Gender and Telecentres: What Have We Learned

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Gender and Telecentres: What Have We Learned

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Title: Gender and Telecentres: What Have We Learned


1
Gender and Telecentres What Have We Learned?
  • Eva M. Rathgeber
  • Joint Chair of Womens Studies
  • Université of Ottawa/Carleton University
  • Ottawa, Canada
  • March 2002

2
TELECENTRE BACKGROUND
  • TCs began in Sweden -1980s
  • Developing countries -1990s
  • Strong donor interest
  • potential to overcome North/South information
    chasms
  • allow South to participate more equitably in
    global economy
  • (open new market opportunities for business in
    the North)

3
Telecentres in the South
  • In Africa there are now thousands, ranging from
    single purpose teleshops to multipurpose TCs,
    offering a full range of services
  • But the emphasis has been on the provision of
    hardware and on solving the technical problems of
    connectivity
  • So like other technological innovations before
    them, TCs often were imposed w/out adequate
    attention to local needs, capacities and
    preferences

4
Telecentres in the South
  • Little concrete knowledge about the information
    needs and preferences of local communities
  • Little or no focus on content
  • The technology itself was seductive
  • Start-up costs are high a South African
    estimate suggests it costs US40,000

5
What about women?
  • Preliminary evidence suggests that telecentres in
    developing countries are not particularly
    effective in helping women to gain access to
    better economic, educational and other
    opportunities
  • Women use telecentres much less than men and when
    they do use them, it is usually for non-internet
    related purposes

6
Why?
  • TCs have been set up in the same way as earlier
    technology-based innovations, i.e. with the
    expectation that the hardware will be used
    equally and in the same way by everyone
  • But research has shown that boys and girls/ men
    and women do not approach technology in the same
    way nor with the same expectations

7
Machines for men
  • TECHNOLOGY IS NOT NEUTRAL!
  • Most often it is designed by men to meet their
    own needs and interests
  • It assumes love of tinkering and learning by
    trial and error
  • Most TCs have been set up in this model to meet
    the priorities and interests of male users
  • The onus is on the user to come in and try the
    equipment and to find out for himself what it can
    do

8
Why are we seeing a difference between male and
female users?
  • Telecentres are set up on a fee-charging basis
    with mostly male technical management and support
  • It is assumed that users have at least a little
    disposable income and that they themselves decide
    how it should be spent
  • It is assumed that users will feel comfortable in
    a one-on-one technical assistance situation with
    a man
  • Premises are usually cramped and there is little
    privacy (and no childcare facilities)

9
differences
  • The TCs assume that users understand that
    information can be a valuable tool to help them
    solve their problems
  • It is assumed that users are literate and able to
    communicate in a metropolitan language
  • It is assumed that users will feel comfortable
    with computers and anonymous, gray-coloured
    equipment that works almost invisibly

10
Womens Situation
  • None of these assumptions necessarily hold true
    for women
  • Women usually have less access to financial
    resources, less time, and less education than men
  • Even the physical site of the TC can become
    problematic if it means that they have to travel
    far from home or to interact closely with men

11
Donor Involvement
  • IDRC,UNESCO, USAID, ITU and UNDP have been major
    actors in the establishment of telecentres but no
    one has successfully developed an effective
    methodology to address womens different
    priorities and constraints
  • However, IDRC, USAID, and UNDP have all supported
    numerous studies that focus specifically on
    womens different needs and perspectives

12
THEREFORE
  • The knowledge exists
  • WHY IS IT NOT USED?
  • As donors, we have not learned from our own
    experiences

13
What is the evidence for this view?
  • IDRC recently undertook an evaluation of
    telecentres in Uganda, South Africa, Senegal,
    Mozambique
  • In every country, it was found that telecentres
    are used more often by men than by women
  • - in Uganda women represented 29 of
    the users
  • - in Mozambique they were 35
  • - in Mali they were 23

14
Survey Results
  • In Uganda, the evaluation focused on three
    donor-funded telecentres and two private
    cybercafes
  • Two of the telecentres were in rural areas, one
    telecentre and two cybercafes were in
    urban/peri-urban area (Kampala)

15
Survey Results
  • Ugandan sample included 217 women and 288 men
    living in the area
  • Only 41 had ever used a computer
  • More than half were unaware of the telecentres or
    did not know where they were located
  • Biggest users were young people (71 were under
    50 and 27 under 16)

16
Survey Results
  • Similar findings in other countries
  • - in Mozambique only 15 of women in the sample
    had ever used a computer, compared with 21 of
    the women
  • - in every country, the biggest users were young
    people

17
Women users
  • Older, rural-based women were the least likely
    telecentre users
  • But women in urban/ peri-urban areas were more
    likely to use the telecentres than women in rural
    areas

18
Communication Priorities
  • Fax, internet and e-mail were the least used
    services in all cases (regarded to be for elite)
  • Photocopying, document printing, reading of books
    and newspapers, telephone and video/tv were most
    used
  • Multi-purpose telecentres had higher usage than
    single purpose ones
  • Communication mostly for social/family purposes,
    not for educational/business purposes

19
Reasons for lack of female presence
  • The Mali evaluation found that the cost of
    telecentre use was still too high for women
  • Efforts had been made to include women on the TC
    management committee, to provide training
    specifically for women, to display photos of
    women using computers on training materials, to
    offer fee discounts, etc
  • But women still are not coming so there must be
    other reasons

20
Provision of Content
  • The telecentres have tried to repackage some
    information to suit the local environment and to
    make it more user-friendly
  • Focus mostly has been on agriculture and health
  • But they have had problems with
  • Lack of funds for repackaging activities
  • Lack of requisite skills and expertise
  • No cost recovery system in place

21
Content IS the issue
  • Lack of local content was a major problem that
    was expressed by both men and women telecentre
    users

22
How to grapple with the content issue?
  • One approach is to work with a CD ROM modality
  • Allows for multi-media approach combining
    pictures, comics, speech and written text in a
    user-friendly (woman-friendly) manner
  • It does not require costly and unreliable
    internet connection

23
An example
  • IDRC funded a project with the New York-based
    IWTC to produce a CD ROM for rural Ugandan women
    entitled Rural Women in Africa Ideas for
    Earning Money.
  • It was prepared in English and in Luganda and can
    be used by illiterate or semi-literate people
  • Most importantly, it provides practical
    information that can be used immediately

24
Further Plans
  • We are now preparing a CD ROM for Berber women in
    Morocco who work in a cooperative producing
    argane oil
  • The argane tree is almost unique to Morocco and
    women have been producing oil for alimentary and
    cosmetic uses for centuries
  • But their harvesting and processing techniques
    are environmentally unfriendly and physically
    laborious

25
Women Breaking Argane Nuts
26
Berber women watching Uganda CDROM
27
Women learning to use the computer
28
CD ROM for Berber Women
  • We have started a participatory process with the
    Berber women, discussing the storyline for the CD
    ROM and getting constant feedback
  • The final product will focus on environmental
    degradation, on the properties of the argane
    tree, on the process of setting up a cooperative,
    and on ideas for the valorization of argane
    products
  • It will be produced in French, Arabic and Berber
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