Arulogun Ehin is a community in Lagelu Local Government Area in Oyo State, Southwestern Nigeria is a typical rural community and consists of 20 hamlets. Arulogun is not just a rural area; it is continuously ‘ruralising’ in a manner that possibly suggests that the community might not be in existence in the next few decades, as people move to the city. The community lacks all the modern amenities –there is no running water or electricity and road access is extremely poor for this farming community. Lack of ICT skill and facilities in the community means that Arulogun and its dwellers are disconnected from potential buyers of their produce and higher income for the community. Generally, the level of socio-economic activities in the community is very poor and people living in the community are predominantly illiterate and poor. An ICT project in Arulogun would require literate people to intermediate between buyers and producers.

Zambia awareness raising workshop
In Zambia, the Ndola resource centre is training women on ICTs. The project aims at providing both individual and institutional capacity building to women and women based organisation in information and communication technologies (ICTs), it further builds capacity in both individuals and institutions on how to address gender issues in ICTs. Main activities carried out were surveys and needs assessments, as well as workshop and training evaluations after the sessions.

The assessment questionnaires were filled in by the participants and later analysed. Based on the analysis of the Training needs assessment, participants were grouped and a training program was prepared and distributed to the various organisations concerned. The Ndola Resource Centre team received training in open source software (i.e.

Formation pour Burkinabées: Femmes burnkinabées reçoivent une fromation en informatiqueAu Burkina Faso, la FEPPASI forme présentement 30 femmes responsables de groupements féminins en l’informatique et aux multimédias. La formation de ces femmes leaders a débuté en février et des sessions de formations ont été réalisées au courant de 2009.

Pour sa mise en œuvre, dans un premier temps, une fiche d’identification des femmes participantes à la formation a été conçue et remise aux groupements membres des unions de la fédération. Après une identification des femmes par les groupements de base, les fiches sont remontées au niveau de la FEPPASI. La phase d’identification achevée, les fiches ont été traitées et transmises à Sulga Concept, la structure chargée de la formation.

Johnstone Baguma, from GenARDIS grantee ToroDev based in Uganda, attended the International Conference on Social innovations for a Better World in Our Time held, in Rome Italy, in early October 2009. There, he presented a paper on the role of ICTs in improving the economic standard of the rural poor, especially women and young people in Uganda and Africa at large. His presentation highlighted the experiences of the ICT Research & Resource Centre (Kabarole Information Centre) co-run by ToroDev and the GenARDIS project.

ToroDev was also announced winner of the Global Junior Challenge on Social Innovations 2009, for its exemplary use of ICT in rural development of the poor in the Rwenzori region of western Uganda.

More information:
http://www.socialinnovationconference.org/ITA/index.html
http://www.mondodigitale.org .

Market information is an important tool that will help Ms FONKA to sell her potato better and improve her revenues.During the first six months of the project target groups were identified. They were five maize and potato women farmers group in four localities, Kamna, Ndiengso, Ndiandam, Santa and Bangang. The aim was to train them in the use of cell phones in order to obtain market information.

One of the challenges identified during this first phase was lack of electricity in some areas, which limited farmers in their use of ICTs. Those who owned phones had them operational only at certain times because they had to travel a long distance before they could access electricity to charge their battery.

A survey was carried out. The analysis of the data indicated that 87% of the decisions on farm activities are made by women.

Depuis Janvier 2009, le projet GenARDIS au Bénin est exécuté par l’ONG Aquaculture et Développement Durable (AquaDeD) au profit de deux groupements de femmes intervenant dans le domaine des pêche et d’aquaculture. Ces groupements (ALLODO de Bopa et WANGNINAN de Agonli) ont bénéficié entre autres de plusieurs séances de vulgarisation des innovations scientifiques et technologiques disponibles sur internet et autres supports informatiques, d’une dotation en téléphones portables avec carte SIM opérationnelle et crédits mensuels forfaitaires de recharge, d’un jeu complet d’ordinateur et d’une formation à l’utilisation et l’entretien du téléphone portable et à l’informatique. Un service téléphonique d’assistance (STA) a été mise en place pour chaque groupement afin de faciliter l’accès de ces femmes productrices vulnérables pour diverses raisons aux informations pertinentes et indispensable à l’amélioration de leur activité.

Worshop participantsToroDev, one of the GenARDIS grantees, organised a to brainstorm on gender, ICT policy and rural infrastructure issues, support rural small scale women involved in agriculture and agribusiness sector in Kabarole and Kyenjojo districts to access and use simple and affordable, traditional and modern ICT tools that can help them to improve on their production and marketing skills.

Agriculture and Agro-business sector is the main source of economic empowerment for the majority of the population in the Rwenzori region of western Uganda, particularly in Kabarole and Kyenjojo districts where ToroDev operates. Findings show that men have dominated agricultural production and other agribusiness activities in the community. Most of the women have supported men, especially in terms of free labor on agricultural farms in order to increase production.

The women belong to the group TIAME, a farming group in the village of Peko-Misegese, in Morogoro. “TIAME” is the local language for “lets us work together”.

This group produces various crops including vegetables, beans, sunflower and round potatoes but these farmers face market problems. The market for their crops is not reliable and the farm gate price for their crops is usually low. The existing marketing chain is farmer-middlemen-consumer. This village has no reliable transport to market centers but electricity supply is within the village.

Nigerian non-profit and development communication NGO, ARDA, uses radio, drama and other appropriate vehicles of communication to educate and motivate social change for development. Data Phido, who leads the implementation team of this GenARDIS grantee, shares with us the trials, tribulations and joys of the project, which is promoting radio as a meeting place for women farmers in rural Nigeria in an easy-to-read, informal style that makes sense of development-speak and processes.