Women’s Programme has around 250 members in Latin Americaand the Caribbean and reaches several hundred community radio stations in the region.GEM was used to evaluate their news service “Ciberbrujas” (“Cyberwitches”), on women’sissues and information with a gender perspective, produced by RED-ADA, from Bolivia.This service ran as a weekly electronic news bulletin from 1997 to 2000 and GEM resultswill inform the re-launch of the service in 2004.

The GEM evaluation explores how the Ciberbrujas news service contributed to theproduction of information from a gender perspective in the radio stations that used it andif it helped to achieve gender equity in the journalistic teams. It also examines how ICTshave favoured the professional advancement of women producers using Ciberbrujasand if this news service has contributed to gender awareness in the radio teams.

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