GWS - Women's Organising / Activities

The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society [1] (WSIS), hosted by the Swiss Government was held in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003. Delegates included members of government, civil society, and the private sector, brought together to discuss issues relating to the Information Society with the hope of achieving goals which acknowledge the needs of all stakeholders. The tangible output was to be a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action.

The welcome ceremony included a range of high level speakers, amongst others Kofi Anan who noted that 91% of the worlds ICTs are situated in 19% of the world's regions and questioned how we can ensure access to information, knowledge and know-how. He noted in his speech that not only is there a gender divide, but also an economic divide and a technological divide. He also expressed the need to explore South-South cooperation which is more respectful.

Critical issues raised at the summit included ICTs for development purposes, the production of information by, for and relevant to women, as well as issues pertaining to policy at national level regarding women's access to and use of ICTs. At a global level the desire is for strong wording in favour of women's ICT rights in the WSIS Declaration and Action Plan.

The first phase was preceded by regional preparatory meetings and online discussions to identify needs and priorities. During these preparatory meetings, details of the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action were thrashed out. Seven priorities were identified. These are the building of a global consensus, people-centred development, respect for diversity, peace and human development, an intersectional approach, a human rights framework and the support of local solutions.

Civil society lobbied for certain principles and priorities to be embedded throughout the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Action Plan and for these to have an underlying international human rights framework (Plou, 2003). There were also arguments voiced during the summit by speakers like Susanna George, executive director of Isis International - Manila who proposed that women's empowerment through ICTs should be viewed through a feminist lens or framework, cautioning that empowerment is diluted through gender mainstreaming practices which serve only to maintain the status quo (Familara, 2003).

Civil society came up with an alternative declaration out of frustration at the WSIS process called "Shaping information societies for human needs" which was shaped by social, political and economic justice concerns. In the WSIS PrepCom 3 meeting, gender activists engaged in a battle to draw attention to the disappearance of the gender paragraph in the declaration. The resulting t-shirt campaign was very successful in bringing the paragraph back into the document, albeit with less strong wording.

Lobbying around the wording of the document eventually resulted in consensus. The wording of the paragraph 12 of the declaration reads as follows:

The mission of the WSIS gender caucus which is comprised of female and male stakeholders from government, civil society, NGOs, the private sector and United Nations bodies, was to ensure that women have access to the social and economic empowerment through the use of ICTs and that they are able to input into all aspect of the Information Society.

The WSIS gender caucus recommendations include: gender equal participation in decision-making; increased access to traditional and new ICTs; ICTs which are designed to serve people; strengthening women and girls' capacity for ICT design, use and application and the inclusion of gender in all research and the evaluation of Information Society Development (WSIS Gender Caucus, 2003).

As participants of the Gender Caucus Panel on 10 December concluded, it's not the technology which is the problem, its lack of resources, discrimination and inequity that's the problem (Dokmanovic, 2003). Strong wording in policy documents assist in promoting gender equity and women's empowerment.

The ICT for Development Platform was a really impressive presence at the summit. It was organised and supported by the Global Knowledge Partnership and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation. The platform provided an opportunity for governments, international organisations, civil society, the private sector and academia to showcase their work and provide a space for debate and mutual learning and also to raise awareness among decision-makers about the potential of ICTs for development. Indeed it was an awesome and humbling experience to see what can be done at grassroots levels with the use of ICTs. It encompassed an exhibition area as well as a wide-ranging conference programme. Themes covered included innovating for equitable access; fostering policy and implementation; enhancing human capacity and empowerment; strengthening communications for development; promoting local content and knowledge and cross-cutting themes (which included women and gender). ICT for development needs women to have resources, receive training and be in decision-making positions.

One of the most vibrant exhibits was that of the African Media Village. This covered the spectrum of communications ranging from drums, telephones, radio, television, internet and satellite. One could also listen to recorded stories of people around African, speaking about the role of communication in their lives.

The Gender and ICT awards were the first ever awards of this nature organised by the GKP. Its aim was to honour in an international forum, the innovation and success of projects by women using ICTs for gender equality and/or women's empowerment.
Awards were made in the following categories:

Outstanding Multi-stakeholder Initiatives (Global/Regional) category:
The winner in this category was Women Mayors' Link (WML) in Romania whose projects aims to facilitate cooperation between women mayors and local governments and local women's networks to improve the quality of lives of women and children in local communities. <read more>

Outstanding Multi-stakeholder Initiatives (National/Local) category:
The winner in this category was ISIS Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (ISIS-WICCE). This project recorded the stories of women in situations of armed conflict in Uganda and 10 other African countries. <read more>

Community/Individual Capacity-Building Category:
This category was won by E-Seva (e-services) based in India. Rural kiosks set up to provide C2C (citizen-to-citizen) and C2G (citizen-to-government) services to rural people through the use of ICTs. <read more>

Community/Individual Advocacy/Networking:
This award went to a project called Nabanna also in India. It involves putting a web-based information system to strategic use for the benefit rural women of Baduria. <read more>

Another major African ICT presence, the Women of Uganda Network (Wougnet) was presented in the World Summit Award (WSA) Showcase Event in the WSA Best contents brochure and on the WSA website as one of the 40 WSA best content products. <read more>

The Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APCWNSP), celebrated its 10th anniversary at WSIS. Events included a panel on Open Source Software. Issues were raised around the need to promote open source options. In 2001 a Free Software Foundation was formed outside of the US. (The "Free" indicates freedom not price). With open source, free/freedom is not a feature. Free software is software as publication. Software is a cultural technique and we need to question who controls this technique. Control over access to software equates with control over access to knowledge. There is a claim that the social rather than technical aspects of technology should be pitched at women in order to sell it to them - a potentially contentious claim. At the same time open sources needs one to play and explore and women's approach to software tends to be more goal-orientated.

There is also a need, not only for open source software, but for open source servers as well. Apache is an example of an open source server - see http://www.apache.org for details. It entails a collaborative, consensus-based development process. There appears to be consensus around the need to promote open source options.

APCWNSP also showcased its Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for ICTs. Features of the Gender component tools of the GEM include: gender analysis; change; a link to action; critical reflection; learning by doing and participation. For more information on GEM, visit http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/all_about/.

Chong Sheau Ching was the recipient of the first ever Outstanding Went [2] award. Ching grew and developed what is now a portal for home-based women workers. The portal is http://www.ehomemakers.net.

There was also very interesting presentations at the World Forum on Communication Rights. Internet governance and security are also important policy issues as is the right to freedom of expression.

Frustrations around the summit included not having ready access to email via the internet. "Who would have thought you'd have problems accessing email at the world summit on the information society?", were some of the surprised responses I received. Well if you didn't have a laptop and wireless access (we were very generously given cards from Swisscom allowing us 2 hours free wireless access) you were definitely going to have a problem.

Other concerns at WSIS were around privacy and security of data obtained from participants to regulate access control and security at the event and the potential use of the data after the event.

There was also the disappearance of thousands of copies of the independent newspaper Terra Viva at the event by Tunisians wanting to quell criticism of their government. These papers were critical for the next WSIS phase to be held in Tunis.

The summit was an extremely well organised, slick event, with fairly tight security measures, bearing in mind that you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with the security guards of various world leaders and the like, not unexpected I suppose. All in all a visually and intellectually vibrant experience albeit too vast to experience in its entirety and hard choices having to be made about which events to attend.

The second WSIS phase will be held in Tunis in November 2005. It will focus on key development themes and will assess progress made and adopt any further action plans if necessary.

[2] The Women’s Electronic Network Training Workshop (WENT) trains women on basic website development tools as well as other online communications to promote networking amongst women’s organisations in the Asia-Pacific region.