[Reader-list] New Gender & ICT online forum from Digital Opportunity Channel

[Kanti Kumar]

Dear Friends,

We invite you to join the new discussion list on 'Gender & ICT:
Issues, Implications & Opportunities'. Digital Opportunity Channel
(www.digitalopportunity.org <http://www.digitalopportunity.org>) of
OneWorld South Asia is launching this email-based discussion forum
in partnership with i4d (information for development) 
(www.i4donline.net <http://www.i4donline.net>), an ICT initiative of
the Centre for Spatial Database Management & Solutions based in
India.

The economic and political marginalization of women, especially in
developing countries, is leading to their stunted growth. Gender
discrimination in the access to information is hampering sustainable
development. It has been substantiated that information and
communication technologies (ICT) have a major role to play in
bridging this gap. But the gender gap in the 'digital divide' itself
is now an increasing concern. 

How ICT can support gender empowerment is something that still needs
to be discussed and understood. If access to and use of the new
technologies is directly linked to social and economic development,
then it is essential to ensure that women in developing countries
understand the significance of these technologies and use them. If
not, lack of access to ICT becomes a significant factor in their
further marginalization from the economic, social and political
mainstream - both within their countries and in the world. Without
equal and full participation in ICT use, women will be left out from
participating in the global world of the 21st century.

Several conferences and summits held on gender, in particular, the
UN World Conferneces on Women, Beijing and Beijing +5, have
reaffirmed the need to focus on gender equality issues through ICT
use. We will move ahead with their aims and objectives in our
discussion, and attempt to provide concrete inputs to the upcoming
WSIS 2003.

If you want to join the ongoing debate of a digital gender divide,
this is the right place to bring in your perspectives and ideas.
This platform will attempt to increase awareness, raise concerns and
make our commitments to give a gender perspective to policies and
design of development tools. It will circulate information on
resources, practices and events on how women globally are being
empowered by ICT.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE?

We aim to:
- Help stakeholders in the fields of gender and ICT issues exchange
ideas and debate issues about the gender issues and implications of
ICT applications in development and the opportunities that they
offer. 
- Provide them with a platform to take their voices to policymakers
in order to influence national, regional and global strategies.

In real terms, this would mean that,
- It would be a time-bound, topics-based, objective-oriented
discussion channel.
- Each month we would select a topic and that topic would be
critically analyzed, would be featured with examples and best
practices, would be discussed with challenges and opportunities and
would be highlighted with policy implications, preconditions,
successes and failures.
- All the discussions will be streamlined in a summary report each
month and would be presented to concerned authorities and at various
events where agendas are being discussed in the context of gender
and ICT, so that these can influence national, regional and global
strategies.

WHAT WILL WE DISCUSS?

Among the questions the forum is expected to debate are:

1.	Does ICT facilitate gender equality or create a gender bias?
2.	What are the progress and challenges in transforming the gender
relations in ICT arena?
3.	How can the current uneven and unaffordable access to information
by women be improved through ICT?
4.	How can ICT enhance women's participation in socio-economic and
political development leading to a knowledge society?
5.	What is the impact of ICT and globalisation on women's work and
lives?
6.	How will ICT bring in employment and entrepreneurship
opportunities for women?
7.	What role can NGOs, civil society organizations and other
networks play to create equality for women and to disseminate
gender-related information?
8.	What are the steps to ensure gender concerns in national ICT
policies?

IS THERE ANY SCHEDLUE? 

The discussions will continue until December 2003 and will be broken
into time-bound thematic modules. To begin with, we will focus on
the following three themes:

- Access to ICTs and their use
- Gender implications of ICTs
- Capacity building & entrepreneurship

Future themes for discussion will be announced subsequently in the
forum.

HOW TO JOIN?

Joining this discussion list is very easy! Just visit the Join page
of this forum and submit your email address

OR,

send a blank email to: join-GenderICT at dgroups.org

On successful sign-up, you will receive an email asking you to
confirm your subscription. Please follow the instructions in the
email to activate your subscription. This is a security measure to
prevent you from being signed up by someone else.

Once you activate your subscription, you will start receiving mails
posted to the discussion list. You can fully participate in the list
through emails itself, or through this site.

WHERE TO CONTACT?

Moderator & contact details

This discussion list is being moderated by Anuradha Dhar, Research
Associate, i4d. If you face any subscription problem, please contact
Anuradha at dharanuradha at rediffmail.com or Kanti Kumar, Editor,
Digital Opportunity Channel at kanti.kumar at oneworld.net.

For more information about the forum, visit 
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/GenderICT/
<http://www.dgroups.org/groups/GenderICT/index.cfm> 

We look forward to your active participation in this discussion list.

Kanti Kumar, Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel
Anuradha Dhar, Research Associate, i4d 

ABOUT i4donline.net

I4d is a bi-monthly magazine published by India-based Centre for
Spatial Database Management & Solutions and available both in print
and on the Web (www.i4donline.net <http://www.i4donline.net>). The
i4d print magazine is one of its kind that utilizes the strength and
potential of print media to provide a much needed platform for
exchange of information, ideas, opinion, experiences both inside and
outside the ICT4D sector. 

ABOUT Digital Opportunity Channel

Digital Opportunity Channel is a joint endeavor of OneWorld
(www.oneworld.net <http://www.oneworld.net>) and the Digital Divide
Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org
<http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org>), dedicated to ICT for
development issues.