primers in gender and democratic governance #4 …...acknowledgements 2 acronyms and definitions 3...

P R I M E R S I N G E N D E R A N D D E M O C R AT I C G O V E R N A N C E #4

Gender Responsive E-governance:Exploring the Transformative Potential

P R I M E R S I N G E N D E R A N D D E M O C R AT I C G O V E R N A N C E

4. G E N D E R R E S P O N S I V E E - G OV E R N A N C E :

E X P LO R I N G T H E T R A N S F O R M AT I V E P OT E N T I A L

A valuable opportunity exists to fulfil UNDP’s mandate

for gender equality and women’s empowerment through

e-governance programming. This primer highlights

some of the key gender-related issues regarding

e-governance in the context of UNDP’s Democratic

Governance work, presents entry points for continued

programming on gender and e-governance, and makes

recommendations for closing the existing gender gap

in specific e-governance interventions prepared by

UNDP practitioners and its partners.

Author: Nadia Hijab and Raúl Zambrano (prepared in 2007 under commission by UNDP)

Editor: Anita Palathingal

Design: Suazion (New York)

Production coordinator: Jessica Hughes, UNDP

Production: Automated Graphic Systems

The analysis and recommendations of this report do not necessarily reflect the views of theUnited Nations Development Programme, its Executive Board or the United NationsMember States. The report is an independent publication by UNDP and reflects the viewsof its authors.

© 2008 United Nations Development Programme

Acknowledgements 2

Acronyms and definitions 3

Introduction 5

1 Mandates for UNDP work on ICT, gender and e-governance 7

2 The track record on gender and e-governance in UNDP programming 9

3 Key gender issues for e-governance 12

Design of e-governance policies and strategies 13Delivery of basic e-services 15E-participation and networking 16Access to ICTs 17Access to information via ICTs 19

4 Entry for programming on gender and e-governance 21

Policy design and implementation 21E-service delivery 22E-participation and networking 23Access to ICTs 23Access to information via ICTs 23

Resources 25

Boxes and FiguresBox 1. Gender equality considerations within the legal framework 14Box 2. Connecting communities in Armenia and Bulgaria 15Box 3. Bridging gender gaps using ICT networks in the Arab Region 16Box 4. Access to ICTs for e-governance: People First Network in the Solomon Islands 18Box 5. The Sustainable Development Network of Honduras 20

Contents

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This primer was written by Nadia Hijab,Director, Development Analysis andCommunication Services, and RaúlZambrano, ICT and Governance PolicyAdvisor, Democratic Governance Group,United Nations Development Programme(UNDP). It is one of five primers beingproduced on different aspects of genderand democratic governance by the UNDPBureau for Development Policy (BDP).The aim is to support UNDP/BDPDemocratic Governance Group (DGG)staff and networks in promoting genderequality and women’s empowermentthrough their programme and policy advice.

This Governance and Gender project wassupported by funds from the GenderThematic Trust Fund, which were gener-ously made available to the UNDP/BDPGender Unit by the Government of theNetherlands. The project was managed byMarie-Ange Bunga, the DemocraticGovernance Group’s gender focal point, inclose collaboration with the Gender Unit.The production of the primer was overseenby Raúl Zambrano and Marie-Ange Bunga,with support from Research Associates

Renata Nowak-Garmer, Froniga Greig,Veronica Perera and Minerva Novero.

We would like to thank the following colleagues who served as the ReadersGroup: Shahid Akhtar, Pierre Dandjinou,Sonia Duran, Jessica Hughes, Yuri Misnikov,Roland Msiska, Martin Lavoie, Najat Rochdiand Luke Wasonga.

The other four primers in the Primers inGender and Democratic GovernanceSeries are:! Quick Entry Points to Women’s

Empowerment and Gender Equalityin Democratic Governance Clusters

! Gender Equality and JusticeProgramming: Equitable Access toJustice for Women

! Electoral Financing to AdvanceWomen’s Political Participation:A Guide for UNDP Support

! Corruption, Accountability,and Gender: Understanding the Connections

These resources are framed by the humanrights-based approach to development,which now informs the work of the UNdevelopment system (see the Quick EntryPoints primer for a discussion of theapproach and what it means for genderequality). UNDP intends for these primersto contribute to the empowerment ofwomen and the advancement of genderequality through democratic governance.We encourage colleagues to continue toshare their experiences and ideas [email protected], the electronicdiscussion network serving UNDP demo-cratic governance practitioners and [email protected], the cross-practice networkof ICT for development practitioners at UNDP.

Acknowledgements

Gender

The social attributes associated with beingmale and female and the relationshipsbetween women, men, girls and boys, aswell as the relations between women andthose between men. These attributes andrelationships are socially constructed andare learned through socialization. They arecontext- and time-specific and changeable.Gender is part of the broader socio-culturalcontext. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, povertylevel, ethnic group and age (UN/OSAGI,n.d.). The concept of gender also includesthe expectations about the characteristics,aptitudes and likely behaviours of bothwomen and men (femininity and mas-culinity). The concept of gender, appliedto social analysis, reveals how women’ssubordination (or men’s domination) issocially constructed. As such, the subordi-nation can be changed or ended. It is notbiologically predetermined nor is it fixedforever (UNESCO, 2003).

Gender relations

The social relationships between men,women, girls and boys, which shape howpower is distributed between women,men, girls and boys and how that powertranslates into different positions in society.Gender relations vary depending on othersocial relations, such as class, race, ethnicity,etc. They will greatly impact how an indi-vidual man or woman experiences processesand institutions such as trials and courts andhow they interact with other individualswithin those institutions.

Gender mainstreaming

“The process of assessing the implicationsfor women and men of any planned action,

including legislation, policies or programmes,in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategyfor making women’s as well as men’s concernsand experiences an integral dimension of thedesign, implementation, monitoring andevaluation of policies and programmes inall political, economic and societal spheresso that women and men benefit equallyand inequality is not perpetrated. Theultimate goal of this strategy is to achievegender equality” (UN/ECOSOC, 1997).

Gender equality

The equal rights, responsibilities andopportunities of women and men and girlsand boys. Equality does not mean thatwomen and men will become the same butthat women’s and men’s rights, responsi-bilities and opportunities will not dependon whether they are born male or female.Gender equality implies that the interests,

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Acronyms and Definitions

ACRONYMS

BDP Bureau for Development Policy

CEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of All Formsof Discrimination Against Women

CO Country Office

CSO Civil Society Organization

DGG Democratic Governance Group

GBV Gender-Based Violence

ICT Information and Communications Technology

ICTDAR Information Communication Technologies forDevelopment in the Arab Region

MDGs The Millennium Development Goals

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

PAR Public Administration Reform

PFnet People First Network, Solomon Islands

RDS Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras

SDNP Sustainable Development NetworkingProgramme

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

WSIS World Summit on Information Society

needs and priorities of both women and menare taken into consideration, recognizingthe diversity of different groups of womenand men (UN/ OSAGI n.d.).

Gender equityThe process of being fair to men and women.To ensure fairness, measures must often beput in place to compensate for the histori-cal and social disadvantages that preventwomen and men from operating on a levelplaying field. Equity is a means—equalityis the result (UNESCO, 2003).

Gender analysisThe collection and analysis of sex-disag-gregated information. Men and womenperform different roles in societies andwithin institutions, such as police forcesand courts. These differing roles lead towomen and men having different experi-ences, knowledge, talents and needs.Gender analysis explores these differencesso that policies, programmes and projectscan identify and meet the different needsof men and women. Gender analysis alsofacilitates the strategic use of the distinctknowledge and skills possessed by womenand men, which can greatly improve thelong-term sustainability of interventions(UNESCO, 2003).

Gender neutralityAn assumption that development inter-ventions will benefit men and womenequally, leading to a failure to analyse andplan for the social relationships between men

and women and how those relationshipswill impact programming.

Gender justice“The protection and promotion of civil,political, economic and social rights on thebasis of gender equality. It necessitatestaking a gender perspective on the rightsthemselves, as well as the assessment ofaccess and obstacles to the enjoyment ofthese rights for women, men, girls andboys and adopting gender-sensitive strate-gies for protecting and promoting them”(Spees, 2004). Much of the broadergender justice agenda falls outside thescope of UNDP Access to Justice pro-gramming. However, increasing women’saccess to justice, be it formal or informal,hinges on removing economic, politicaland social barriers to participation, asarticulated by the gender justice agenda(UNIFEM & ILAC, 2004).

Gender-based violence (GBV)A generic term used to describe any harmfulact perpetrated against an individual againsthis or her will based on his or her sociallydefined identity as male or female (UN,2005). The UN General Assembly definedviolence against women in the 1993Declaration on the Elimination of ViolenceAgainst Women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely toresult in, physical, sexual or psychologicalharm or suffering to women, includingthreats of such acts, coercion or arbitrarydeprivation of liberty, whether occurringin public or in private” (UN, 1993).


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Gender is defined as the social attributes associated with being male and female and the relationships between

women, men, girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men.

The concept of governance has evolved tocover not just public sector managementof efficient services and an enabling envi-ronment for development, but also thepromotion of human rights and funda-mental freedoms. This shift towards whatis now known as “democratic governance”is partly the result of globalization. Thelatter in turn has been spearheaded sincethe early 1990s by the rapid developmentand widespread use of new Informationand Communications Technology (ICT).

Developing countries have not been ableto harness the potential of ICTs at thesame speed as industrialized nations. Issuesof access to ICTs and investment in ICTinfrastructure, among others, have limitedthe uptake in such countries. As a result,many of the initial ICT for Developmentprogrammes and initiatives focused onaccess, complemented in many cases bysupport for local capacity building.

By the end of the millennium, nationalgovernments had started to complementtheir development agendas with strategiesand policies to foster the use of ICT withingovernments (national, state and local).Thisled to the emergence of e-governance as a keyand dedicated area of ICT for Development.

It is essential to emphasize, however, thatICTs are not gender-neutral—they are notaccessed, managed and controlled by allmen and women equally. As a result, menand women experience different benefits

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E-governance refers to the use of old and new technologies to enhance government

efficiency, transparency, accountability, and service and information delivery, as

well as fostering citizen participation in democratic processes via ICT networks and

networking. E-governance thus includes three core components: e-administration,

e-services and e-participation.

Introduction

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and effects of ICTs at all levels, a pointhighlighted by many studies on ICTs andgender since the early 1990s (Hakfin,2006; UNDP-APDIP, 2007).

A quick review of the existing literatureshows that this is a relatively new area thatremains to be explored in much moredetail. This primer builds on this extensivebody of work on ICTs and gender, butfocuses on key gender issues related to e-governance within the context of UNDP’swork on democratic governance. Thesekey issues are: (1) policy-making processes

for e-governance planning; (2) delivery ofbasic services and public information viaICTs; and (3) empowerment of stakeholders,particularly women, to use ICT networksto engage with governments over gover-nance processes.

The primer has four sections: Section 1 isan overview of the intersection betweenICT, gender and e-governance and UNDP’smandate in regards to this field; Section 2presents the work UNDP has done to datein integrating these areas; Section 3 buildson the previous sections and highlights keygender considerations for e-governanceprogramming, including major obstacles;and Section 4 presents entry points forcontinued programming on gender and e-governance, and makes recommendationsfor closing the existing gender gap in specifice-governance interventions.

All in all, this primer is designed to contribute to the broader discussion of genderand e-governance and facilitate gender-responsive e-governance programming byUNDP practitioners and their partners.


ICTs are not gender-neutral—they are not accessed,managed and controlled by all men and women equally.

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This narrow interpretation of ICT fordevelopment as pertaining to access toICTs later made it into the eighth MDG,which calls for making technologies avail-able to all.1

UNDP follows a two-pronged approach toworking on ICT for Development: (1) ICTfor the poor; and (2) e-governance. One ofthe key concerns in both of these areas isensuring that women and other marginal-

Mandates for UNDP Work on ICT, Gender and E-governance

1ICT for Development emerged as a new area of work in the mid-1990s at a time

when the potential of new technologies was starting to be better understood.

However, development programming in this field tended to focus on the provision

of access to ICTs rather than on deploying innovative technologies to help address

traditional development gaps and challenges.

ized groups have the access and capacity touse new technologies.

UNDP defines ICTs to include both newand “old” technologies, and does not limitit to the use of the Internet or personalcomputers. Many older technologies, such asthe telephone and radio, are more accessibleto the poorest sectors of the populationand are regaining importance largely dueto the gradual convergence of old and new ICTs.

UNDP’s e-governance strategy was adoptedafter a major review of its extensive partic-

ipatory experience with practitioners inthe countries and regions that it serves.This strategy aims to:

! Increase the efficiency, transparency andaccountability of national institutions;

! Enhance access to information andimprove the delivery of basic servicesto the overall population, in particularthe poor; and

! Enhance citizen participation, in particular the participation of the poor,women and youth, in democraticprocesses and policy-making.

At the Fourth World Conference on Womenin 1995, participants reflected on the issue ofICTs and gender, and the two topics wereaddressed in formal conference documentsand in non-governmental forums. Likewise,at the World Summit on InformationSociety (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005, womenexplicitly addressed the issue of the use ofICTs for governance and their involvementin such forms of governance. However,both of these events demonstrated theneed for more work, particularly in theareas of policy, capacity development andgovernance mechanisms, to help catalysesocial and political change in this field(Oxfam, 2005).2


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One of the key concerns of UNDP ICT for Development programmes is ensuring that women and

other marginalized groups have the access and capacity to use new technologies.

This was followed in 2005 by a more in-depth review of DGG advisory services, anintensive electronic discussion on the 1,300-member global governance electronic knowl-edge network, and a learning day ongender equality for DGG practitioners.

The review concluded that there has beenconsiderable progress in the area of main-

streaming gender equality considerationsinto governance programming. It foundthat DGG advisors were well able to assistthe efforts of UNDP Country Offices (CO)to increase the numbers of women in elec-tions, parliaments and the public service,as well as to disseminate lessons learnedand experiences garnered across the globe.DGG advisors were also increasingly able

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The Track Record on Gender and E-governance in UNDP Programming

2In 2004, UNDP’s Democratic Governance Group conducted a gender mapping of its

service lines, in what was to be the first of several steps to fully mainstream gender

in the practice of democratic governance.

to support efforts to challenge structuraldiscrimination seen in, for example,national and local resource allocationtrends and access to citizenship rights,including access to justice.

To expand UNDP’s contribution to e-governance programmes, an extensivemapping was completed at the end of2005 of all related programmes supportedby the organization and its partners.3 Theexercise uncovered 195 ongoing projects in100 countries and revealed that thedemand for support covers five key areasof UNDP’s e-governance programmes:(1) access to ICTs; (2) e-administration;(3) e-service delivery; (4) access to infor-mation via ICTs; and (5) e-participationvia ICT networks and networking. Theseareas are now part of DGG Cluster I:Fostering Inclusive Participation.

This review of projects also suggested thate-governance initiatives take two differentforms: (1) direct intervention, as stand-aloneprogrammes that have clear e-governanceand ICT-related outputs and outcomes; and(2) indirect intervention, as a component oflarger democratic governance programmes.Historically speaking, the former has ledthe way in introducing e-governance programming into CO portfolios. But oncethis has occurred, the indirect form seemsto take precedence, which is a good indicatoras to the degree that e-governance can bemainstreamed into more traditional areasof UNDP democratic governance work.

Even so, UNDP is still supporting projectsthat are, for example, almost exclusivelyfocused on e-administration. However, atthe same time, these e-administration projectsare seemingly disconnected from broader

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In many cases, data exists to keep track of who is using specific government services provided through e-governance solutions, but analysis is not carried out to track the gendered consumption patterns of such services. Understanding usage patterns would help reallocate resources based on demand.‘‘ ‘‘and/or related policies and programmes onPublic Administration Reform (PAR): alogical partnership. By the same token, manyPAR initiatives are lacking in e-governancecomponents that could explicitly improveboth public administration and servicedelivery. Initial results from new and ongoinge-governance mapping exercises indicatethat this is now changing and interactionsbetween the various service lines and clustersare increasing. In a handful of countries,using ICT as the entry point for broaderdemocratic governance programming hasbeen instrumental in getting such pro-grammes off the ground.

E-governance activities are not limited togovernment institutions alone. For example,parliaments and electoral processes (includingindependent electoral bodies) are not government entities per se but part of broaderdemocratic governance processes. The samecan be said about human rights commissionsand anti-corruption commissions, forexample, for which ICT can be used toensure transparent and accountableprocesses and to facilitate active stake-holder participation. It is thus not surpris-ing to find UNDP already supportingICT initiatives in these areas.

All in all, important challenges remain inintegrating gender equality considera-tions into e-governance. Perhaps themost critical challenge identified byUNDP is the absence of programmesgrounded in rigorous gender analysis. Inmany cases, data exists to keep track ofwho is using specific government servicesprovided through e-governance solutions,but analysis is not carried out to track the gendered consumption patterns ofsuch services. Understanding usagepatterns would help reallocate resourcesbased on demand.

Policy is another important area wheregender equality considerations have largelybeen ignored. Policy advice has tended to beeither gender-neutral or focused on women’sempowerment. The main assumption herehas been that ICTs are either neutral orthat they somehow address gender gaps ontheir own. This was the case regardless ofwhether women or men were providingpolicy advice across focus areas as diverseas aid coordination, regional planning anddecentralization, budget oversight, employ-ment or minority rights.

Women face real barriers to using ICT, andthe delivery of e-services (the availabilityof electronically-supplied public services,such as land records and civil documents)does not take into account these critical

gender gaps and women’s basic needs. Forexample, current e-governance programmesmight prioritize e-passports over theissuance of birth certificates, even thoughthey are required in many countries to enroll


Key Gender Issues for E-governance

3Understanding gender roles and responsibilities from the very start is important to

ensure that e-governance programmes and policies do not perpetuate existing

gender gaps in government services and institutions.

children in public schools. Therefore, thelatter type of an e-governance programmewill have a greater development impact forpoor women and girls than the former.

One concrete way to address these issues isto guarantee that e-governance initiativesactually “listen” to citizens’ needs, engagethem in identifying priorities and decisions,and make them part of both policy designand programme implementation. Thismeans assessing the different socio-economicand information needs of men and womenfrom the very outset, including the uniqueways in which men and women organize,mobilize and even network at local,national, and international levels.

In all,there are five key areas of e-governancein which gender equality can be fostered.They are: (1) design of e-governancepolicies and strategies; (2) delivery of basice-services; (3) e-participation of citizensand more specifically of marginalizedgroups, women and youth; (4) access toICTs; and (5) access to public informationvia ICTs. It should be noted that issues 1and 4 are not unique to e-governance butare much broader and relevant to ICT forDevelopment and public policy-making asa whole.

Design of e-governance policies and strategies

WOMEN AND GENDER EQUALITYISSUES ARE OFTEN EXCLUDED FROM E-GOVERNANCE POLICY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS

Current evidence indicates that mostnational e-governance strategies and policiesare designed on a “supply driven” basis,with little to no inputs from non-Statestakeholders. Furthermore, most of thesestrategies are focused to a large extent one-administration, with a handful focusingon e-services—let alone delivery of basicservices for the poor and marginalized.Not surprisingly then, most e-governancestrategies tend to be gender-neutral anddo not explicitly address equality issues orwomen’s concerns.

Reports from some regions confirm thatwomen are often not represented in com-mittees that devise policies and strategiesat either a local or national level, and whenthey do participate, they are outnumberedby men who dominate the agenda. Whatis more, gender equality issues are rarelyconsidered a priority. For example, a 2005report from Europe and the Commonwealthof Independent States found that nationalplans setting the “direction, speed and

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Reports from some regions confirm that women are often not represented in committees that devise policies and strategies at either a local or national level,and when they do participate, they are outnumbered by men who dominate the agenda.‘‘

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priority areas for the process of imple-menting ICTs into all parts of society” didnot include gender considerations.

Fortunately, there are some exampleswhich provide models for change. InAlbania, a local women’s organization wasasked to comment on the gender compo-nents of the draft National ICT Strategy,which included a large e-governance com-ponent. Gender experts were involved indifferent stages of the strategy’s develop-ment.

UNDP’s e-governance strategy has a pro-poor focus which aims at fostering thedelivery of basic e-services and informa-tion to the most vulnerable populations.This is complemented by an emphasis one-participation, particularly at the locallevel. It thus provides fertile ground tointroduce gender issues in the policyagenda and involve more women’snetworks in policy discussions anddecision-making processes to addressconcrete gender issues.

On a more specific level, the legal frame-work for effectively implementing e-gov-ernance policies and programmes hascritical implications for citizens’ relationsto governments, freedom of access toinformation, participation in governanceprocesses, and human rights (see Box 1).


BOX 1. GENDER EQUALITY CONSIDERATIONSWITHIN THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The legal framework required to promote e-governancepolicies and programmes is not gender-neutral. The questions below demonstrate some of the gendereddimensions of information and technology that policymakers should be considering when reviewing ordevising legal frameworks for e-governance.

! Restrictions on the free flow and exchange of information. What types of public information do menand women have access to? What other sources of infor-mation exist for different groups of men and women?

! Censoring the content of radio, television broadcastsand information available on the Internet. Whatcontent is censored? Is the content exploitative to menor women? Will censorship of the content impact ontheir access to health or other services?

! Regulation of the licensing of ICTs, subscriptionservices, and/or the types of technologies available(for example, satellite dish). How does this impacton formal or informal alternatives that men and/orwomen use to participate in policy and politicalprocesses? Will regulation affect men and women inthe same way?

! Regulations concerning privacy, security and confi-dentiality in access and use of ICTs for informationsharing. Will the regulations impact on the rights ofwomen or men to enjoy their civil and political freedom?

! Governments or political organizations promotingtheir agendas through ownership and control ofICTs. Will control over ICTs further impoverish womenor men, given their different starting points in terms ofaccess to resources?

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Gender analysis is a critical first step to ascertain how responsive government services are to the needs

and priorities of men and women in different social and economic strata.

Delivery of basic e-services

E-GOVERNANCE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR GOVERNMENTS TO DELIVERSERVICES EFFECTIVELY WHILEADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY

One of the key goals of any e-governancestrategy is to provide services on both amore cost-effective basis and on a largerscale. While governments initially focuson their own internal business processes,they eventually start to offer a wide varietyof services that citizens can access withrelative ease. The issue here is the way inwhich services are prioritized and subse-quently deployed.

Gender analysis is a critical first step toascertain how responsive governmentservices are to the needs and priorities ofmen and women in different social andeconomic strata. Such analysis shouldexamine budgets and resources allocatedalong gender lines to basic services. Forexample, women in a family will usuallyprioritize education and health servicesand have less interest in obtaining apassport online. The question then iswhether ICTs enhance their opportunityto access such services, removing mostentry barriers that currently exist.Collecting disaggregated data on womenand men’s different access to basic services,and the degree to which they benefit fromthese services, is critical in identifyingneeds and gaps in service delivery. Thisanalysis should then form the basis ofresource allocation so that services aredelivered where they are most needed andat a scale to meet this need.

There are examples of efforts to use ICTsto support gender equality and alleviatepoverty. In India, for example, UNDP is

supporting the government in pilot pro-grammes that integrate e-service delivery,local governance, rural livelihoods andwomen’s empowerment.4 These pilots aim to improve the speed, convenienceand efficiency of public service delivery, byenabling online access for poor women andmen to information, such as land recordsand various other government services.

An example from Armenia and Bulgariademonstrates UNDP’s capacity to workwith partners to foster e-service deliveryand start engaging local communities inthe identification of e-governance priori-ties (see Box 2).


BOX 2. CONNECTING COMMUNITIES IN ARMENIA AND BULGARIA

In Armenia,the UNDP CO helped the government establishICT access centres in the sub-regions of the country, placingthese in municipal buildings to give the community easyaccess. Project staff addressed different social and politicalconcerns that were raised—for example, they met withlocal authorities to explain that community access tomunicipal documents was not a threat.The project helpedto decentralize access to information, and therefore tosome powers and authority, from the central to the locallevel. However, the opportunity to expand access wasmissed. While data about community use of the centreswas collected, it was not analysed to monitor whetherpeople disadvantaged by gender, age, location, incomeand other factors were making use of the services. Anygender or other barriers to access could have beenaddressed through additional interventions if this infor-mation had been gathered.

In Bulgaria, UNDP supported the establishment ofInternet access points for citizens through tele-centres,universities, rural areas, and employment centres. Most ofthe multi-purpose community centres were located inremote or economically disadvantaged areas to improveservice delivery to the poor. Clients have included smallentrepreneurs, farmers, the unemployed, students,teachers,NGOs and ordinary citizens.Interventions were con-sciously aimed at empowering both women and men toensure equality of access and participation. Here, too,there is a need for more data, based on the findings ofgender analysis, on how such programmes specificallyempower women and men.5

E-participation and networking

ONE OF THE KEY AIMS OF E-GOVERNANCE IS TO PROMOTE THEPARTICIPATION OF MEN AND WOMENIN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES VIA BOTH ICT NETWORKS AND NETWORKING WITH GOVERNMENTS

Increasing the number of women and poorpeople in local governance so that they canvoice their priorities in terms of publicservice delivery is fundamental to achievingreal results for e-governance programmes.The ability of citizens and stakeholders to

influence policies and the allocation ofresources in accordance with their needs islikely to increase if they are better able tointeract with governments through thevarious interactive channels that ICTs, oldand new, now offer.

It is also important to understand howgendered roles may affect participation inlocal governance, such as shaping oppor-tunities for men and women to establishalternative or community-based ICT net-working systems that are built on existinghuman networks. This is an essentialpoint, as the tendency is usually to buildparallel ICT networks that end up com-peting with the former.

The prevailing social and political context isan important determinant of opportunitiesto network via ICTs. Political will is essentialto kick-start any e-participation process.But this is not just a top-down process.Bottom-up networking aimed at collectiveaction by the people can, for example,draw local governments’ attention tospecific issues raised by communities, par-ticularly during election campaigns.

Political stability may influence, forexample, whether people feel safe travellingto Internet cafes, community centres orother sites where ICTs are available. Evenin politically safe environments, an impor-tant consideration is men and women’sphysical safety and freedom of movementto locations where ICTs are available.Networking opportunities for women maybe enhanced, for example, when publicsecurity officials are trained to be gender-sensitive in maintaining law and order andfacilitating women’s access to services.Women may be constrained from usingpublic access centres if other users aredownloading offensive content.


BOX 3. BRIDGING GENDER GAPS USING ICT NETWORKS IN THE ARAB REGION

The Programme on Information Communication Techno-logies for Development in the Arab Region (ICTDAR)promotes the use of ICTs to increase governmentaccountability, lower costs of delivering services, supportbetter procurement, improve efficiency, and promotemore participatory democracy. The initiative includessupport to e-government services to help Arab Statesaddress major challenges they currently face in economicdevelopment, labour, and population (e-Government atArab Sharing Portal e-gov@ASP).

A dedicated service was established to support the rightsof women and children through access to information(ICTDAR - WRCATI). This aims to develop the capacity ofwomen to access knowledge through the use of ICT, tonetwork more effectively, and to access income-generatingopportunities. The initiative also aims to bring legal infor-mation in a full package to poor women through websitesand CDs, answering questions and providing informationabout family courts, for example, while taking intoaccount issues such as the low literacy levels of manywomen. In Yemen, for example, a local NGO working onwomen’s human rights and leadership training is usingthe resources provided by WRCATI. Given that women’sliteracy rates are among the lowest in the region,facilitatorsare on-hand to enable the women to access informationabout their rights to property, custody, and other areas.Women participating in this initiative are therebyprepared with the legal knowledge they need to be ableto voice their priorities to government on service deliveryrelated to these issues.

Other than socially determined genderroles and expectations, other factors maylikewise encourage or deter women andmen from public participation. Forinstance, the portrayal of men and womenin the media or the discrimination againstmembers of particular ethnic groups.

Access to ICTs

WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE LIMITED ACCESS TO ICTSAND MIGHT CONFRONT LOWERLEVELS OF CONNECTIVITY

Without the physical access to ICTnetworks and the capacity to make effec-tive use of them, citizens and communityorganizations cannot use ICTs tostrengthen their potential to engage inbroader democratic processes. UNDPprogrammes have supported connectivityand access by helping to establish multi-purpose community centres, investing innetworking technologies, and developingcapacity to use ICTs at different levels.

Gender differences affect the opportuni-ties and challenges in connectivity andaccess. For example, additional investmentin women’s literacy may be required toaddress literacy barriers that hinder theirbasic access to ICTs. Women may alsoneed more training in the use of softwareapplications. Inflexible working hours formen in the formal sector and the doubleburden of housework and wage-work forwomen may limit their access to ICTs. Inaddition, the majority of the poor will facetransportation costs and will be less likelythan others to invest in ICT access, unlessthe content is relevant to their situationand context.

Equal access by women and men to ICTsoutside the home, such as at Internet cafes

or other similar venues, may depend ontheir freedom of movement; men in manycommunities traditionally enjoy morefreedom. For women especially, the presenceof safe and welcoming community-basedlocations is often a major factor in deter-mining access. The presence of reputablecivil society and community organizationshas been found to contribute significantlyto improving access for women and othermarginalised groups.

The main issues to consider when settingup ICTs are infrastructure, types of ICTs,cost and capacity.

! Infrastructure: Poor or remote areasmay lack electricity to connect to ICTs,and television and radio signals maynot reach all people across a country.Connectivity and access may be deter-mined by how far people have to travel,


and this, in turn, depends on factorssuch as the quality and proximity ofroads and the availability of safe,reliable and affordable transportation.However, while infrastructure is a pre-requisite, it must not be the end goal ofa programme intervention. Rather, it is ameans to achieving other goals, such asbasic service delivery and networking.

! Types of ICTs: Within the home or community, the types of ICTs avail-able—televisions, radios, mobilephones, computers, etc.—and who isentitled to use them, may depend onwho controls the household income.The belief still prevails in mostcontexts that men are primarilyresponsible for a family’s income.


‘‘ ‘‘Gender differences affect the opportunities and challenges in connectivity and access. For example,

additional investment in women’s literacy may be requiredto address literacy barriers that hinder their basic access

to ICTs. Women may also need more training in the use of software applications.

BOX 4. ACCESS TO ICTS FOR E-GOVERNANCE: PEOPLE FIRST NETWORK IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

The Solomon Islands consists of roughly 850 islands, mostly under-developed, spread out over a wide area of thePacific. The country has come through a period of ethnic unrest, and the economy is in near-total collapse.Currently, the only two means of communication with the outside world for most remote locations are short-wave radios and satellite telephones. When short-wave radios are used for voice communication, they oftenrequire hours of queuing and retrials, sometimes in vain, and at a cost that is still too high for rural people livingin a predominantly non-cash and subsistence economy. Confidentiality is impossible. Satellite telephones, whenavailable, are far beyond the financial reach of the majority of the population, regardless of the destination called.

People First Network (PFnet) promotes rural development and peace building by enabling affordable and sustainable rural connectivity and facilitating information exchange between stakeholders and communitiesacross the Solomon Islands.6 With support from UNDP and the UN system, it has established a growing rural communications system based on wireless e-mail networking, in the HF band, which enjoys full community ownership. The PFnet community e-mail stations are the only link with the outside world, providing the partici-pating communities with access to health, public services and education, and enabling essential contact withfamily and professional peers.

PFnet pays particular attention to gender equity and democratic governance, helping women, especially disadvantaged rural women, to network, access services relevant to them and connect with women’s groups. Italso develops the capacity of many other development partners to network as well, especially to and from ruralareas. A network of rural community e-mail stations is located on remote islands across the country, usuallyhosted in provincial clinics, schools, or other accessible and secure public facilities. The full community ownership of the system promotes community access to information that is appropriate to the local culture.

! Costs of ICTs: Women and men, thepoor and people in remote areas maynot have sufficient income to purchasenew technologies and the accompanyingcosts such as subscription to theInternet or cell phone services.Women, especially, are likely to haveless income than men. However, it isworth noting that the cost of ICTs isdropping dramatically in real terms,while the type of technologies are morepowerful than ever before and can haveglobal reach.

! Capacity: The extent to which equaleducational and training opportunitiesare available to women and men vary indifferent societies. Addressing illiteracyis an important step to building people’scapacity to use ICTs, as well as the provision of training to build people’s,especially women’s, typing skills andability to use different software. Sincethe content of the web is still predom-inantly in English and other non-locallanguages, another important considera-tion is whether men and women haveopportunities to learn other languages,or whether content can be developedin local languages. Funding andsupport from government and civilsociety organizations (CSOs) is vitalfor achieving equal opportunities inthe access and use of ICTs.

Access to information via ICTs

GOVERNMENTS NOT ONLY NEED TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION,THEY ALSO MUST ENSURE THATINFORMATION IS PRESENTED IN ARANGE OF FORMATS APPROPRIATEFOR MEN AND WOMEN

UNDP programmes have supported theuse of ICTs to provide fast and relativelyinexpensive methods of disseminating andexchanging information. Areas of supporthave included alternative ICT-based mediaoutlets, content development in local lan-guages, protection of public domain infor-mation, and laws on the right to informa-tion, including digital information.

However, due to fact that women and menhave different needs vis á vis public infor-mation and services, the content and modeof communicating public information shouldbe tailored to empower both men andwomen, and poor men and women in par-ticular, to access their rights and services.For example, women and men may be moredisposed to access information via ICTswhen they see themselves and their issuesrepresented in different media outlets. Forwomen to become empowered, they mayneed to see more role models in the media,in the form of female broadcasters, web-masters, commentators or invited guests whocan address key issues of gender equality.


For women to become empowered, they may need to see more role models in the media, in the form of femalebroadcasters, webmasters, commentators or invitedguests who can address key issues of gender equality.‘‘

‘‘

Furthermore, ICTs have provided new andopen channels for the emergence of inde-pendent media outlets that can provide pro-poor and gender equality and women’s rights-related information to local communities.Providing content in local languages is animportant first step to making the poten-tial benefits of ICTs more visible topeople; in particular, to encourage citizens

to be active participants in governance anddevelopment policy. In addition, thecontent itself needs to be analysed from agender perspective. Presentation also hasgender implications—information andissues must be presented in a manner thatis readily understood and easy to use bymen and women, and the poor.

For example, UNDP supported a multi-stakeholder consultation organized by theMinistry of Information and Broadcastingin India, which provided input to a revisedpolicy on media content. The outcomewas that the revised policy enabled CSOsto devise content and broadcast socially-relevant programmes for local consump-tion. The UNDP CO subsequently usedcommunity radio as a central element intheir social mobilization and decentraliza-tion programmes.7 Another excellentexample of providing training, developinglocal content and networking comes fromHonduras, as shown in Box 5.

Close to thirty developing countries havepassed Freedom of Information Laws,which is a first step in enhancing publicaccess to government and public recordsand information. However, in terms ofimplementation of such laws, the keyconcern is to ensure that access to theseresources is both simple and free forcitizens and stakeholders in general, andwomen and marginalized groups in partic-ular. In terms of content, Freedom ofInformation Laws should also include freeaccess to all digital data and resourcesproduced by governments.


BOX 5. THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNETWORK OF HONDURAS

Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras (RDS) was established in 1994 with support from UNDP. It sees itselfas “the information system of civil society", putting peoplewho have information in touch with those who need it,and people with needs in touch with resources. RDSgained local and international recognition when itsnetworks enabled the State and civil society to respondmuch more quickly in the aftermath of 1998’s HurricaneMitch, and enabled information from external agencies toreach local actors. Its numbers soared thereafter. By theearly part of this decade, the NGO provided e-mailservices and Internet access to 449 organizationsthroughout the 18 Honduran provinces, of which 60percent were NGOs (Hijab, 2001).

RDS discussion lists enabled NGOs to share experience in specific areas such as external debt, government trans-parency and efforts to eliminate corruption, as well asreconstruction, gender, the environment and others.NGOs particularly value the ability to access informationand to connect to other local and international organiza-tions over their pilot projects.

RDS not only provides affordable services, it also addsvalue in training and in the preparation of content. In theearly days, women were more familiar with the technologythan men, having first used it as secretaries, and seven ofthe ten RDS trainers at the time were women. RDS alsoworks with craftspeople, most of whom are women, toenable them to sell their products through the Web. Theproject also involves improving production processes toensure product competitiveness in foreign markets.

Policy design and implementation

! Increasing the presence and activeparticipation of women in policyplanning committees for national e-governance strategies and pro-grammes is the first step towards

creating a gender-responsive policyenvironment. This can be complementedby also having women involved in theformulation of national-level ICT forDevelopment strategies which couldalso be linked to poverty reduction andother development plans.

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Entry Points for Programming onGender and E-governance

4This section presents a series of entry points for engendering e-governance

programming in UNDP. It centres on the five key areas of e-governance highlighted

in the previous sections. As already mentioned, these areas present different

challenges for men and women that need to be openly addressed through both

an ICT and gender equality lens.

! Ensure that male and female participants inthe policy process understand how gender rolesand relations impact on e-governance,and thatthey have the necessary capacity and informa-tion to participate in these policy discussions.

! Strengthen the capacity of UNDP partnersand the organization itself to acquire the skillsnecessary for understanding the different impactsof e-governance on women and men. Educatethem on international and national commitmentsto gender equality, particularly the Convention onthe Elimination of All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW), the MDGs, andthe WSIS Action Plan for the promotion of theinformation society in developing countries.

! Link public administration reform strategiesand programmes to e-government strategies,and ensure that they engage women and menstakeholders and civil servants in their designand implementation.

! Monitor e-governance policies (through cus-tomized ICT tools and solutions) to assess theirimpact on women and men and their equalaccess to opportunities and resources, as well asthe impact on poor and disadvantaged groups morebroadly. This can also include the production ofsex-disaggregated data for policy options.

! Monitor women and men’s recruitment togovernment institutions at national and locallevels and across a range of program areas, interms of both their numbers and the positionsthey hold. ICTs can be used to track genderequality in appointments, promotions, studytours, and assignment of responsibility, amongother things.

E-service delivery

! Foster the involvement of different groups ofmen and women in the selection of prioritypublic services and in the provision of feedbackon their quality, including whether or not suchservices respond to women and men’s actual needs.

! Prioritize e-services that address the specificneeds of women and are more responsive togender equality issues.This is particularly relevantfor local service delivery, as women, stakeholdersand communities usually have much closercontact with local government authorities thanother levels of government and often havebetter opportunities to express their needs andconcerns at the local level.

! Track access to government services throughdedicated ICT solutions to ensure that theintroduction of e-governance programmes doesnot perpetuate gender-based discrimination.

! Conduct a gender analysis when formulatinge-justice initiatives to assist partners in under-standing how women can be barred from accessto both formal and informal systems of justiceand how e-justice can help address this.

! Support the design and establishment of legal databases and a gender analysis of theirimplications that can be made available to judges,lawyers, ombudsperson offices, the media andcitizens, and updated as legislation changes.


! Support parliamentary committees to becomenetworked and promote gender equality andwomen’s empowerment across different areasof their work—budgets, law reform, securitysectors—and to track implementation in keyareas, for example, access to land, labour rightsand access to justice.

! Build and strengthen innovative partnershipswith CSOs and small enterprises run bywomen to bring basic public services to under-served areas.

E-participation and networking

! Encourage community participation, especiallyby women, in prioritizing critical needs andgaps to increase the effectiveness and trans-parency of e-governance priorities.

! Use new and old ICTs to enhance existingnetworks or help create new ones, in particularthose that represent women and/or promotegender equality. Avoid building “parallel” ICTnetworks that could end up underminingexisting human networks and organizations.

! Use new and old technologies to strengthenexisting channels of interaction between citizensand governments (local governments in partic-ular) to tackle gender inequality issues. To thesame end, build new channels of interactionthat can facilitate a greater role for women andgender advocates in local governance processes.

! Establish e-voting systems with multi-lingualand voice-driven interfaces to attract newvoters to the polls, and to make it possible forpoor, illiterate women and men to vote innational and local elections.

! Establish networks, websites, and other electronic means to link parliamentarians tonational and local constituents engaged in thestruggle for gender equality—and supportnetworks of citizens to mobilize and increasethe numbers of those who engage with theirelected representatives.

Access to ICTs

! Develop local capacity and ICT skills, espe-cially among women and the poor. This shouldalso include raising awareness among womenand men about the potential opportunitiesICTs can create, in particular their role inhelping citizens to participate in governanceprocesses and to access information.

! Identify and deploy affordable state-of-the-arttechnologies for women and other disadvan-taged groups, such as cell phones, smart phonesand PDAs, that allow for mobile use and accessto services and public information.

! Promote the shared use of ICTs amongwomen and other vulnerable groups to fostertheir increased access to ICT networks. Thisshould not be limited to tele-centres or publickiosks but should also include mobile devicesthat can be customized for multi-user access.

! Support the deployment of open networks inrural and poor areas that can facilitate accessand reduce costs while promoting women’sownership and participation in them. Suchnetworks could be community-owned and thussustainable from their deployment.

! Promote the use of technologies that use locallanguages and thus facilitate the flow ofgender-related information among local com-munities. Alternatively, support technologiesthat use multimedia interfaces that do not requireadvanced IT or literacy skills for their usage.

Access to information via ICTs

! Promote the production and dissemination oflocal content in local languages by localpeople, in particular by women and the poor.Local content should highlight specificwomen’s empowerment issues and existinggender inequalities.

! Assist in the creation of new media outlets todisseminate information on key developmentconcerns through a range of broadcasting and

4 . E N T R Y P O I N T S F O R P R O G R A M M I N G O N G E N D E R A N D E - G O V E R N A N C E | 2 3

electronic means; use the same interactivechannels to capture and disseminate gender-related issues.

! Support the national ombudsperson, humanrights offices or anti-corruption commissionsto use ICTs to better monitor and disseminategender-related issues and information. Thesenetworks can also be used by women and mento share issues through, for example, provincialoffices connected via ICT networks and sup-ported by local community organizations.

! Assist parliamentarians and their aides inusing ICTs to track budget expenditures bygender and to access information from coun-tries where gender budgeting has been used.They could also use the Internet and other toolsto develop gender-sensitive legislative agendas.

! Use ICTs to monitor the impacts of downsizingand other government reforms on women,men and the poor of all ages, so that wherethese reforms are detrimental, alternatives canbe proposed as quickly as possible. Women’sorganizations can use ICTs to monitor thesechanges and demand accountability.

! Support the implementation of freedom ofinformation laws that promote easy access toinformation for women and marginalized

groups and that provide the secure access and requisite privacy measures for women andthese groups to make effective use of the publicfacilities providing this information.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

If there is one key message in this study, it is thatgender analysis must be conducted at every stage ofthe programming process in order to identify actualor potential gender-based discrimination and toensure that gender equality considerations areaddressed throughout interventions. Gender willonly be mainstreamed into all programming areaswhen UNDP and its partners directly addressissues of gender equality in their work.

While e-governance is certainly not a panacea, itdoes offer women and men innovative ways to addressinequality and become participants in governanceprocesses. E-governance can provide new approachesand solutions to specific governance challenges whileunleashing new ways of fostering development andpromoting democratic governance. Nevertheless, itstransformative potential can only be fully realizedonce specific gender inequalities are clearly identifiedand addressed. E-governance alone cannot makegender equality a reality.


‘‘

‘‘

While e-governance is certainly not a panacea, it does offer women and men innovative ways to address inequality

and become participants in governance processes.

ResourcesSelected UNDP Documents on E-governance

UNDP. Fact sheet: The Peoples’ Voice. Bangladesh: 2005.http://www.un-bd.org/undp/factsheets/Election.pdf.

___________. “E-governance Service Delivery in India and South Africa.” Written by Raúl Zambranoand Pierre Dandjinou. Bureau for Development Policy, Democratic Governance Group: New York,2007. http://sdnhq.undp.org/~raul/egov/propoor/e-gov-4-the-poor-paper-final.pdf.

___________. Empowering Parliaments through the Use of ICTs. Written by Henrik Olesen, RaúlZambrano and Valentina Azzarello. Bureau for Development Policy, Democratic Governance Group:New York, 2006. http://sdnhq.undp.org/e-gov/e-parl.html.

___________. E-Governance Practice Note. (draft). 2006.

___________. Report on Mapping UNDP’s E-Governance Projects: E-Governance and Access to Informationvia ICT. Written by Valentina Azzarello. 2005. http://sdnhq.undp.org/e-gov/mapping/UNDP-egover-nance-mapping-report.pdf.

___________. “Report on e-governance Sub-Practice Event.” Dakar, Senegal: 1-3 September 2005.http://sdnhq.undp.org/egov/e-gov-report-final.pdf and Executive Summary,http://sdnhq.undp.org/egov/e-gov-exec-summ.pdf.

___________. ICT for Development Observatory – E-governance.http://sdnhq.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?do=browse&categories=8.

___________. A Guide to Measuring the Impact of Right to Information Programmes: Practical Guidance Note.Written by Andrew Puddephatt. Oslo Governance Center, Democratic Governance Group: Oslo, 2006.

___________. Right to Information. Practical Guidance Note. Written by Andrew Puddephatt.Oslo Governance Center, Democratic Governance Group: Oslo, 2004.http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/A2I_Guides_RighttoInformation.pdf.

___________. Civic Education: Practical Guidance Note. Written by Chris McInerney.Oslo Governance Center, Democratic Governance Group: Oslo, 2004.http://www.undp.org/gvernance/docs/A2I_Guides_Civic%20education.pdf

___________. Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP): Report of an independent externalassessment. Written by Sean O’Siochru and Richard Labelle. Bureau for Development Policy: NewYork, 2004. http://www.sdnp.undp.org/docs/evals/SDNP-assessment-report-Final.pdf.http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/docs06/A%20Guide%20to%20Measuring%20the%20Impact%20of%20Right%20to%20Information%20Programmes%20-%20final%20(11%2004%2006).pdf.

___________. Pro-Poor Public Service Delivery with ICTs: Making local e-governance work towards achievingthe Millennium Development Goals. Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP),Bangkok: e-Note No. 11, 2007. http://www.apdip.net/apdipenote/11.pdf/view.

___________. Empowering the Poor: Information and Communications Technology for Governance andPoverty Reduction - A Study of Rural Development Projects in India. Written by Roger Harris andRajesh Rajora. APDIP: Bangkok, 2007. http://www.apdip.net/publications/ict4d/EmpoweringThePoor.pdf.

___________. Paving the Road towards Pro-Poor E-Governance -Findings and Observations from Asia-Pacific Case Studies. Written by Subhash Batganar. APDIP: Bangkok, 2007.http://www.apdip.net/projects/e-government/capblg/casestudies/Overview.pdf.

___________. Electronic Governance Platform for Enhanced Service Delivery in the SACI Sub region: Analysisand Strategy Report. Regional Service Center for Eastern and Southern Africa - Southern African CapacityInitiative (SACI): December 2005. http://www.undp-saci.co.za/documents/e-gove_main_report.pdf.

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___________. What and Whose e-Government We Want? An End-User’s Dimension of e-Services. Written by Yuri Misnikov. Bratislava Regional Service Center: Bratislava, 2005.http://sdnhq.undp.org/egov/papers/what_egov_prague.pdf.

United Nations Centre for Regional Development, in collaboration with UNDP, APDIP. “Pro-Poor E-governance.” Regional Development Dialogue 27, 2 (Autumn 2006).http://www.uncrd.or.jp/pub/recentpu.htm#rdd.

Selected UNDP and UN Documents on Gender and ICT

UN. “The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.” A/RES/48/104. 1993.http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e4devw.htm

UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee. “Guidelines on the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence inHumanitarian Settings.” UN: New York, 2005.http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/violence/GBV_Guidelines_English.pdf

UN/ ECOSOC. 52nd Session of ECOSOC, 1997.http://www.un.org/womenwatch/asp/user/list.asp?ParentID=10314

UN/ OSAGI. “Concepts and Definitions” (n.d.).http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/conceptsandefinitions.htm

United Nations. Women 2000 and Beyond. Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women through ICT.Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs: New York,September 2005. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/w2000-09.05-ict-e.pdf.

___________. Creating an Outer Circle in the Digital World: Participation of Women in the E-governmentSystem. Written by Baharul Islam, UNECA for Expert Group Meeting on Equal participation ofwomen and men in decision-making processes, with particular emphasis on political participation andleadership. 24-27 October 2005, EGM/EPWD/2005/OP.2. Division for the Advancement ofWomen, Department of Economic and Social Affairs: New York, 12 December 2005.http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/eql-men/docs/OP.2_Creating_an_Outer_Circle_in_the_Digital_World.pdf.

___________. Information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument forthe advancement and empowerment of women. Report of the Expert Group Meeting,EGM/ICT/2002/Report Seoul, Republic of Korea, 11 – 14 November 2002. Division for theAdvancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs: New York, 23 December2002. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/ict2002/reports/EGMFinalReport.pdf.

UNDP. “Quick Entry Points to Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality in Democratic GovernanceClusters,” Written by Nadia Hijab. In Primers in Gender and Democratic Governance Series, No. 1.Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for Development Policy: New York, 2007.

___________. Gender and ICT. Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP), Bangkok,2007. http://www.apdip.net/publications/iespprimers/eprimer-gender.pdf.

___________. Gender in the Information Society: Emerging Issues. Asia Pacific Development InformationProgramme (APDIP), Bangkok, 2007. http://www.apdip.net/publications/ict4d/GenderIS.pdf.

___________. Communication for Empowerment: Developing Media Strategies in Support of VulnerableGroups. Practical Guidance Note. Written by James Deane, Elizabeth McCall and Alexandra Wilde.Oslo Governance Center, Democratic Governance Group: Oslo, March 2006.http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/A2I_guides_communicationforempowerment.pdf.

___________. En Route to Equality: A Gender Review of National MDG Reports. Gender Team, Bureau ofDevelopment Policy: New York, 2005. http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/en-route-to-equality.pdf.

___________. Gender Mainstreaming Tools Marketplace, Annotated Resources. Learning ResourceCentre/OHR/BOM & Gender Unit/BDP: New York, 2005.http://www.undp.org/gender/tools_marketplace.doc

___________. Bridging the Gender Divide: A Report on Gender and ICT in Central and Eastern Europe andthe Commonwealth of Independent States. Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth ofIndependent States, Central and Eastern Europe Office: Bratislava, 2004.http://www.undp.kz/library_of_publications/files/4136-29175.pdf.


___________. Transforming the Mainstream: Gender in UNDP. Written by Nadia Hijab and Kristen Lewis.Gender Team, Bureau of Development Policy: New York. 2003.http://www.undp.org/women/docs/publication-transforming-the-mainstream.pdf.

___________. Gender Equality Practice Note. Written by Jan Vandemoortele, Aster Zaoude and DasaSilovic. Bureau of Development Policy: New York, November 2002.www.undp.org/women/docs/gender-9dec02.doc

___________. People’s Initiatives to Use IT for Development, Background Paper for HDR 2001. Written byNadia Hijab. 2001. http://hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/background_papers/hijab.doc.

UNESCO. Gender Issues in the Information Society. UNESCO Publications for the World Summit on theInformation Society. Written by Natasha Primo CI-2003/WS/05. Paris, 2003.http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/file_download.php/250561f24133814c18284feedc30bb5egender_issues.pdf.

___________. UNESCO’s Gender Mainstreaming Implementation Framework (GMIF) for 2002-2007.UNESCO, Women and Gender Equality Section: Paris, 2003.http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001318/131854e.pdf

UNIFEM. Bridging the Digital Gender Divide. A Review of ICT Initiatives that Focus on DisadvantagedWomen in South Asia. Chapter 5: “ICTs and Women’s Economic Empowerment: Critical Mandatesfor the Future.” New York, 2004. http://www.unifem.org.in/bridging_the_gender/Chapter5.pdf.

UNIFEM and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC). “Report of the Conference onGender Justice in Post-Conflict Situations.” (S/2004/862). UNIFEM/ ILAC: New York, 2004.http://www.womenwarpeace.org/issues/justice/docs/conferencereport.pdf

Selected Documents on Gender, ICT, and E-governance

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID). “Why New Technology is a Women’s RightsIssue”. In Gender Equality and New Technologies, No. 7, May, 2004. http://www.awid.org/publica-tions/primers/factsissues7.pdf.

Commonwealth Education Media Center for Asia and Commonwealth of Learning. Women’s Literacy andICTs: Lessons that Experience Has Told Us. Written by Anita Dighe and Usha Vyasulu Reddi. NewDelhi, 2006. http://www.cemca.org/CEMCA_Womens_Literacy.pdf.

Digital Opportunity Channel. “Empowering women through ICT.” 2006.http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/129008/1/1138.

DOT-COM Alliance. “Women and ICT Policy.” In DOT-COMments E-newsletter, Issue 19, March2007. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=122.

Estonian National Electoral Committee. “I-voting pilot in Tallilnn.” Estonian National ElectoralCommittee, Estonia. 2005. http://www.vvk.ee/english/pilot_jan05.html

Gender Links. "Cyberdialogues in South Africa. Making IT work for gender justice." http://www.genderlinks.org.za.

Hafkin, Nancy, and Sophia Huyer. Cinderella or Cyberella: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society.Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, 2006.

Institute of Development Studies. BRIDGE Development-Gender. Gender and ICTs. Overview Report.Written by Anita Gurumurthy. IDS: Brighton, September 2004.http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/CEP-ICTs-OR.pdf.

Malkia, Matti, Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko and Reijo Savolainen (eds.) E-Transformation in Governance: NewDirections in Government and Politics. Idea Group Inc.: Hershey, PA: 2004.

Manzar, Osama (collected by). E-Governance and ICT’s Status in Different States of India (Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa).(Collected by Osama Manzar, at Bytes for All Readers Forum).http://www.bytesforall.org/Egovernance/html/egov_states.htm.

McCulley, Lucretia and Patricia Patterson. “Feminist Empowerment through the Internet.”In Feminist Collections, No. 17, 2 (Winter 1996): 5-6.http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/fc/fcmccul.htm.

RESOURCES | 2 7

Munyua, Alice W. “Positioning for Impact: Women and ICT Policy Making.” IDRC, Chapter 13 of At the Crossroads: ICT Policymaking in East Africa, Beverle M. Lax Mutunga, Dorothy Nyong’o andAnthony J. Rodrigues (eds.). East African Educational Publishers/IDRC, 2005.http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-93062-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html.

Nath, Vikas. “Empowerment and Governance through Information and Communication Technologies:Women’s Perspective.” In Intl. Inform. & Libr. No. 33 (2001): 317-339.http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/iilr-women-ict.pdf.

OXFAM. “Gender and ICTs for Development: A Global Sourcebook.” In Gender, Society & Development,Critical Reviews and Annotated Bibliographies Series. KIT (Royal Tropical Institute): The Netherlandsand Oxfam: GB, 2005. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/download/?download=http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/resources/downloads/g_ict_d.pdf.

People First Network. “People First Network.” Solomon Islands.(n.d.)http://www.peoplefirst.net.sb/General/PFnet.htm.

Policy Dialogue International Limited. “Engendering E-Government in Developing Countries.” Writtenby Eva M. Rathgeber. In E-gov Monitor, 8 May, 2006. http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/5866.

Reyes, Villanueva, Natasha Primo, Anriette Esterhuysen, and Noortje Marres (cartogaphers).“Is e-governance a women’s issue?” (n.d.) http://www.issuenetwork.org/node.php?id=39.

Spees, Pam. Gender Justice and Accountability in Peace Support Operations. International Alert: London,February 2004. http://www.international-alert.org/our_work/themes/gender_peace_support.php

Sutton, Jo. “E-Governance: The Implications for Women’s Organizations.” In Womynsvoices.http://womynsvoices.ca/en/node/351

World Bank. Engendering Information & Communication Technologies: Challenges & Opportunities forGender-Equitable Development. Gender and Development Group and Global Information and Communication Technologies Department, World Bank: Washington, D.C., 2004.http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Seminar-Series/20260878/ictbrochure.pdf.

Zambrano, Raúl. “E-governance and Development: Service Delivery to Empower the Poor.” InInternational Journal of Electronic Government Research, Vol. 4, Issue 2 (Apr-Jun. 2008): 1–11.

Endnotes1. ICTs are mentioned in the eighth Millennium Development Goal on developing global partnerships

for development, which calls for global partnerships to be formed with the private sector to help provideall people with access to the benefits of new technologies. However, ICTs in general, and e-governancein particular, are also critical for the achievement of other MDGs, such as gender equality and women’s empowerment.

2. “Gender and ICTs for Development: A global sourcebook” published by KIT and OXFAM in 2005provides a good account of the appearance and “disappearance” of gender in policy formulation efforts ofthe G8 ICT “Dot Force”, the UN ICT Task Force and the WSIS. The report also includes examplesfrom UNDP contributions to programmes in Asia and the Caribbean.

3. View the full report, “Report on Mapping UNDP’s e-Governance Projects: e-Governance & Access toInformation via ICT”, Democratic Governance Group (DGG), Bureau for Development Policy (BDP),prepared by Valentina Azzarello. 2005. http://sdnhq.undp.org/e-gov/mapping/UNDP-egovernance-mapping-report.pdf.

4. Report from UNDP India Country Office in 2004.5. Information in this box was gathered from UNDP Armenia during a March 2006 mission by one of this

report’s contributors, and from reports submitted by UNDP Bulgaria in 2004.6. See http://www.peoplefirst.net.sb.7. Report from UNDP India Country Office in 2004.


P H OTO G R A P H S

Cover: Gujarati woman speaks on her mobile phone, India. (Illustration from pho-tograph provided courtesy of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA))

Page 2: Accountant Zewditu Mulu works on the records of the Wagera DistrictCouncil, Ethiopia. (Adam Rogers/UNCDF)

Page 5: A street merchant sells phone cards in Dili,East Timor.(Adam Rogers/UNCDF)

Page 6: A man speaks on his cell phone as he eats lunch at the Otavalo market,Ecuador. (Alison Clayson/UNESCO)

Page 7: Women proofread Kabul Weekly, the first independent Afghan newspapersupported by the association Aïna, UNESCO and Reporters sans frontières,Afghanistan. (Manoocher/UNESCO)

Page 8: Young woman listens to the radio in front of a phone-card kiosk inKoutiala, Mali. (Serge Daniel/UNESCO)

Page 9: A woman works a video camera at the Mass Media Education Centre inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Dominique Roger/UNESCO)

Page 10: An Internet café on the main street in Louang Prabang offers fresh fruitshakes along with Internet access, Laos. (Alison Clayson, UNESCO/WWAP)

Page 12: Women take an active part in community decision-making in Niger.(Adam Rogers/UNCDF)

Page 17: Students surround United Nations Volunteer Jenan Shafiqin during computer training in Safawi, Jordan. (Bill Lyon/UNDP)

Page 21: Manhica Multimedia Community Centre, Mozambique. (Sergio Santimano/UNESCO)

Page 22: Women and children participate in computer training at the Dushanbe-based Women Centre, established under the Women Education Project,Tajikistan.(Gennadiy Ratushenko/The World Bank)

United Nations Development Programme304 45th Street, FF-6th floorNew York, NY 10017Tel: (+1) 212 906 5368Fax: (+1) 212 906 5896www.undp.org/women

4.Gender Responsive E-governance: Exploring the Transformative PotentialPRIMERS IN GENDER AND DEMOCR ATIC GOVERNANCE

‘‘ ‘‘UNDP’s e-governance strategy has a pro-poorfocus which aims at fostering the delivery of basic e-services and information to the most vulnerablepopulations. This is complemented by an emphasison e-participation, particularly at the local level.It thus provides fertile ground to introduce genderissues in the policy agenda and involve more women’snetworks in policy discussions and decision-makingprocesses to address concrete gender issues affectingthe achievement of gender equality.