The project Women Learning Women (WLW): Women-led Documentation and Community Information Centres in the region of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, was awarded a GenARDIS grant last December. Being implemented throughout 2009, the aim of the project is to experiment with new documentation methods that are led by women farmers, in order to see whether and how this form of documentation can complement that done by researchers, adding value by giving the women’s perspectives. The project was also initiated to motivate women to use telecenters when looking for information and to build the capacity of young women through Training-of-Trainers (ToT) workshops on use and application of ICTs, information-retrieval techniques and business management training.
Fetien Abay, from Mekelle University, took the lead of this project. She has extensive experience and MSc training in rural resource management and holds a PhD in plant breeding with years of experience in Participatory Plant Breeding
Why document farmers’ innovations?
Women’s innovations are generally kept within the domestic sphere and their innovations are often poorly publicised. The project will have an impact on the capacity of the women farmers to record their own innovation through radio recordings and photography. This is an innovative approach that has captured the attention of farmers – women farmers in particular – and people in the media industry. It will help bring the project visibility and will inspire women to play a more active role in the documentation of their practices and experiences. Women will also have more say on what pictures are incorporated in booklets and presentations by various organisations (universities, village schools, civic societies etc.). Unfortunately however, the specific interests and concerns of women innovators have not been given much attention in documentation made thus far, and the women’s abilities to express themselves and present their accomplishments and issues have not been developed.
The project will focus on Women Learning Women. Women university students and journalists from regional radio will train women in audiotape recording and photography. In the village of ArbaAtsbha, where there are computers and internet access, university students will be placed for three months to train drop out students. This will help build the capacity of both trainees and trainers. In addition, the trainees will facilitate awareness-raising workshops to demonstrate their knowledge and skills to the community, so that elders, village- and association-leaders will be sensitised to the needs of the women and community. This will help raise their interest in the information centre for further sharing and learning practices. Since the project will focus on young and elder (illiterate) women, small booklets and CDs will be distributed to community-level organisations, village-level schools, regional government and non-governmental organisations, university and research organisations for local and wider dissemination. The female university students will produce a BSc thesis report on the impact of the project and observed constraints/challenges for further development.
What are the gender and ICT issues at stake?
Mekelle University would like to explore how innovative women’s interests can be better addressed when local communities/farmers take the leading role in the documentation process. The idea is to integrate ICT with Farmer-Led Documentation (FLD), a farmer-driven process in which farmers are involved from the very beginning in deciding on the purpose of documentation and on the “if, what, when and how” to document. Such documentation could make an even greater contribution to development if it could be integrated with tools of information and communication technology (ICT), such as community radio, television and the internet. Integrating FLD and ICT could offer a powerful alternative to the conventional way of communicating, i.e., from researcher to change/development agent and then to communities/villagers.
Women’s practices are generally kept in the domestic sphere; their innovations are often poorly publicised and they are given insufficient attention. Women are obviously experiencing greater difficulties in accessing the new technologies. The use of digital cameras makes it easier for them to select their own photos and incorporate them into a book or poster and PowerPoint presentations that can be used to present to schools, the Bureau of Agriculture, universities and policy makers. The newly established information centre will be used as multipurpose community tele-centre to provide a convenient way to exchange information through regional radio, TV news etc. and will help the local villagers access ICTs. Training of Trainers (ToT) in ICT will be offered for school dropouts of both sexes, but priority will be given to girls (10 female and 4 male trainees).
