In the region of Uvira, Congo, women farmers are now using ICTs to learn about gender and agriculture. Through the SISSI project, local organisation IFDAP (Initiative des femmes pour le développement de l’autopromotion et la paix) formed a support group for women farmers. In early 2009, SISSI built a foundation for increased access to agricultural information by facilitating internet access to small rural women farmers. Through this and their recently launched information centre, so far, up to 150 men and women have received information on agriculture they need. SISSI also matched 60 small women farmers with mentors from other local communities to reinforce their support networks. It has been exciting to watch these women become proud citizens of our communities.

The SISSI project used a four-step approach. The four levels of intervention used were:

1) Control – Rural women farmers in Uvira gain control of the ICTs for economic sustainability. They can also make decisions on what kind of ICTs they use and when to use them.
2) Mobilisation – Community awareness on gender, agricultural, ICTs and cultural changes taking place in rural Uvira.
3) Awareness building – Rural women farmers in Uvira are made aware of gender inequalities in terms of accessing ICTs
4) Access – Rural women farmers gain access to available ICTs within the Uvira community.

Achievements

The SISSI project has become a well-known word in the community of Uvira, and people are increasingly talking about it in the streets. The support structure it has brought for rural women farmers in a short period of time is unbelievable. With such a project, marginalised women in our society can feel proud of themselves and what they achieve, and are improving their own lives and those of their families.

-We enabled 60 small rural beneficiary women farmers to identify and express their interest in the design, management and outcome mapping for the SISSI project, and identify the ICT barriers they face in rural Uvira.

-We created an ICT platform for information exchange, increased the capacities of small-scale rural women farmers, and set up a powerful set of broad, robust and useful networking tools.

-We also provided an information centre and access to the internet for the women.

– we created a platform where web information on agriculture is translated into Swahiili for those who cannot read English, and the centre is a space where coaching on agriculture, ICTs and mentoring sessions take place.

The women are now trained on basic computer skills and have the confidence to use computers on their own for basic tasks.

Challenges

Despite the positive changes we have seen in these few months, there is still a lot of work to do, which extends beyond GenARDIS funding. The legacy of war left severe adverse effects and the social, economic, gender, health and educational impacts cannot go on unaddressed. Women in our communities continue to be marginalised and taken for granted; but they continue to strive for the welfare of their families. Access to ICTs for rural women farmers still remains out of reach for many.

Moving forward

We believe that small-scale women farmers and their enterprises need to adapt to new technologies in order to become competitive in the rapidly changing rural business environment. As with many other industries, it is evident that in the agri-food industry of Uvira, small and medium businesses can gain a competitive advantage through the use of ICTs, especially community radios, mobile phones, and the internet.

Telecentre in Uvira, DRC: Men and women in Uvira, DRC, working in a new telecentre.

Women in rural Ghana using radioIn Ghana, the livelihood of rural women is being improved through radio and other ICTs. At the time of writing the proposal, the initial was to train some women to act as radio hosts. However, further discussions revealed that this might not be sustainable after the project funding is over. Therefore, we liaised with Nabiina FM to partner and introduce the programme with funding from the CIC for the first 30 shows. A female professional DJ, Ms Philomena Aboko, would be the host of the programme.

During the second meeting, Ms Philomena was present. She took time to train the women leaders on how to serve as panellists in a radio discussion. The weekly show comes on every Thursday, from 7 to 8pm and is dubbed “Gender Focus”. The show covers a variety of themes affecting women – topics such as women in politics, marriage and its challenges, the indecent dress of young girls, stray animals and their effects on the farm, girl child education and discipline, negative traditional practices, female genital mutilation, women’s rights, sexually transmitted infections, women’s health and family planning, etc.

Achievements

The radio has helped significantly in sharing knowledge. Meetings were held between the women leaders and the staff of the radio centre. During these meetings, the issue of knowledge sharing, especially using the medium of radio has been key. This has resulted in the successful holding of weekly discussions on Nabiina FM, the local community radio station. It became clear that the women were, indeed listening to the programme because of the comments they would make regarding the programme – things like it was not long enough to cover the subject in depth, they would invite other friends over to listen to it, they could not always call in to the programme because they did not have credits on their phones, and even the impact the programme had on their husbands and sons, and the desire to sustain the programme after the funding and project are over.

Female teachers are learning the relevant ICT skills for their work.
Because the literacy rates were quite low for most (women) beneficiaries, we realized that the use of computers would not be very significant to many of them. For this reason, we decided to turn to schools, where the impact of the project would be felt much more widely. The training was tailored to include a lot of hands-on exercises and a focus on the tools teachers would need to get their work done more efficiently.

Second cycle schools in the catchment area of the CIC were asked to nominate two female teachers each, for free training at the CIC as a part of the programme.

Training started in earnest and the teachers are wiling to make huge sacrifices, especially with their time to learn these relevant skills. Taught areas of Open Office have and will continue to focus on skills relevant to the school and classroom environment.

We noticed that attendance to training sessions was consistently high, and that the trainees would come to class with questions based on their own attempts to achieve a task outside of the training. They were also able to complete gradually more complicated hands-on tasks and act more independently.

Challenges

However, despite the success of the project so far, we have also encountered some challenges: time, distance and communication and costs. The time for the radio show is quite short – many women have expressed their desire for a longer show, but we cannot extend it because of the other scheduled programmes on the station and this would require additional funds. Some women also live quite far, making it difficult for them to attend panel discussions. Some of the women panellists also do not have radio or telephones, which also makes it difficult for them to follow the show on a regular basis. Many women are not literate, making it difficult for them to make good used of certain ICT devises like mobile phones for SMS. Also, due to the role of women in many communities, they must attend the markets in the early hours in order to do the trading for their homes. Clearly, the cost of landlines, mobile phones and phone credit were also a barrier to our achieving 100% results. The cost of these was a prohibiting factor to the participation of many women.

We have recently started to meet with staff of the two Vocational schools in the district to liaise with them and organise workshops on entrepreneurial skills capacity building for students of these schools. Incidentally both schools are single sex schools for females.

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. Gnucash and Gimp) from Open Source Zambia Initiative team through a Train the trainer approach. The brochure was printed and distributed to various stakeholders involved in women’s work.

The process

After signing the contract, The Ndola Resource Centre had to prepare Monitoring and Evaluation indicators. The monitoring and Evaluation indicators being prepared were to be used before, during and after the project to ensure that the project is effectively evaluated. These indicators were inform of questionnaires;

i. Baseline Survey
ii. Training Needs Assessment Form
iii. Workshop Evaluation Form
iv. Training Evaluation Form

This was followed by the identification of various women’s organisations and institutions involved in agriculture and rural development. After identifying the various groups, the above-mentioned questionnaires were designed, prepared, deployed and later analysed. After analysis of the baseline survey and the training needs assessment form, the team at the Ndola Resource Centre prepared a training schedule, which was sent to all the participating organisations.

After preparing a training schedule, a team from Open Source Zambia Initiative came and conducted a one-week capacity building training for our trainers in Open Source Software. The Ndola Resource Centre team received training in Gnucash and Gimp.

The Ndola Resource Centre team further designed and printed an informative and educational brochure that explains gender issues in ICTs and some of the dynamics between ICTs and the various sectors of women’s development. This brochure was distributed to organisations and government institutions/department.

On the 08.05.09, The Ndola Resource Centre conducted an awareness-raising workshop where we invited leaders of twenty-three (23) women-based organisations and institutions/departments. The workshop took place at the Savoy hotel and was very interactive; the women that attended participated actively.

After the workshop, all participating organisations were required to submit five members to receive capacity building in ICTs in Open Source Software. Therefore, a total number of 115 women were expected to receive training. This training began on the 18.05.09 and will run for the next three and half months. After each training, participants will be required to fill in The training evaluation questionnaire.

Challenges so far

There was a lot of phobia by most women regarding participating in this capacity building. ICTs have been perceived as male activity, and only for professionals. Most women did not even understand how ICTs could be integrated in the various sectors of development, particularly agriculture. Some organisations were scared to embrace ICTs because ICTs have been perceived as being very expensive and complicated. A lot of concern was shown by most organisations on how sustainability was going to be attained with regards to the GenARDIS project since some organisations did not have any ICT infrastructure.

Women in three co-operative groups had difficulties attending the awareness-raising workshop, particularly because their husbands and local village headmen advised them not to attend as it was going to increase prostitution in the area. The Ndola Resource Centre team took time to visit the women together with their husbands and headmen and explained to them the importance of women being involved and trained in ICTs.

Many ICT centres still have poor communication infrastructure. Outdated equipment and state-owned monopolies often result in expensive charges and limited coverage, especially in areas where there are very few ICT centres. This discourages most women from adopting even the basic ICT of fixed lines or mobile phones

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. It was this realisation that led to the introduction of school teachers as agents of change.

Achievements

The first achievement is the success in winning the support of the village head (Baale) and his council of chiefs of the need for a community resource centre in the village. This ensured that the entire community would be willing to take part in the project, and benefit from it thereafter. The cooperation of the Baale also means that our presence in the community is not a threat to anyone. In respect to strong gender based structures, which do not favour women in the community, the acceptance of our project means that we have sort of broken what could be considered a significant gender rubicund. Five female teachers, five community women and five male teachers have successfully completed the ICT training and have acquired sufficient efficacy to intermediate between the rural women farmers and the city buyers.

Gender issues and challenges

We also largely successfully mobilised the community women, but implementing a project for women in Arulogun without involving their men is totally unthinkable. The five consultations with the Baale and his chiefs in council excluded women, despite clear indication in our presentations that the project was focused on women. The community leaders made it very clear to us that deciding the nature and extent of involvement of the women in the project, and in fact in any project in the community, was in the best interest of the women. They also decided that more men than women would be required to take part both in the training and implementation of the projects, all in the interest of the women. This very strong glass ceiling inhibited our interaction with the women at the early stage of the project, and limited the involvement of women and their opinions in the project. Pregnant women and nursing mothers were also automatically excluded, due to the high infant mortality rate in the community.

But women themselves were also unwilling to participate, except with the full consent and permission of the elders. Women who eventually indicated interest to participate in the project also requested that issues about women’s empowerment be downplayed, in order to ensure the smooth flow of the project.

Other than three of the six female teachers in the Saint James primary school who had handsets, none of the women farmers owned or had access to mobile phones. We were even initially advised not to give mobile phones to women or teach them how to use them as this could be misinterpreted by their husbands as a ploy to lure them out of their marital homes, or make them wild. One of the major explanations for this practice is that the men needed the women as hands in the farms, both to cultivate, care for the farms, process the products and carry them to the markets and sell them for their husbands. ‘Opening’ the eyes of these women could make them run to the cities in search of more improved livelihood, or run to other men who are economically better off.

An observation that translates to ICT and gender issue is that while some of the men had some education, all the women we encountered did not have any form of modern education. This limitation not only inhibited the women from using ICT, the women were just incapable of doing so.
Community mobilisation and sustainability

Given these obstacles, we needed to be strategic in order to gain the support form the community. While the training is aimed for selected persons, we considered how to mobilise the women without infringing on the culture of the community which we had known had the capability of stopping our project implementation. Our first mobilization was the consultation with the Baale and his Chiefs in Council on our need to mobilize the women. This we did to ensure that our project had legitimacy in the community, forestalling any hindrances from any of the villages and their leaders as well as securing the support of the other leaders of the land, and make our mission clear to the people in the community.

• We have already entered into a discussion with the community Anglican church, St James, on how to use the instrument of the organization to continue the project after the project life has expired. To make this possible, two of the community women involved in the training activities were members of the church.

• We have also initiated contacts with prominent members of the community who live in the cities for further assistance. Although not much has been achieved in this regard, we will pay some great attention on this component in second tranche of the project.

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. For purchasing of ICTs (TV sets, mobile phones, computers, internet assets), data indicated that 80% of the decisions are taken by men. This can be attributed to their poor financial contribution, when compared to men. Surprisingly however, 70% of the use of the items is made by women.

All those who were interviewed responded that they had never used any form of ICT to facilitate the acquisition of seeds, fertiliser and pesticides. A similar response was also obtained for market information including also agro-pastoral advice from extension service. It was found that 5% of men and no women had used the telephone to obtain market information.

In addition to the sensitization and education of women, attention was given to a number of men who showed an interest thanks to the use of ICTs involved. One of the examples was Tamessa, who started to plant maize and beans in his farm, while Mr NEKUE, a retired secondary school teacher planted maize and groundnuts. Traditionally, farming is seen as an activity carried out by women and after the sensitisation activities, other men decided to join their wives in the farm.

The use of cell phone for market information demonstrated a significant economic impact given that maize farmers found he subsidised seeds at 300 CFA compared to the 600 CFA they were getting at the open market. Other maize farmers were able to get the very scarce improved variety “kassai”.

The Gyendu potato farmer groups made a better harmonisation of the collection of their seeds from the main extension store, thereby saving on expenses that they would have spent on numerous unsuccessful trips to the store..

Other achievements have been made with fertilizer and pesticides. Farmers also learnt to collect market information o insecticides and fungicides to control maize stem borer and potato blight, the pest and diseases that most affect their crops. “This is cheap and easy,” Ma Theresa of the Gyendu group stated. With cell phones they can also buy from the neighbouring cities, where they can find better prices.

An analysis of the reason why men did not like to do planting also had to do with the equipment used. A new tool for planting was suggested, since the old planter is known in all the community as the women’s planter, so no man will use it. The new planter is manufactured and traded far in Yaounde, but since farmers could use cell phones to get market information and buy remotely the adoption was easy.

The project team concluded that computers should be brought in as an additional ICT tool for the project. Consequently the market information obtained by the group facilitator and shared among the group verbally and also through SMS will be filed electronically. Additionally, this information will be organized, edited and printed in the form of a technical bulletin and distributed to farmers with a special focus on those having limited access to cell phones.

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 .

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. Grâce au STA, chaque membre des groupements a eu la possibilité d’appeler une animatrice locale (précédemment formée à cet effet) de même que le secrétariat de l’ONG AquaDeD pour avoir des informations concernant l’activité du groupement ou pour des raisons personnelles.

À mi-parcours de l’exécution du projet, il est remarquable que les femmes des groupements bénéficiaires s’intéressent aux activités exécutées et on note une amélioration certaine de leurs techniques de production. Elles sont maintenant conscientes des opportunités d’amélioration de leur condition de vie et de travail que pourraient leurs offrir les TICs en général. Grâce à APC et au projet GenARDIS qu’elles louent à travers chants et danses chaque fois qu’on arrive dans leur village, ces femmes jouissent aujourd’hui davantage de leurs activités et sont de plus en plus émancipées et autonomes. Bien qu’elles soient encore majoritairement analphabètes en langue, c’est avec fierté qu’elles le deviennent de moins en moins en informatique. Les TICs de façon certaine apportent de véritables changements dans la vie de ces femmes et favorisent à n’en point douter l’élévation de leur statut social.

Malgré le succès du projet, plusieurs défis ont été identifiés lors de son exécution. Nous avons donc conclu que ces éléments étaient nécessaires à la réussite du projet. D’abord l’amélioration du taux d’alphabétisation des femmes dans les deux groupements est indispensable à l’atteinte des objectifs du projet; l’accès des femmes aux institutions de micro crédit et d’assurance est aussi nécessaire pour l’amélioration et le développement de leurs activités et par conséquent leur autonomisation; les opérateurs de téléphonie mobile au Bénin devraient améliorer leur taux de couverture et la qualité de leur service notamment en milieu rural; l’Etat central devrait exiger la présence de tous les opérateurs GSM, ou au moins deux opérateurs dans chaque localité afin de favoriser la concurrence et donc de donner la possibilité aux utilisateurs de faire un choix; l’entretien des TICs est un défis immense à relever en milieu rural au Bénin afin de favoriser la vulgarisation de l’utilisation des TICs dans ces milieux; en fin, la disponibilité de l’énergie électrique dans tous les foyers (en milieu rural comme urbain) est essentiel pour une meilleure promotion des TICs dans les pays en développement.

Les problèmes liés au genre et aux TIC

Des problèmes liés au genre et aux TICs ont été identifiés durant la mise en œuvre du projet. Il s’agit notamment des problèmes d’ordre socioculturel, traditionnel et éducationnel.

Sur le plan socioculturel:
Il a été remarqué que les femmes utilisent souvent discrètement leur GSM en publique pour éviter les préjugés socioculturelles, alors que les hommes sont fiers de l’exhiber comme une marque de distinction sociale. Bien qu’elles aient généralement le même pouvoir d’achat que les hommes de leur groupement, les femmes du groupement ALLODO ont du mal à prendre leur sous pour acheter un GSM contrairement aux hommes qui investissent facilement dans les GSM et les appareils audio visuel (radio, télévision, lecteur DVD etc.).

À Agonlin, les hommes pensent plutôt que les femmes qui utilisent le GSM pourront commettent plus facilement l’adultère et peuvent mentir facilement à leur époux sur leur position réelle. Le Chef du village quant lui estime que les femmes du groupement peuvent apprendre l’informatique, mais c’est dans son bureau que cela doit rester car leur groupement ne peut pas gérer et entretenir un matériel aussi sensible et important.

Lors de la distribution des GSM au groupement WANGNINAN certaines femmes de ce groupement n’ont pas voulu prendre de GSM car elles ont peur de la réaction de leurs époux qui n’en possèdent pas encore.

Sur le plan pratique, traditionnel et éducationnel

Il a été identifié également un certain nombre de problème d’ordre pratique, traditionnel et éducationnel.
En effet, selon les femmes des groupements, le port du GSM est beaucoup plus facile pour les hommes qui arrivent à le mettre dans la poche de leur pantalon ou veste alors que c’est encombrant pour les femmes qui s’habillent souvent en pagne ou boubou (sans poche généralement).

Aussi, les services clientèle des opérateurs GSM et de maintenance des GSM et autres TICs (ordinateurs, lecteurs DVD, etc.) sont-ils souvent rares dans les milieux ruraux ce qui fait que les femmes ont généralement du mal à accéder à ces services.

Les femmes préfèrent se référer aux hommes qu’aux animatrices pour l’entretien de leurs téléphones portables ou en cas de panne.

Aussi bien dans le groupement ALLODO que WANGNINAN, l’analphabétisme des femmes les contraint à ne pas s’approprier l’ordinateur bien qu’elles sont beaucoup plus motivées à connaître les avantages pratiques de l’ordinateur que les hommes, qui s’en tiennent plus au divertissement.

L’Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications, qui est une instance dépendante de Bénin Télécom SA, devrait s’activer à supprimer au tout au moins réduire au strict minimum la différence observée dans les coûts de communication en appelant d’un opérateur mobile à un autre ou d’un opérateur mobile vers une ligne fixe et vice versa.

Les coûts souvent élevés des TICs dus à diverse taxes et au mythe qui est entretenu autour de leur utilisation (marque de modernisme ou de richesse) ne favorisent pas la vulgarisation de leur utilisation notamment en milieu rural.

La difficulté de même que le coût d’accès à l’internet ne favorise pas la vulgarisation des innovations scientifiques et technologiques particulière en agriculture dans les milieux ruraux.

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. Gnucash and Gimp) from Open Source Zambia Initiative team through a Train the trainer approach. The brochure was printed and distributed to various stakeholders involved in women’s work.

The process

After signing the contract, The Ndola Resource Centre had to prepare Monitoring and Evaluation indicators. The monitoring and Evaluation indicators being prepared were to be used before, during and after the project to ensure that the project is effectively evaluated. These indicators were inform of questionnaires;

i. Baseline Survey
ii. Training Needs Assessment Form
iii. Workshop Evaluation Form
iv. Training Evaluation Form

This was followed by the identification of various women’s organisations and institutions involved in agriculture and rural development. After identifying the various groups, the above-mentioned questionnaires were designed, prepared, deployed and later analysed. After analysis of the baseline survey and the training needs assessment form, the team at the Ndola Resource Centre prepared a training schedule, which was sent to all the participating organisations.

After preparing a training schedule, a team from Open Source Zambia Initiative came and conducted a one-week capacity building training for our trainers in Open Source Software. The Ndola Resource Centre team received training in Gnucash and Gimp.

The Ndola Resource Centre team further designed and printed an informative and educational brochure that explains gender issues in ICTs and some of the dynamics between ICTs and the various sectors of women’s development. This brochure was distributed to organisations and government institutions/department.

On the 08.05.09, The Ndola Resource Centre conducted an awareness-raising workshop where we invited leaders of twenty-three (23) women-based organisations and institutions/departments. The workshop took place at the Savoy hotel and was very interactive; the women that attended participated actively.

After the workshop, all participating organisations were required to submit five members to receive capacity building in ICTs in Open Source Software. Therefore, a total number of 115 women were expected to receive training. This training began on the 18.05.09 and will run for the next three and half months. After each training, participants will be required to fill in The training evaluation questionnaire.

Challenges so far

There was a lot of phobia by most women regarding participating in this capacity building. ICTs have been perceived as male activity, and only for professionals. Most women did not even understand how ICTs could be integrated in the various sectors of development, particularly agriculture. Some organisations were scared to embrace ICTs because ICTs have been perceived as being very expensive and complicated. A lot of concern was shown by most organisations on how sustainability was going to be attained with regards to the GenARDIS project since some organisations did not have any ICT infrastructure.

Women in three co-operative groups had difficulties attending the awareness-raising workshop, particularly because their husbands and local village headmen advised them not to attend as it was going to increase prostitution in the area. The Ndola Resource Centre team took time to visit the women together with their husbands and headmen and explained to them the importance of women being involved and trained in ICTs.

Many ICT centres still have poor communication infrastructure. Outdated equipment and state-owned monopolies often result in expensive charges and limited coverage, especially in areas where there are very few ICT centres. This discourages most women from adopting even the basic ICT of fixed lines or mobile phones

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. Farmers can use electricity to charge their mobile phones.

The most common ICTs owned by some of the families in this village are radios, usually controlled by the head of household. Radio is normally used for listening to the news and music; farmers are not used to listening to radio programmes that announce daily average crop prices at different market centres in the country; therefore accessibility to market information is a big problem.

How ICTs can help these women

The aim of this GenARDIS project is to improve women’s crop marketing chain and farmers’ household income through using ICTs in the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. Ruth Madulu, from the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI), the the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives that serve as a national coordination center for coconut and biotechnology research, are leading the initiative. The idea is to train female farmers in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phone and radio in crop marketing.

The project seeks to train farmers on how to use mobile phone, radio in marketing their crops- in market searching, scouting/spying and building better collaborative market chains from farmer to consumer, and to purchase mobile phones, radios and distribute them to farmers in order to use in building better marketing network.

What are the gender and ICT issues at stake?

Access to ICTs is generally easier for men than women in rural areas. However, women make up the majority of the agricultural labour force in rural areas of developing countries. Lack of reliable income and cultural issues limit women’s use of these tools. Access and control of mobile phones will enable women to use innovative ways to market their farm produce. Also, awareness on the use of radio to access market information will help them use this tool effectively, as it is a common household tool.

Towards economic empowerment

Once the farmers understand the market chains they are in, who the key players are and they meet and talk to them, this should awaken some new ideas on marketing. A collaborative marketing chain will be established. This will enable the farmers to access the market information and thus be able to market their farm produce using real time prices. Also, they will be able to compare prices for farm produce in different markets before selling the products. Ultimately, farmers’ income will increase because of a reliable access to market prices, which will help improve their livelihoods.

However, sharing knowledge on the use of ICTs in produce marketing will help farmers to expand production in their fields. This will increase income and food security. This is a good strategy to empower people at the grassroots, as this knowledge will also be relevant for marketing different products in the future.

Financial empowerment will boost women’s social status in the community; the nutritional health will also improve, due to sufficient food and money in households.

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.