GRACE Research Zambia

BBC News - Internet 'may be changing brains'

2011-10-19T17:14:00.001+02:00

BBC News - Internet 'may be changing brains': " many people would you invite to a party? How many friends do you have on Facebook?
These"

'via Blog this'

Online social network size is reflected in human brain structure

2011-10-19T17:14:00.000+02:00

Online social network size is reflected in human brain structure:

'via Blog this'

Guy Scott » An AIDS-free generation?

2011-07-16T22:47:00.000+02:00

By Guy Scott

When antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were first used on a quantity of HIV+ people, an obvious question presented itself to those with some knowledge of the disease: what is the effect of these drugs on the actual transmission of the HIV from one person to another – from a positive person to a hitherto uninfected person with whom he or she has sex? This question has not been discussed much publicly for reasons that are not so hard to understand.

Suppose the answer had been that the chance of an HIV+ person infecting another was not altered for the better by ARVs. The implications would have been an ethical minefield.

By keeping an HIV+ person alive and kicking longer, you would be increasing the spread of HIV – you might even be exacerbating the epidemic since the average treated person might get to have sex with and transmit the disease to more partners over a longer time.

The natural answer to this would have been to withdraw ARVs from use to allow already infected people to die quicker and lower the pressure of the epidemic. But not many people were prepared to say this publicly, and the matter was kept quiet while we waited for more information!

Even if the answer to the big question was that ARVs lowered the likelihood of virus transmission somewhat, there was another ethical conundrum. Should you inform people that their risk of passing HIV on to a negative person had been reduced by virtue of their being on ARVs? The obvious implication might be a tendency towards less care – less condom use for example – resulting from the illusion of safety.

So again it seems that most people shut up and waited....
A large worldwide trial to compare transmission with and without early ARV treatment was set up in 2005 using “discordant” couples in which one person was HIV+ and the other HIV-. The total sample was 1700 and the population was drawn from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the US.

All the HIV+ partners were in the early stages of HIV infection and were symptom. free with CD4 counts around 500. Half of the couples were assigned to the “control” group where they did not receive ARV treatment until they showed clinical symptoms of AIDS or suffered a low CD4 count (itself a symptom of AIDS).

This is the standard procedure in Zambia as elsewhere. In the other half of the sample ARVs were given immediately, despite their apparent robust good health. The point is that during this early “healthy” period, HIV carriers are normally highly infectious. What would the ARVs make of that?

The result of the “HPTN-052” trial was not expected until about 2015 but – amazing to relate – the results are already so conclusive that the trial has been stopped to enable the control group to receive early ARVs. This was the result of yet another ethical consideration.

You see: the untreated control group produced 27 HIV transmissions to the formerly HIV- partner while the treated test group produced precisely one! The figures for TB occurrence – an early indicator for HIV – were 17 and 3 respectively. Even a Zambian politician would have difficulty arguing with those numbers.

The discovery that ARVs virtually kill all transmission of the HIV if given at an early enough stage opens the door to the possibility of an ‘AIDS-free generation’ without depending solely upon an unlikely degree of behavioural change.

The only likely catch – though it is a big one – is that the sexually active segment of the population, which extends from mid teens to well into so-called geriatric age group, will have to be routinely tested for HIV so that early treatment can be initiated. If you doubt my statement about old people and sexual activity take note that there is an HIV epidemic amongst retirees in Florida.

At present, HIV in Zambia is often diagnosed via the special circumstances of either pregnancy or presenting with AIDS-related opportunistic infections. And even where the symptoms are quite pronounced, it can be difficult to persuade the person to have an HIV test.

So what proportion of adults is prepared to show up annually for an HIV test without feeling the slightest bit unwell, even knowing that it might protect sexual partners against infection?
There would seem to be a strong case for compulsory testing, but this is again fraught with ethical problems.

An attempt at compulsory testing would almost certainly result in sick people failing to present themselves – or their children – at clinics where they might be made to submit to testing for HIV. You see again: this public health business is all about commonsense, ethics, human nature and more ethics. I am so glad I am just a lowly politician.

Are today's ICTs a good example of 'sustainable Development?'

2011-05-25T20:50:00.000+02:00

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time.

Do today's ICTs and their use meet these criteria? This question is more difficult than it seems.
Currently there is great optimism among development practitioners for the achievement of the millennium development goals through ICTs. Recent research has shown that where there is deliberate use of ICTs for the achievement of development, higher levels of success towards this end have been achieved. This research has illustrated how strategic use of ICTs can leapfrog poor communities towards benefitting from resources and the essentials of development.

At the same time, there is a global surge in the demand and consumption of ICTs. This has equally put pressure on the ICT manufacturing industry to meet the rising demand. However, as a result of this increased necessity of ICTs, two issues that represent some of the greatest challenges of our time arise;
1. Sourcing Raw material for production

It has become evident that today's ICTs are not possible without the use of microprocessors and microprocessors are made using a mineral called Coltan. At present, 80% of the worlds known Coltan is sourced from war-torn Eastern Congo in the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC. The high value of this mineral has motivated warring factions in the region to fight for exploitation rights much to the detriment of the local wildlife and environment. Mined by hand, the mining of this radioactive mineral has adverse health effects such as cancer on the miners and their families who rank among the most impoverished people in the world.
2.Disposal of ICT waste and environmental sustainability

Technological advancements are so dynamic that at every moment new ICTs are introduced and old ones are disposed of. With the influx of demand for new, there is also an influx of waste from disposal of the old. These two important issues receive less attention than those that are concerned with utilization mentioned above. They too are an ICT issue.

At the expense of entire tribes, the world's manufacturers are meeting the world's insatiable appetite for technology. At the expense of the planet, the world's consumers are not yet adept at disposing of their technological waste. There are adverse implications on the technological industry to raise the Coltan issue. But human rights and dignity must prevail in the Congo for the rest of the globe's inhabitants to use ICTs with a free conscience. ICT practitioners must consider posterity and push for the end of conflict in this volatile region for the sake of future generations. As consumers we must develop an environmental sense. We must be conscious of extractive tendencies and address them with recycling and rejuvenation of the world's scarce resources. As development practitioners, we must think about sustainable development and to what extent we are working towards it at all times.

References

Buskens, I., & Webb, A. (2009). Africa women and ICTs, investigating technology, gender and empowerment. New York: Zed books.
Coltan and your mobile: a mopocket repentance and mobile community call to action. (2006, October 1). Retrieved October 27, 2010, from mopocket: http://www.mopocket.com/2006/10/coltan_and_your_mobile_a_mopoc.php
Coltan fever: Imperialism continues. (2009, June 20). Retrieved October 27, 2010, from fundacion europea coorporacion nort-sul: http://www.fecons.org/det_noticias.php?id=31
ICT for Development: Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals; Lessons Learned from Seventeen infoDev Projects. (2010, October 27). Retrieved October 27, 2010, from infodev: http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.19.html
ICT for Development; Contributing to the millenium development goals. lessons learnt from seventeen infodev projects. (2003). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
UNDP. (2010, October 27). millenium development goals. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from UNDP: http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml
What is Sustainable Development?; Environmental, economic and social well-being for today and tomorrow. (2010, October 27). Retrieved October 27, 2010, from iisd2010: http://www.iisd.org/sd/

Interpretation is Everything

2010-09-15T11:19:00.002+02:00

Matriarka

2010-03-09T19:38:00.001+02:00

depth of thought

2010-02-25T02:51:00.002+02:00

depth of thought, originally uploaded by kiss1.

Is this a world in which our daughters and sisters can thrive brothers? what have you done lately to contribute to change for the good of our partnership?

What it took: Reflections on the Grace Research Journey

2009-09-24T18:50:00.006+02:00

Key note address at the Launch of 'African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment', at the UNISA Library in Pretoria, 7 September 2009.

Ineke Buskens

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends…
I want to thank UNISA, especially the UNISA Library and the UNISA Press staff for organising this launch and for inviting me to speak at this event.

I am honoured.

I want to start with sharing wit you that Pretoria means something special to me: my first professional adventure after my husband I arrived here in 1990 from Brazil, started here at the Human Sciences Research Council, at the Centre for Research Methodology, of which I became the head in 1991, a position I held for five years. Thanks to those very challenging and enriching years, I was able to establish my consultancy Research For the Future in 1996, which eventually has led to y involvement with GRACE, the Gender Research Networks that focus on the use of ICTs for Empowerment in Africa and Arab countries. So in a way, I am a home girl reporting back to home.

I am proud of our book. Very proud.

I am proud that we brought this very challenging journey to a good end. I am proud that we were able to transform our learnings into a product we can share with the world. I am proud of every one of us. I am also grateful to each and every one of us.

And during this little time that I have with you, I want to tell you why I think that our journey was so particularly challenging.

We all gathered here know that knowledge is important, I do not have to tell you that.

Library houses knowledge and a university press diffuses it: knowledge that comprises people's best efforts, greatest dreams and deepest worries. So indeed what more appropriate venue could there have been for our book launch than this place?

Knowledge is about concepts and the power of concepts.

Our concepts have created the world we live in, the lives we live. Everything was a thought before it became physical reality: this library had a design before the bricks came, our cd ROMs disks needed quantum physics concepts to open up the technological pathways we now so take for granted.

Our concepts do not only shape our physical reality, they also shape our non-physical reality. Our concepts are the houses we live in, and we look out from the windows of these houses. And then we create our reality according to what we see and this reality leads in turn to more emotions and other thoughts, which then lead to other realities and so we can go on and on.

Sometimes we create our own concepts, but most often we inherit them and unfortunately, very often we do not question them. I will give you an example: a "mega concept" that very few people seem to question is the economic concept of "scarcity". In a world where nature teaches us everyday that we may have everything in abundance when we can be the wise stewards of ourselves and our environments, we humans have created a sub system of economics, which of course is a sub system to the wider biological and ecological system we live in and are a part of, that is grounded in "lack". And when we for instance know that diamonds are actually destroyed in Kimberley, here in South Africa, so they keep their vale, then this demonstrates to us where the actual reality of abundance and the artificial man made reality of scarcity are at odds. I do not want to go deeper into this particular concept; it is not the main focus of our being together here this morning. It is just an example that you may want to contemplate further.

What is important to realise from this example for our purpose this morning - which is about me trying to explain to you why our journey was so challenging and why I am so proud - is the fact that even in the light of this clash of "realities", very few people would want to let go of the concept of "scarcity". But why not? Isn't the concept of abundance much more attractive than the concept of lack? Wouldn't the reality we could create with the concept of abundance be much more liveable, sustainable and joyful than the concept of lack?

Indeed it would.

BUT: We human beings are creatures of habit.

We tend to be afraid of change.

When we would have to let go of the concept of lack and scarcity maybe we would have to let go of our money system, as we know it. Maybe we cannot imagine that? And something we cannot imagine will not happen. We have adapted ourselves to a sub optimal reality in terms of our emotions, our thoughts, our dreams and our aspirations. And this seems to be part of the human condition. It seems to be how we function, how we operate. A part of our being is programmable and this part of our being is strong. There is another part of our being that can observe this programming, sometimes this other part is strong enough to intervene and stop the programming and then we can experience a change in our reality. Einstein once said: very few people think with their own mind and feel with their own heart. And he is right. But this does not mean that we do not have the potential to do so and strengthen our capacity to do so, when we want this and can imagine it. The way in which I see change is: what appears a miracle to the conservative part of our being appears as the common reality to the imaginative part of our being. Maybe that is why Adrienne Rich, the famous feminist poet once said: "Change is the only poem".

Now to our book.

Our book is about women and about women empowerment.

African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, gender and empowerment.

That is what we did indeed.

Women live in a men's world still.

We have grown up in images that strengthen the male experience of our world.

From the room of my guesthouse this morning I saw a huge soccer ball wrapped around the tele-communication tower. And I wondered, in a world of partnership where women and women's realities would count as much as men and men's realities would there be such hype about a game like soccer? Because, with all the costs…what will it really contribute to the well being of the people in this country? But lets not go into that, another topic altogether again.

Back to women and their thinking and our book.

Women are, like all human beings, perfectly capable of rationalising something that is not good for them into something so good for them that they cannot let go of it.

The most dramatic example is of course Female Genital Mutilation, that is perpetrated by women on women, who of course are socialised (brain washed?) into believing that this is the right thing to do.

But we find many less dramatic examples in our daily lives. And because they are so "normal" to us, we do not question them.

What this means for research is the following:

When we do research with women, and we would merely focus on their lived realities and their perceptions of their lived realities, without contesting their knowledge as to whether it really serves their dreams in relation to the purpose which we (researchers and research participants) are working on together (like for instance empowerment through the use of Information Communication Technology) we could as researchers, contribute to these women' s further dis-empowerment.

And because we in GRACE did not want to do this, because we wanted to stay true to the purpose that we set out together in Johannesburg in October 2004: Women Empowerment through the use of Information Communication Technology, we had to do research in such a way that we could create the space where women would be able to listen to the various parts of their beings and could give voice to those different parts. And where we as researchers, could listen to them, really listen and contest. Contest in love and respect. There is a saying by Carlos Castaneda (an anthropologist by the way) who has Don Juan, the shaman in his books, describes a warrior as patient, ruthless, sweet and cunning. I liked that; I could see how those same qualities would be needed by researchers, especially by women researchers doing research with women. Because women researchers do share the same predicament as their female respondents: their brains are permeated with male images, concepts, thoughts and feelings. And in order to become another woman's guardian, in order to create a space for her dreams and a new and empowering reality to be worded and realised, one has to be able to do this for oneself. We all, in GRACE had to learn how to become our own guardians, the Watchers at the Gates of our Minds.

I think we succeeded.

I think the chapter of which our Buhle is first author is a shining example. For the ones of you who have not read this chapter yet, I strongly advise you to read it. I will give you here the gist of this chapter:

At the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, access to the free Library computers, was governed on the basis of the Rule of First Come, First Serve. The librarians however noticed that the overwhelming majority of the students using the computers were male. Asking the female students about their perspectives and experiences around access, the female students spoke about their duties as wives and mothers at home, which they had to fulfil exactly during the time in which the computers were free, and about the fact that when they would line up they would run the risk of being pushed out of the line by the male students. And whilst they acknowledged the First Come First Serve Rule as democratic, fair and even empowering, they lamented at the same time that they had to put in extra efforts to get access to computers in other ways. These female students did not have a concept, a way of thinking about this access rule that really matched their experience of this rule, the lived reality that was a consequence of this rule. When the researchers subsequently deepened their research efforts, and created opportunities for these women to face their experiences, emotions, reflections and dreams, these female students were able to bring more coherence to their thinking and acknowledge their lack of access as inconvenient and disempowering. There were however deviant cases, a few young women who did manage access to the computers and the researchers needed to make sense of this research data also.

Now I want you to ask yourself what it would take, in patience, in sweetness, in cunning and in ruthlessness, to accomplish:

Getting insight into how women constructed their lack of access to the library computers as democratic and empowering.
Contesting this knowledge in such an empowering way that these women did realise there was another truth, a more empowering truth possible
Handling the paradox of the deviant cases: women who did access the computers
And to link the reason why the deviants were able to access the computers, with a potential future for the majority of students who did not manage access, in a way that did not judge, shame or disempower students, nor the library management.

This is knowledge construction that is life giving.

It is empowering and it will contribute to a better world.

But it is challenging indeed.

And that is why, for me, this celebration is appropriate.

That is why UNISA is indeed the right place to have it.

You may understand now why I am proud and grateful.

I am very proud of our Buhle, your Buhle and I am grateful.

And in Buhle, I want to thank all Grace researchers.

I came to call them the graciousnesses.

And gracious indeed they are.

Thank you.

Male Gender Development Dialogues Project

2009-09-24T18:47:00.001+02:00

Context

Research has shown that the environments in which women find themselves in various contexts of Zambian society [as in most other poor developing countries] remain hostile and patriarchal. This conditioning places men in positions of assumed authority relative to women leading to the imbalances that are blamed for many development challenges this society faces today.

Despite the bias towards men, some men have identified the unfairness of the status quo and they have dedicated their time, talents and work toward addressing the imbalance. Working in diverse areas of development [the arts, literature, advocacy etc.] their feminist point of view, work and consciousness renders them unique and in conflict with the status quo while also exposed to ridicule by the traditional establishment that forms the context in which they live and work. Learning about their choices to work towards gender equity/ equality and experiences as a consequence of these choices within the paradigm described above would render clarity to the context and also present lessons on how men can begin to view partnership with women as an alternative and preferred reality to the unjust traditional current state of affairs.

Using the internet as a platform for this dialogue would not only serve to enhance the reach of the debate beyond the research environment but also serve as an open learning platform for all in access to the medium and provide an access point for support among men of similar feminist development interest. Due to its fluidity and diversity in choice of applications, the internet provides a multiplicity of means of sustaining male feminist dialogues [be they multiple streams of dialogue, common threads of thought etc]
creating individual male feminist web spaces and Web resources for use in learning, exhibitions, research, reporting and debate.

Learning about the lives, experiences and work of these men; self examination of feminist values and experiences by men; the use of the internet as a learning platform and a tool of transmission and engagement in Zambia, how the internet can facilitate the transference of the dialogue to other ICTs or forums renders this research of critical importance in the process of learning about actively influencing attitudes and assumptions that have been held for many traditions in Zambian society.

Research Purpose

To explore how internet dialogues on gender by men can support men to examine how they can contribute to a gender just and balanced Zambia while being aware of their own feminist values and experiences.

Research Question

How would Male Gender Internet Dialogues enhance enlightenment on feminism, gender and development in Zambian society?

Theory of Change and Theoretical Framework
Theory of Change

The purpose [To explore how internet dialogues on gender by men can support men to examine how they can contribute to a gender just and balanced Zambia while being aware of their own feminist values and experiences] involves building relationships that can project the principle of gender equality in Zambia and democratic debate and the democratic allowance of further debate within the debate to manifest itself will lead to a wider reach in expectations of impact. What is valuable here is that in the room of gender discourse, the male voice is dim if not silent and in this framework we see an attempt at granting it co-ownership [democracy].

Theoretical framework

Input theory envisages the creation of a space and the criteria for discourse provides opportunity for interrelation, openness and creation.

The Output theory level suggests that a space for discourse allows recreation of new spaces and proposals for actions or shifts in behavior and practices.

Creativity allows for dreaming or discerning alternatives and breaking the gender divide in as far as dialoguing the biases that have prevailed for a long time.

Including men in Dialoguing biases provides the missing link to ownership of the debate and informs consensus on policy reform, behavior change and culture shifting.

Methodology and methodological Justification

The research is grounded by a Mediating Discourse strategy and the traditions of feminist theorizing that inform the values of GRACE. The research practice will be framed by two complementing Qualitative Action Research methodologies;

Co-orporative Inquiry and
Appreciative Inquiry

The entire research process will be subjected to the quality and impact framework that serves to map the project processes of intention, theoretical proposition, project practice and outcome/impact

Methodological Justification

I find that groundings are important in structuring the research process. The mediating discourse allows for the linking of theories of change with the practice of applying recommended changes in a practical way within the research environment without the element of judgment. This meaning that the change that takes place will not automatically be attributed to the change theory [or that the change theory will be expected to be the only means of proposing the ultimate change] I may envisage in the interim but result from dialogues, sharings and observations that are within the dialogical environment [this fluidity allows for organic growth of theory, practice and change as induced by practical need and relevance]. Women's development and progress is the underlying principle of GRACE and it remains the crowning purpose of the research.

The two complementing Qualitative Action Research methodologies;

Co-orporative Inquiry: An action research methodology that works best in a research where the researcher works with people with similar interests and concerns, where these people are drawn to the interest of collectively learning and sharing and supporting each other in the inquiry process and based on this fact, it is suited to the research question because of my interest and involvement in gender development work as a man. Sharing experiences and ideas will best be retained within this research methodology framework. It also complements the research question and project purpose.
Appreciative Inquiry: Appreciative Inquiry liberates the creative and constructive potential of groups and using this methodology within the research process will serve to take the respondents (including myself) to a deeper level of both self consciousness and that of achieving our work and goals more effectively. It also works best in research environments where improvements of working practices are required as would be the case when support is requested by participants.

For practical purposes, the research will be contained within the Quality and Impact framework that will also serve as a mapping frame of the progress of the project. Within these methods, such techniques as desk research, in-depth interviews and life journaling will be invaluable.

It must be noted that while the methodological choice has been made, I recognize that I still need more understanding on how to harmonize them within the single project. Based on this, I may have to consider allowing for even an organic approach in choice of methodology and basing this on context and relevance in accordance with the time and place. I don't yet see how I would involve quantitative research methods in a major way in this project.

Quality and Impact Framework

Expectations of inputs into the Research Project	Theory: What is your theory of change – input to impact?		The purpose [To explore how internet dialogues on gender by men can support men to examine how they can contribute to a gender just and balanced Zambia while being aware of their own feminist values and experiences] involves building relationships that can project the principle of gender equality in Zambia and democratic debate and the democratic allowance of further debate within the debate to manifest itself will lead to a wider reach in expectations of impact. What is valuable here is that in the room of gender discourse, the male voice is dim if not silent and in this framework we see an attempt at granting it co-ownership [democracy].
Inputs	The creation of a space and the criteria for discourse provides opportunity for interrelation, openness and creation
Identification, introduction and induction of respondent [Zambian Male Boundary partners]. Learning about what informs their ideals and values and what they do and their aspirations and hopes and dreams. Creations of an internet dialogue space. This based on the requirements and needs of participants [skills training, access] and in recognition of the capacity for growth of this space or the need for alternate web spaces that may form as a result of breakout dialogues Democratic dialogue. Allowing for a space for the testing of ideas, generating new associations and enriching thoughts. Providing a neutral space where parallels of thinking are acceptable and organic growth of other debates outside the space is documented and free to manifest. This under certain guidelines in keeping with protection of the overall purpose
Outputs	A space for discourse allows recreation of new spaces and proposals for actions or shifts in behavior and practices
Formation of networks of engagement around shared or differing ideas and points of view. Formation of clusters and subgroups organically Development of awareness in the spheres of work of the participants Creation of a wave of discourse by men on their function within the realm of gender and development
Outcomes		Creativity allows for dreaming or discerning alternatives and breaking the gender divide in as far as dialoguing the biases that have prevailed for a long time
Collective and individual actions, formations of ideas and interventions, innovations Development support structures for men who need them in terms of resources and discourse and as a shield from potential reprimand
Impact		Including men in Dialoguing biases provides the missing link to ownership of the debate and informs consensus on policy reform, behavior change, culture shifting
Societal and Behavioral change breaking down biases Wave momentum is created renewing the gender debate Inter-level engagements and generic formations of developmental discourses leading to ownership of the concept of gender and gender equality across sexes and sectors or organs of society

Outcome Map
1. Project Vision

A gender conscious and enlightened Zambian society with men contributing to the gender and development dialogue that leads to their own self awareness and feminist consciousness and the sharing of ideas that lead to gender aware and sensitive development in all sectors of Zambian society

Project Mission

To provoke and stimulate a gender dialogue process among and with men with the use of the internet as a primary medium that leads to a buildup of male gender dialogues beyond the project sphere and the establishment of male co-developed actions, explorations and exhibitions for gender development and consciousness in Zambia.

Boundary partners

The boundary partners are Organizations and individuals who have been identified for their contributions and potential to contribute to the gender development dialogue in Zambia [they may have contributed work and they have potential to work within the area]. They have also been identified for their potential and ability to take the dialogue to its highest possible dissemination in various forms within their contexts or spheres of work. It must also be noted that these organizations would benefit from the knowledge created in the research process and thus for observations sake, they find their place within the project. These Organizations may also turn to each other as they reflect on each other's various areas of work in a process of networking and knowledge sharing.

The Boundary partners have been categorized according to areas of work forming boundary partner clusters which individually themselves are potential boundary partners [the clusters are groupings of organizations of similar interest and work] for the purpose of developing the basis for individual boundary partner discussions on participation in the project. These clusters are: Gender Advocacy Civil Society Organizations; Media Institutions; Creativity and expression fraternities; Funding and Resource Organizations; Policy making Institutions; Individual Respondents/ partners.

Becoming Aware of What is Going On: Reflecting on Social and Gender Injustice in the Context of Human Development, Poverty and ICTs

2009-09-24T18:10:00.003+02:00

By Ineke Buskens

Introduction

In concerning ourselves about the role of ICTs for human development and poverty reduction, we take a position grounded in a sense of social justice, and we look through the lens of human agency at the economic potential of ICTs.

The concept of human development is grounded in social justice. A commitment to social justice in a gendered world means commitment to the practical application of gender justice. Social and gender issues are inextricably intertwined, yet gender justice is an end in itself. Women have the right to experience their being-ness for themselves, to perceive themselves as the most important reason for their own existence, and not to be defined mainly by what they mean to others: husbands, children and parents.

Having said that, social and economic empowerment of women will have a wider developmental impact than individual women's advancement, because women are "concerned with the well being of their children, their husbands and the economics of their villages" and wider communities. "Nothing is as important today in the political economy of development as an adequate recognition of the political, economic and social participation and leadership of women" (Sen, 1999).

"Research in, about and for human development" has to be grounded in the conscious acknowledgement of and reflection on the agency of the various parties that define its practice: donors, researchers and research participants. In this text I want to set the stage for reflection on the agency of two such groups: women who use Information Communication Technology for development and empowerment, and people like us who do research with such women or who set a research agenda for others to do so.

Human agency is the capacity for human beings to make choices and to impose those choices on the world. The concept of choice cannot be discussed outside of the concept of consciousness and the interplay between consciousness and environment.

What seems important to me for our discussions over these two days, is attempting to understand women's rationalities for development action (or the lack of it) as grounded in their realities, and to share with each other the frames of reference we as researchers (and as the ones setting research agendas) entertain. Our perspectives, whether they are unquestioned assumptions or lived experience that got transformed into personal truth and wisdom, will define the knowledge construction processes that will impact on future research participants' and research beneficiaries' parameters for agency and choice.

I thus want to tell a story that was one of the case studies in the GRACE Africa Research Network's First Phase, contextualize it with insights gained within the wider research quest in which this particular research took place (Buskens & Webb), and respond to it from my own theoretical, methodological and normative positions. This allows me to speak to the relationship between ICTs, human development and poverty reduction, while becoming transparent as a "constructor of knowledge".

Bahati's story

"Bahati was born in a rural area in Tanzania to poor parents. Her education was minimal - primary school and a few months of dress-making training. So Bahati decided to try her luck in Dar es Salaam, where she could live with an aunt who was supported by her children. Bahati first tried dress-making. Because the competition was too fierce to make a reasonable living, she turned to hairdressing instead. She worked long hours and made very little money because she worked in a salon owned by somebody else, but she persisted. She started saving of the little money she earned and after two years of saving was able to buy a mobile phone. Once she had this phone, she had her freedom: she shared her number with her clients and soon after, could establish her own business. Never did she use the phone for private or social calls; she only used it to receive bookings and inquire from clients what hair extensions they wanted. By the time the researchers finished their work with Bahati she had bought a house of her own and was able to rent out a room for extra income. With a monthly income of about 300$, Bahati lives well above the poverty line of less than a dollar per day. In all the years that Bahati has lived in Dar es Salaam, she has not been able to contact her family at home because of the fact that there is no connectivity in the area where she was born" (Meena & Rusimbi, pp. 194, 195).

Responses to Bahati's Story

The Fix-It approach…

Stories such as these take on a life of their own in our discourses. If, in listening to this story, one would react with: "Ah shame, let's send all our second-hand mobiles to Tanzania so people like Bahati would not need to save for two years to obtain a mobile phone", the meaning of this story for development research practice and discourse would be missed. Such a "fix-it" reflex originates from the listener's need to see a different reality than the one which presents itself. The emotions of judgment close the processes of analysis and interpretation prematurely, and should be held lightly and observed closely.

Humans can do anything

The story speaks to the grand narrative of the resilience of the human spirit. When one's dream is powerful enough to commit to personal change, the greatest of adversities can be overcome. As such, the story is an opportunity to understand the processes of personal change that a "poor person striving for wealth and security" sets in motion. From such a perspective, the two years that Bahati needed to save for her mobile phone were probably pivotal. Maybe those two years were essential not only to hone her hairdressing talent, but also to forge a disciplined mind, grow in self-confidence and prepare for a new life. And in those two years Bahati combined her "power within which pushed her to do things for her own advancement" (Meena & Rusimbi, p. 194) with the power to reach out for support and to receive it, the "power with". The two "powers" together became the "power to" accomplish, and to realize her dream.

Beware of romanticizing the poor

Idealizing the survival power of the poor, which is deemed to be grounded in their social base and social organization, would be unethical. Bahati would not have succeeded in her quest if it had not have been for her aunt, and her aunt would not have survived and been able to support Bahati if it had not been for her children. That is all true. But one has to be cautious here. Gonzalez de la Rocha describes how the "myth of survival" (to which her earlier research had contributed) was abused by an international development organization to justify policies that put breaking-point stress on the Mexican poor. She emphasizes empathically that social and economic policies should be designed and implemented with a view to strengthening the resources of the poor, instead of taking them for granted (Gonzalez de la Rocha, p. 62).

Poverty is expensive …gender discrimination more expensive still

One could raise the question of what Bahati's country and even the world at large are actually missing out on, with Bahati still living on the margins of her society: What would a woman like this, with the focus and discipline she displayed, have accomplished if educated well? What contributions could she have made to her society and to the world? CEO of a network perhaps? A minister? If she had been born a boy in that area of the world, her chances of receiving more education might have been better, and thus her contribution to her community more substantial.

It is about use of ICTs not about ICTs

The crucial research concept is not "ICTs", but "use of ICTs". ICTs do not do anything, be it alleviating poverty or creating wealth. In this particular case, Bahati worked herself out of poverty into some measure of security and wealth through the power of her disciplined mind, her willingness to change and take risks by leaving her family and familiar environment, and the wise and economic use of her mobile phone. Avoiding the pitfalls of personifying objects and objectifying human beings contributes to conceptual clarity and thus research quality. Furthermore, accepting "use of ICTs" instead of "ICTs" as the main research concept creates space for the concept of human agency.

ICTs as handmaidens of our divisive economic-financial-monetary systems

The story evokes the question as to why a mobile phone should cost almost two years of a hairdresser's salary in East Africa, while the same item would cost a hairdresser in the North or the West not more than a lunch or two. There is something fundamentally wrong with the economic-financial-monetary systems that we use to govern our world. These systems are not only instrumental in creating more disparity between countries, but also within countries. When ICTs are drawn into this financial-economical-monetary power field, the ICT users perpetuate its dynamics of division and exploitation. Abraham's research in Zambia reveals how the prohibitive cost of mobile phone use has a profound divisive effect on women who use their phones for the explicit purposes of connection, mobilization and social advocacy. The women users now speak of "callers" and "bleepers"; a "virtual class system" has been created. One can only wonder about the longer-term effects this will have on Zambia's women's movement and other social movements (Abraham, p. 102). There seems to be a limit to the empowering potential of ICT use within a profoundly divisive economic-financial-monetary system.

Sub-Saharan Africa as the benchmark for the developing world

Bahati may have been lucky that she was born in East Africa: if born to poor parents in India (Kerala excluded), Pakistan, China or North Africa, she might not have lived to reach adulthood. In China Bahati could have been thrown away as a female baby. In India she could have died from malnutrition as a toddler. In North Africa she could have been sold into slavery at 5 years old. The low female-male ratios in these countries indicate that 100 million women could be missing. With a female-male ratio of 1.022, sub-Saharan Africa is used as a benchmark for the developing world (Sen, pp. 99-110). The women that bear the heaviest burden of gender discrimination in this world may actually never get to a position where they can use ICTs for their development and empowerment.

Female and male work connotations and aspirations

Bahati's story also speaks to the power of the gendered aspirations for labor and entrepreneurship prevalent in her community. She was exposed to ideas about dress-making and hairdressing and thus carved her future in line with these horizons. "Female" occupations are usually less lucrative than "male" labor activities, thus contributing to the feminization of poverty. According to Margaret Mead, the value given to gender attaches itself to the value given to labor activities. In other words, in a culture where men do the weaving and women the pottery, weaving would be valued higher than pottery. In a culture where women did the weaving and men the pottery, pottery would be higher valued. Evidence from recent times would support this observation. This would mean that women entering certain ICT arenas would automatically "devalue" those sectors and end up being lesser paid for their labor. So instead of pushing policies that aim to stream women into male-dominated fields, it would be good to investigate how images of "womanhood" and (economic) value impact each other at various layers of (un)consciousness, and design interventions that would influence such dynamics.

Using ICTs in gender-bending ways…

In using her mobile phone to start and run her hairdressing business, Bahati did not (have to) break any gender images about how a good and decent woman should behave. But then, she was not married…

Women operating village phones in rural Uganda reported to the researcher that they had to choose between their marriage and their economic advancement, since their husbands could not cope with their increasing economic empowerment and social independence (Bantebya, pp. 156-160). Some women divorced and some toned their businesses down. The "deviant case" (out of 9 case studies) attributed her acquisition of a husband to her improved financial circumstances and valued his support in her "gender-bending" work: "My husband knows the value of my phone business and does not complain about my prolonged absence from home and exposure to the public. This alone gives me strength and confidence, and resilience to continue with such work despite my Islamic faith, which does not condone such work, especially for married women. The fact that I am working against such odds makes me feel empowered" (Bantebya, pp. 156-160).

It seems that for women to make use of the opportunities for advancement that ICTs offer, they often need the capacity to stand alone and forsake the need for social approval. Yet there seems to be the potential for (more progressive?) companionship when such a revolutionary pathway has been carved out.

ICTs: Power and empowerment

ICTs are powerful tools that can be socially invasive and personally addictive. In order to use ICTs for empowerment and development, certain internal and external factors need to be in place; women need to be empowered to a certain degree in order to use ICTs for empowerment. Bahati is a case in point: she did not become a slave to her mobile phone, she remained in control of its use and displayed extraordinary discipline and constraint. While these powerful tools need a certain power to handle them to one's advantage, their use can be intrinsically empowering when handled well.

In their research at the University of Harare, Zimbabwe, Mbambo-Thata et al. found that the majority of female students would (or could?) not make use of the free access to the University library computers. They reported that this access conflicted with their other (gendered) responsibilities in terms of timing, and that they were running the risk of being shoved aside by male students when lining up. There was, however, a very small minority of female students who stood their ground (literally and figuratively). These students had previous experience in ICT use, realized that there was a discrepancy between the "theory of equal access" and the "practice of unequal access" and understood this situation as gender discrimination. The researchers wondered whether it was these students' previous exposure to computers and their confidence in using them that motivated and enabled them to stand their ground and "become aware of the existing discrimination and inequality between women and men, and how it affected their lives" (Mbambo-Thata et al.)

Concluding remarks

ICTs are incredibly powerful tools that have affected and transformed all our lives in many and myriad ways. For social researchers, the use of ICTs and effects of the use of ICTs also function as "scratch cards": they reveal the dynamics and patterns underlying (apparently) blank surfaces of social and gender realities. When women in Zambia are killed by their husbands for using their phone to live a social life beyond their husbands' control, a gender reality that may have remained hidden before suddenly becomes starkly visible. This makes us as ICT researchers and as those setting ICT research agendas responsible for sharing what we see beyond a technical perspective: we have to highlight the social and gender injustices that become visible to us, even when we do not have quick-fix solutions handy.

The reflections shared in this text are merely my subjective selection. Many more issues pertaining to social and gender injustice could be shared in a context of human development, poverty and ICTs. However, I am also aware of the fact that there are many more aspects to these issues of which I am not aware, because I have not developed the eyes to see them yet. Ours is a sexist and deeply unjust world, and having been socialized in such a world, nobody - not even the most conscious among us - can claim to be totally free of gender and social blindness. There are only degrees of commitment to become free of such. It is thus pertinent both for reasons of women empowerment and general development to face up to our (inevitable) social and gender blindness in ICT research agendas and designs, as well as in ICT policy briefs and decisions.

Because we all still have so much to learn about such issues, a social and gender focus should be integrated in research and policy thinking from the beginning. This would also mean that space and time would have to be created for policy makers, corporate agents, researchers and practitioners to learn and become aware during processes of research and implementation of "what is really going on".

Acknowledgements

I want to acknowledge all my GRACE colleagues for the work you have done. You have given so much of yourself in your research projects and in your sharing within the network that I have been able to draw from a very rich pool of learning and experience.

I also want to thank IDRC for the vision to establish GRACE and the funds to make this vision possible and for inviting me to the Harvard II Forum.

I need to stress that the opinions expressed in this position paper are mine alone.

References

Abraham, Kiss, B. (2009). "The names in your address book: are mobile phone networks effective in advocating women's rights in Zambia?" In: Buskens, Ineke & Webb, Anne (eds.) (2009) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment. Zed Books / IDRC, London / Ottawa.

Bantebya Kyomuhendo, Grace (2009). "The mobile payphone business: a vehicle for rural women's empowerment in Uganda" In Buskens, Ineke & Webb, Anne (eds.) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment. Zed Books / IDRC, London / Ottawa.

Buskens, Ineke & Webb, Anne (eds.) (2009) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment. Zed Books / IDRC, London / Ottawa.

Chesler, Phyllis. (2001). Woman's Inhumanity to Woman. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books.

Cornwall, Andrea, Harrison, Elizabeth & Whitehead, Ann (eds.) (2008) Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. The Institute of Social Studies, Den Hague.

Daly, Mary. (1973). Beyond God the Father – Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press.

Gonzalez de la Rocha, Mercedes. (2008). "The construction of the Myth of Survival" In:

Cornwall, Andrea; Harrison, Elizabeth & Whitehead, Ann (eds.) Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. The Institute of Social Studies, Den Hague.

Hannan, Carolyn. (2004).Women's Rights and Empowerment: Gender Equality in the New Millennium. United Nations Day Banquet; Dallas Chapter of the United Nations Association.

Mbambo-Thata, Buhle; Mlambo, Elizabeth & Mwatsyia, Precious. (2009). "When a gender blind policy results in discrimination: realities and perceptions of female students at the University of Zimbabwe" In: Buskens Ineke & Webb Anne (eds.) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment. Zed Books / IDRC, London / Ottawa.

Meena, Ruth & Rusimbi, Mary (2009). "Our journey to empowerment: the role of ICT" In: Buskens Ineke & Webb Anne (eds.) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment. Zed Books / IDRC, London / Ottawa.

Nussbaum, MC. (2000). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Nzegwu, Nkiru (2002) "Questions of agency: Development, Donors, and Women of the South." Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: 2, 1.

Oxaal, Zoë with Baden, Sally (1997). Gender and Empowerment: Definitions, Approaches and Implications for Policy.

BRIDGE Report 40; ISBN: 1 85864 175 6

Sen, A. (1999) Development as Freedom. Anchor Books, New York & Toronto.

Vickers, Jeanne (1991) Women and the World Economic Crisis St Martin's Press, New York.

What Matters Most?

2009-09-24T17:43:00.004+02:00

What Matters Most?
Reflections for the Discussions on
Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction

23, 24 September 2009,
Harvard Faculty Club, Harvard, MA, USA

By Ineke Buskens

What matters most in my opinion is for human beings to live a life on this planet that is worthy of human aspiration, to co-create as humanity a world that is conducive to conscious human evolution. And I am not only thinking here of the people for whom we are gathered here, the people who have come to be known as 'the poor', the "Bottom of the Pyramid", etc, I am also thinking of us and people like us. There is no bottom without a top, and the top is just as much part of the problem as the bottom: we define each other; and what is more, we are all connected. Separation is an illusion. The reality, which we are all waking up to in these days of global warming and financial decline, is that we are all connected.

What should thus matter most for us, here, the people who have this beautiful opportunity to reflect together in this beautiful place on questions of Human Development, poverty reduction, growth and the use of Information Communication Technology, is to work with and within concepts that are aligned to this dream: the dream for a world that is worthy of human aspiration and conducive to conscious human evolution. Concepts are powerful tools that once accepted as intricate part of a collective consciousness create the parameters for people's thoughts, emotions, experiences and realities. And once concepts have such power, people may be reluctant to let them go, even in the light of new evidence that challenges those concepts. To showcase such power I want to tell you the story I have been told by a Darwin expert whom I met in Cambridge, UK, last week: the biggest problem the church had with Darwin's argument for evolution was not with the idea of time. It seemed that the church in those days had an idea of deep time and did not take the 7 days literal. The point was that they could not let go of the concept of redemption: The reasoning was that if there had been a process of evolution, then maybe there had been no Fall, if there had been no Fall, redemption would not be an issue anymore. And of course, redemption is the corner stone of the function and the power of the church. In hindsight it is clear to see that women would have had a different pilgrimage in their striving towards gender equality, dignity and worthiness if the church (and many church goers no doubt too) would not have been so married to the concept of redemption. Because in all the religions of the book, women are made responsible for The Fall.

Turning the focus back to human development and our efforts to think our way out of poverty into wealth through the use of ICTs, I want to highlight two insights I gained through GRACE (the IDRC supported Gender Research in ICTs for Empowerment Research Networks in Africa and the Middle East), that I think are pertinent to our discussions:

The dominant economic global mindset (paradigm) on this planet is about separation and hierarchy, divide and rule, about creating competition and scarcity, about exploitation of people and resources, not about partnership and connection, about justice or nurturing. And if no other spaces are created, ICTs become the handmaidens of this system and ICT users perpetuate these divisive characteristics. The Zambia study, that took place within the GRACE research network, reveals how the use of mobile phones created a virtual class system within a group of women who used mobile phones to network with each other for the purpose of advocacy for women's rights. The cost of cell phone use created a group of callers (women who could afford calling costs) and beepers (women who could not afford the calling costs). The potential for connection and the intent for connection that is so much part of what we expect of mobile phones (and of all ICTs) was thwarted because of the financial, economic parameters in which this use takes place. And power differentials were created where they did not exist before.

People adapt to their environment. And in doing so they also adapt to the reflection of themselves that the environment gives them. Many people cannot imagine the dreams that would lift them out of their limitations because they do not have the building blocks for these dreams. They do not even have the concepts that match the actual experience of their lived realities. They have adapted their preferences to this power imbalanced world in order to survive in it. This is particularly relevant to women in relationship to development and empowerment efforts. The GRACE Zimbabwe case study I touched on briefly in my paper showcases this dynamic. At the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, access to the free Library computers, was governed on the basis of the Rule of First Come, First Serve. The librarians however noticed that the overwhelming majority of the students using the computers were male. Asking the female students about their perspectives and experiences around access, the female students spoke about their duties as wives and mothers at home, which they had to fulfil exactly during the time in which the computers were free, and about the fact that when they would line up they would run the risk of being pushed out of the line by the male students. And whilst they acknowledged the First Come First Serve Rule as democratic, fair and even empowering, they lamented at the same time that they had to put in extra efforts to get access to computers in other ways. These female students did not have a concept, a way of thinking about this access rule that really matched their experience of this rule, the lived reality that was a consequence of this rule. When the researchers subsequently deepened their research efforts, and created opportunities for these women to face their experiences, emotions, reflections and dreams, these female students were able to bring more coherence to their thinking and acknowledge their lack of access as inconvenient and disempowering. The First Come First Serve Rule was very effective in removing female competition from the computer access arena. It also kept in place the stereotypes about women and their non-use of ICTs. And without the researchers' interventions, the female students would not have been able to do the conceptual work that would give them a position from which to question the fairness of this rule.

From these two insights, it becomes obvious that there is no neutral space when it comes to knowledge, knowledge construction, and the tools that give access to knowledge such as ICTs. Ours is a sexist and deeply unjust world and I see a minefield of power dynamics everywhere. And just like a real mine field, if you are not aware and do not take special investigative measures, you only discover the mines by stepping on them.

From this basis I want to speak to the concept of openness that is so much at the heart of this Forum. Although I do not comprehend fully all the conceptual work that has been taking place, what I do comprehend I do appreciate and I have my own hopes and fears in this regard and these I want to share with you.

In the first place I think that behind the practices that are identified as acts of openness, like the development of open source software, open scientific journals and web publishing, there are other dynamics at work. Human motivations, dreams and aspirations and it would be good to keep those in mind.

Yesterday I heard from Matthew that Harvard University has decided to have articles published by Harvard academics immediately loaded on the Harvard website. Being the powerful institution that it is, the journals would have no choice but to comply with that. Harvard's motivation for instigating this web publishing is probably not guided by the idealism of openness but by strategic insight into the power-knowledge dynamics. More and more immediate access to Harvard articles will enhance the authors' influence in their field, their academic reputation and thus also Harvard's standing: a virtuous cycle indeed.

Another example is open source software. When I listen to open source software designers, I do not hear them speak about their desire for openness as a value in itself. I hear the joy of connection with like minds, the joy of creating freely and releasing genius. I also hear care and concern for their environment and the desire to connect their capacities to this environment in the most useful and beneficial way. I hear a dream for a more egalitarian society where networking is a gesture from the heart and the mind. I hear love at work actually.

The third and last example pertaining to the concept of openness I want to discuss here refers to how I see virtual groups of women and of male and female gender researchers manage openness in virtual environments. Women are being killed for being feminists in this world, for being known to be feminist, for speaking up for their and other women's human rights. In such a world, there cannot be unreserved openness yet. I have my own experiences with GRACE but I have also learnt of other groups that protect their boundaries by deciding very carefully who to admit to the inner circle and what to share with the outside world.

I think that we, humans are meant to share and grow in connection with each other. GRACE is proving this to me on a daily basis. The learning and sharing that emerges is beyond governing or steering. It is living a life of its own now. Yet, its boundaries are protected. And the more the openness to the outside world is governed and protected, the more the internal openness is growing.

So in a world of power dynamics that govern the values we attach to gender, and to wealth and status and class, and that keep so many good people still in their spell, I think that the concept of openness needs continuous and relentless questioning. Where there is so much potential for the good, there is also the shadow side of great abuse. If openness is the space, what is the purpose and what is the intent behind it? As 'emergence' is becoming our reality more and more especially in the field of ICTs and because of ICTs, we have to complement the questions of purpose: 'What is this openness going to be used for and for what?' With the questions of intent: 'What is the dream you carry in your heart and mind for the openness you want to see?'

Einstein once said that very few people think with their own mind and feel with their own heart. I think actually that in the emerging new open spaces, the new openness measures and business models as we see them emerge in the ICT arena, there is more space for us thinking with our own minds and our own hearts. I also think that these emerging trends of openness are actually indicators that there is a shift taking place away from separation towards more connection. And so I do have the hope that the dream of connection, which is so much in people's minds and hearts and for which ICTs are most appropriate vehicles, will be able to thrive. And I think what matters most for us would be to realise that the opportunity of thinking these issues through brings with it the responsibility of becoming its guardians. What that would mean in actual reality, would probably differ for different people, and I am sure such issues will emerge in our discussions. From my side, I would like to bring to the fore, that apart from investigating emerging openness and doing work towards establishing or creating the opportunity for more openness to emerge, we also have take a stand, a normative stand. It may have become obvious by now that my dream would be connection, genuine connection between people because in that connection can the striving towards a world worthy of human aspiration take place. And the work of connection and towards connection calls us to recognize power dynamics, name them and keep them aligned with a human future that works for us all.

Visit this link to read the new GRACE Book on Women and ICTs in Africa

2009-03-08T15:23:00.002+02:00

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-135944-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining

WOMEN’S MOBILE COMMUNITIES ON MOBILE PHONE NETWORKS

2008-12-23T13:48:00.000+02:00

ABSTRACT
The research process revealed that Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests. Civil Society Organisation Networks are increasingly adopting the use of Mobile Cellular Telephony in their advocacy programs as the ICT increases in popularity across the entire Zambian Population. The general lack of Women’s free access to mobile services due to cost, retrogressive cultural practices and infrastructure limitations, obstruct general advancement in women’s effective collective use of the mobile cellular phone for advancement of women. As solutions are found for advancement of women, many questions emerge bordering on how to effectively insure women’s efficient access and effective utilization of communication services. The research process was informed by Zambian women leaders of a Civil Society Network and Communication specialists. Qualitative research methods where utilized. The Research process revealed that Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests.

WOMEN’S MOBILE COMMUNITIES ON MOBILE PHONE NETWORKS
INTRODUCTION

Through Mobile Cellular Phones, Zambian women communicate with other women as well as men from all sectors of Zambian society. Un-moderated and free content developed as they communicate consists of common interest issues; free content and support across a wide range of needs is being rendered across these communities from monetary exchange, information exchange and basic sharing of experiences. Cultural relations are evolving as physical ties are being replaced with ‘electronic ones’. Civil Society network Coordinators would rather call members’ mobile phones than fixed office lines because mobile phones surpass the bureaucracy and there is a guarantee of communicating with the desired subject. With a doubling of subscriptions from a million subscribers in 2006 to about double the amount by 2008, the Mobile, Cellular Phone presents itself as a rapidly growing phenomenon with service accessible across the country regardless of remoteness. This drastically exceeds the fixed line Telephony system that renders Zambia one of the lowest in Teledensity at 0.9 fixed line telephones per 100 people(9 people per 1000 with Telephone service[1]).

The general lack of Women’s free access to mobile services due to cost, retrogressive cultural practices and infrastructure limitations, obstruct general advancement in women’s effective collective use of the mobile cellular phone for advancement of women. Still not wholly accessible to the majority of women.
The objective of the research was to examine to what extent the mobile phone was impacting on women’s social ties in Zambia’s NGOC[2]C civil society networks.
The research was carried out in Lusaka the capital city of Zambia over a period of one year. Qualitative Research methods where utilized. The Research process identified respondents and structured the group in two classifications as follows;
1. Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
2. Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ. Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Research process identified respondents by structurally interviewing key stake holders in the process of service provision. The structure involves two classifications as follows;
1. Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
2. Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. They give detailed personal accounts of how they use the Mobile Cellular phone as a tool for communication both in their lives and collectively within networks; their insights shed light on the personal experiences that characterize women in this group. The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ. Through this group, technical insight in the systems of service delivery and the possibilities for change both possible and intentioned was collected.
Throughout the research process, a participatory process with respondents was utilized based on acceptance of the understanding that Social innovations succeed when social sectors play a role and intentionality of women users is complex and undeterminable; Only the general sense indicating patterns was considered through a rigorous process informed by a selection of Qualitative research methods that encompass the general GRACE Research methodology process. These methods include;
· The Free Attitude interview
· Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis(Exercising a reflective stance)
· Literature Reviews

The respondents where active participants in the research process and they gave their consent and endorsement of the Research.
RESULTS
The research process revealed that Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests.
To examine the extent to which the mobile phone was impacting on women’s social ties in Zambia’s NGOCC civil society networks, the research revealed that;

· Mobile Cellular Phone Telephony can contribute to ‘Leap Frogging’ and bridging The Digital Divide in Zambian sectors of society between Rural Areas and urban areas; Men and women; economically empowered communities and those that are Un-empowered. It can be a Conduit for Economic Development for women.

· Mobile Cellular Telephony can present the concepts of Freedom of Association and the Freedom of Expression as a Reality for Women; it can provide a space for Enhanced positions of Women within the Culturally Limiting Zambian Society.
DISCUSSION
The research process revealed that Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests.
To examine the extent to which the mobile phone was impacting on women’s social ties in Zambia’s NGOCC civil society networks, the research was carried out in Lusaka the capital city of Zambia over a period of one year. Qualitative Research methods where utilized. The Research process identified respondents and structured the group in two classifications as follows;
1. Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
2. Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ
To examine the extent to which the mobile phone was impacting on women’s social ties in Zambia’s NGOCC civil society networks, the research revealed that;

· Mobile Cellular Phone Telephony can contribute to ‘Leap Frogging’ and bridging The Digital Divide in Zambian sectors of society between Rural Areas and urban areas; Men and women; economically empowered communities and those that are Un-empowered. It can be a Conduit for Economic Development for women.
The emergence of the Mobile Cellular Phone service and its availability in remote areas presents an opportunity to link remote communities with urban centers like never before.

From lack of access to fixed line telephony; women in disadvantaged communities can access telephony through mobile handsets. With integrated ICT services like internet and mms, the phone has ‘Leap Frogged[3]’ communities into the digital age.

Women’s empowerment networks have noticed the power of ‘Leap Frogging’ rural women as is the case with a One World Africa stimulated project in Zambia where the organisation with the assistance of a Mobile Cellular Phone Service provider donated Mobile Cellular phones to a rural women’s community development Organisation. One Word’s Programs officer summarized the gesture as follows “ This helps them make informed decisions that impact peoples’ lives regarding poverty, human resource and social projects and its relation to development.” The intention of the donation was to eradicate poverty by opening up outreach possibilities for the rural community. With the equipment, they could make queries on farm good prices at the market and which markets offered the best prices before they left their rural area, in effect saving vital resources. Their social standing as women regardless of the social/ cultural limitations was upgraded as they became Economic nodes and influential communication providers in the community.
These women are effectively within reach of other women’s networks across the country that have access to mobile phones and through the communication tool, they can reach out for limitless assistance and share the nature of their circumstances.
The mobile Cellular Phone contributes to breaking down of traditional barriers of development such as time, and spatial separation. This in turn increases integration of markets improves commerce and geo-political relations[4].

· Mobile Cellular Telephony can present the concepts of Freedom of Association and the Freedom of Expression as a Reality for Women; it can provide a space for Enhanced positions of Women within the Culturally Limiting Zambian Society.
Through the mobile phone, women’s networks in Zambia have been advocating for change, updating Social Development Networks and influencing decisions by informing stake-holders of implications of decisions that might have implications on women[5]. While the National bill of rights provides for the protection of the freedom of expression, assembly and association, Zambian women are confined by cultural and religious tendencies that relegate them to being second-class citizens in relation to men. It is this suppression that in many cases manifests itself in the media as women are subjected to gender based violence for matters related to their partner being unsatisfied with their use of the mobile Cellular phone[6]. The Mobile Phone evokes a feeling of ownership and privacy in the user[7]. The conflict can be indicative of women’s greater awareness of their own individuality and their attempts at establishing independence of communication through ownership of the communication tool. As a communication tool that women can own and independently have rights over, the mobile Phone grants women a renewed freedom to communicate with whosoever they want, say what ever they want and when they want to. In a subjective environment where they are traditionally subordinates of men, such opportunity revolutionizes gender relations.
CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION
REDUCE COSTS RELATED TO USE
Exploitative costing cripples users and reduces disposable incomes. Government policy intervention could reduce taxes that influence cost and where in merit, as in the European Union Roaming charge intervention[8], tone down exploitative costing frameworks
MOBILIZE WOMEN AND CREATE MOBILE COMMUNITIES
From examples of effective Mobile Phone enhanced mobilization above, it is clear that formalization of mobile communities would add to effectiveness of this method of advocacy. Networks like the NGOCC can include expenditure for mobile Cellular Phone advocacy into the program and advocacy budgets. They can work towards creating beneficial ways for inclusion of women of all walks of life into these communities i.e. Women with Disabilities.
ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN SPECIFIC SERVICES
Currently there are services integrated by the service providers for groups like farmers, business etc where users can access commodity prices, and flight schedules at a limited cost. For women’s advocacy, information on what to do in times of abuse, maternal health notes and definitions of women’s disempowerment situations can also be posted for free access to users.
TRADE IN MOBILE CELLULAR PHONES AND MOVE BEYOND MARE USE TO PROVISION
As opposed to being mare users, Women’s groups can evolve to being communication hubs in their communities by trading in the Mobile Communication services. This provides opportunity to shift to a position of influence in the community and they can quickly also become Economic nodes (Sinha)
The main challenge for women’s networking remains the cost of maintaining the Mobile Cellular Phone. To start with, the handset is very costly at about $25US, few women can afford this. Costs related to topping up with talk time Units are also limiting. Only Women with talk-time (Call units) will be privileged members of the mobile community, with the ability to initiate conversation and having the power of choice of when to communicate. Those with no call units may be included at the discretion of those who do. This can present negative effects of such networking and exacerbate inequalities if not rectified.
IMPLICATIONS
The value of women’s networking on the mobile phone is driven by the principle of Social Capital. Clear is the fact that because of the circumstances of Zambian Women, power and resources can be more easily achieved through collective efforts[9]. Further, the Theory of Social Capital can be applied in showing the nature and extent to which social interaction between communities and institutions shape economic performance.
Beyond it’s individual members, Women’s networking organizations like the NGOCC have immeasurable potential through Social groups. Social Networks are the structural element s that it has utilized in achieving the vast changes towards women’s progress (Table of Women’s Advocacy Actions Aided by Mobile Cellular Phone) not only within its immediate organizational environment but also Nationwide.
The findings of the research present an awakening to the untapped potential of the mobile phone. In the possession of many women, development related programs can be channeled through it to its owner.
· Disadvantaged communities are closer to advanced communication technologies like never before. However, the challenge remains utilizing advanced services like internet beyond the voice telephony. For women, the challenge is greater. The NGOCC suggests that women are slower to utilizing ICTs because of the cultural socialization that ingrains the expectation of boys taking an interest in Science subjects at school while girls are relegated to domestic subjects.
· As a tool the mobile Cellular Phone can be used to alleviate or enforce the negative cultural and historical discrimination of women. It is an opportunity for the creation of a reality that women want to see. The content created through it can be beneficial to women; it can be created and determined by women. It can present women as equals over the network with men who in face to face interaction would be a source of intimidation; it can be a communication platform that cuts across the boundaries of culture and sidesteps bureaucracies.
NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The research process was challenging in that there was generally inadequate gender databanks on women and ICT in women’s empowerment organizations visited. The chief source of information on the status of women remains the media, it must be noted that the media in Zambia still remains subjective in terms of progressive portrayal of the status of women in Zambia.
Further research on the potential of VOIP replacing traditional mobile Cellular Phone Telephony as a sustainable communication method needs to be explored; other research can focus on the health implications of using modified and outdated mobile cellular phones in poor communities.
SUMMARY
Mobile Cellular Phone Telephony can contribute to ‘Leap Frogging’ and Bridging the Digital Divide in Zambian sectors of society between Rural Areas and urban areas; Men and women; economically empowered communities and those that are Un-empowered. It can be a Conduit for Economic Development for women. Mobile Cellular Telephony can present the concepts of Freedom of Association and the Freedom of Expression as a Reality for Women; it can provide a space for Enhanced positions of Women within the Culturally Limiting Zambian Society. Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research respondents where invaluable and I wish to thank them for taking their time off busy schedules to attend to me. Mato Shimabale Strategic Marketing Manager at Celtel Zambia, Bob Wang at ZTE, Charles Kaile Data clerk MMD Secretariat, Kiato Biemba Mobiliser MMD Secretariat, Felix Mwansa Research and publications MMD Secretariat, Mr. Daka Assistant Personnel Manager Zamtel, Susan Chilala Zambia Council for Social Development Zambia Association for Research and Development ZARD, Priscilla Mpundu former Past Executive Director ZARD, Susan Mwape CSO APRM Zambia, Priscilla Jere Oneworld, Leah Mitaba NGOCC, The NGOCC Secretariat and Zambia Competitions Commission ZCC.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Against Neoliberalism: Gender, Democracy and Development Chachage,Chachage and Mbilinyi 2005)
Beijing +10 shadow report on the situation of women in Zambia (NGOCC 2004)
Beyond God the Father toward a philosophy of women’s liberation(Daly 1985)
Do Mobiles cost the Earth? (Kives BBC : http:www.bbc.co.uk/z/hi/science/nature/6174422.stm)
Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities (Sinha 2005)
Electromagnetic Fields and public health: Mobile telephones and their base stations (WHO IEGMP 2000: HTTP://www.who.int/mediacentre/facsheets/fs1923/en/pnt.html)
Fine lines or Strong cords? Who do we think we are and who do we think we can become in the quest for quality in Qualitative Research (Buskens 2001)
Handbook of media laws in Zambia (Chanda and Liswaniso 1999)
Informal economy fighting poverty in Zambian Markets ()
Is Multiculturalism bad for women? (Okin)
My views on the news! The southern African Gender and Media Udience Study (Morna, Ramaand Muriungi 2005)
National Communication and information Technology Policy (Zambia 2006)
Power and self (Mageo 2002)
The Development of peoples. Challenges for today and tomorrow essays to mark the Fortieth Anniversary of Populorum Progressio (2007)
We make the road by walking, conversations on education and social Change (Horton and Freire 1990
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=25563)

[1] Zambia National ICT Policy 2006
[2] NGOCC the Non Governmental Organizing Coordinating Council is a women’s Organisation umbrella body with a membership of 83 organizations representing varied mandates.
[3] Leap Frogging is a principle that is designed to help bridge the digital divide by implementing up-to-date technology in an area where that technology is not yet in use.
[4] Zambia National ICT Policy Lusaka 2006
[5] TABLE OF WOMEN’S ADVICACY ACTIONS AIDED BY MOBILE CELLULAR PHONE
Case
Context
Action taken through the Mobile Cellular Phone
Result
Elections monitoring
During the 2006 General elections, the NGOCC networks campaigned for women by communicating women candidates to vote for
Alerts to the membership during campaigns where sent via SMS and during counting of ballots, updates on whom was winning where sent on the minute. This was never before seen in the closely contested election as fears of indiscriminate vote rigging where largely dispelled as a result
There is currently the largest number of women in Government and parliament than ever before.
Firing of the mayor
In early 2007, the mayor of Lusaka Susan Nakazwe ; a woman was expelled from her party for taking part in a Presidential parade to welcome the Chinese President that was forbidden by the opposition party she belonged to
Updates to expose the gender implications of losing the mayor in the position where sent out across the country through the mobile. SMSs where also sent to her to giver her comfort
The Female mayor lost her position but is aware of the support rendered to her.
Firing of the minister of Health
The Female Minister of health Angela Cifire was fired from her post in mid 2007.
SMSs to Angela Cifire where sent to give her encouragement and advocacy messages for reinstatement where sent across the country
She was reinstated as minister but in the different portfolio of Deputy minister of Sport
The Arranged marriage of a UNZA Student
There is currently a case in the High Court of Zambia where a University of Zambia student is being forced it marriage to an older man residing in Somalia by her parents
Updates on court hearings are sent to inform supporters to turn up in numbers to give support to the Female student who has been shunned by her family
The Student has won the support of many Zambians and her case is public knowledge
The constitutional making process
The process of developing and adopting a constitutional making process is underway in Zambia
The process of adopting a constitution in Zambia Is currently a contentious one with parties arguing on the mode of adoption. SMSs sent to networks on the issue largely give reasons for the best modes of adoption and implications of bad constitutions
The Process is currently underway

[6] http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=25563
[7] Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities (Sinha 2005)

[8] www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/idselect/iducom/79/791.pdf
[9] Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities (Sinha 2005)

MOBILE CELLULAR PHONES FOR ZAMBIAN WOMEN: MAKING LIFE BETTER

2008-12-23T13:46:00.000+02:00

INTRODUCTION
80% of the total population of Zambians in Zambia is considered impoverished and live on less than a dollar a day, the majority being Women. The country is ranked 166th out of 177 in the 2003 UN Human Development Index where 1 is the wealthiest and 177 counts for the most impoverished. Over a third of the population is not formally employed and survives on small scale trading and street vending. The extreme conditions in the country have warranted the emergence of Civil Society Organizations like the Non Governmental Organization Coordinating Council (NGOCC) to assist the government in mitigating the Social development needs of the country. Most of these organizations place women’s empowerment first on their agenda. According to the NGOCC report on the status of women 2004, five priority areas in Zambia for the Advancement of women include;
· The persistent and growing burden of poverty on women and their unequal access to resources and participation in economic structure and policies;
· Inequality in access to and opportunities in education, skills development and training;
· Women’s unequal access to health and related services;
· Inequality between women and men in the sharing of Power and decision making; and
· The rights of the girl child
To coordinate efforts with Organizations that form its membership, the NGOCC has formed Communication Networks to share and collect information. It utilizes Information Communication Technology (ICT) strategies such as Email, Radio and recently the Mobile Cellular Phone for communication. The Mobile Cellular Phone has emerged as a convenient approach for communication due to its properties as a technology that can be utilized in remote areas where infrastructure for conventional fixed line Telephone communication does not exist. Generally convenient for advocacy purposes as opposed to the fixed line Telephone, the mobile phone is currently the most utilized Telephony system in the country accounting for about 2,000,000 subscribers in 2008 with indicators showing a doubling of subscribers since 2006. Most Communications infrastructure development is concentrated along the line of rail owing to Mobile Cellular Phones being the best communication option for Women’s empowerment Networks in outlying areas where poverty has become extensive.
The limitations to the Women’s Empowerment Networks and women in general in utilizing the Mobile Cellular Phones effectively have become obstructions to progress. The cost of purchasing and maintaining the Mobile Cellular Phone handset for receiving and making calls, the connection costs to the Service providers, the many unanswered questions on the unknown negative health effects related to using the mobile Cellular Phone, the potential for the mobile phone’s contribution to pollution, the unavailability of electricity infrastructure in disadvantaged communities or cost of access to electricity (Mobile Pones need constant battery charging), the belief that it enforces promiscuity and lies, and the exorbitant tariffs attached to making calls. Due to its relative newness on the Zambian scene and the Zambian Civil Society context, effective uses of the tool are emerging.
In light of the challenges met by the Zambian Women’s networks to utilize the mobile phone more effectively in their work to empower Zambian women, the following questions emerge;
· How can Women’s Networks in Zambia like the NGOCC network create beneficial networks with other women and women’s networks to form mutually beneficial alliances to achieve the five priority areas for women’s empowerment in Zambia[1]?
· What needs to be done in order to make the mobile phone more accessible and beneficial to women in Zambia?
· What do women need to know in order for them to make wiser decisions on whether they should use the mobile phone for their communication?
· To what extent can Women’s Empowerment through the achievement of the five priority areas be achievable with the use of the mobile Cellular phone?
The Research objective was to establish how members of the NGOCC Women’s Network in Zambia utilize Mobile Cellular Phone Services in their work to Advance the status of Zambian Women. The research was carried out in Lusaka the capital city of Zambia over a period of one year. Qualitative Research methods where utilized. The Research process identified respondents and structured the group in two classifications as follows;
1. Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
2. Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ.
The research process revealed that Women’s Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women’s Empowerment Organisations in Zambia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Research process identified respondents by structurally interviewing key stake holders in the process of service provision. The structure involves two classifications as follows;
1. Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
2. Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. They give detailed personal accounts of how they use the Mobile Cellular phone as a tool for communication both in their lives and collectively within networks; their insights shed light on the personal experiences that characterize women in this group. The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ. Through this group, technical insight in the systems of service delivery and the possibilities for change both possible and intentioned was collected.
Throughout the research process, a participatory process with respondents was utilized based on acceptance of the understanding that Social innovations succeed when social sectors play a role and intentionality of women users is complex and undeterminable; Only the general sense indicating patterns was considered through a rigorous process informed by a selection of Qualitative research methods that encompass the general GRACE Research methodology process. These methods include;
· The Free Attitude interview
· Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis(Exercising a reflective stance)
· Literature Reviews

The respondents where active participants in the research process and they gave their consent and endorsement of the research process.
REVELATIONS
The research process revealed that Women’s Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women’s Empowerment Organisations in Zambia.
To establish how members of the NGOCC Women’s Network in Zambia utilize Mobile Cellular Phone Services in their work to Advance the status of Zambian Women, the research found;
· There is no compilation of Gender Disaggregated data on Mobile Cellular Phone use in Zambia.
Women’s Organisations that have been involved in work on women’s empowerment are usually incapacitated to carry out Research and often do not have documented records in terms of the relationship between women’s empowerment and ICTs like Mobile Phones.

The absence of disaggregated data makes it difficult for effective tracking of Women’s access and use of the Mobile Cellular phone. The opportunity to improve the general effects of the tool in women’s communication through service delivery is severely limited as a result. Other than the absence of disaggregated data, whose absence is indication of a lack of policy interest, general research on mobile phones in relation to women’s empowerment still remains scant to non existent.

· Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests as the Mobile Cellular Phone becomes the most commonly used Telephone communication tool in Zambia.
Women who own mobile Phones communicate with other women as well as men. Un-moderated and free content developed as they communicate consists of common interest issues; free content and support across a wide range of needs is being rendered across these communities from monetary exchange, information exchange and basic sharing of experiences. Cultural relations are evolving as physical ties are being replaced with ‘electronic ones’.

· Mobile Services i.e. The Internet, MMS and Radio Integrated into the Mobile Phone Service system in Zambia provide access to ICT services across the broad spectrum of Zambian women beyond Telephone (voice) Communication
A broad spectrum of Women is within reach of other ICT Services through their mobile phones, this includes rural communities. However access to services is not a prerequisite to utilization as Zambian women continue to face the challenge of illiteracy, and low incomes. Note that services while in reach require subscribers to pay for utilization, the charges for convenient utilization remain limiting for most Zambians.

· The poorer the Community, the higher the use of the Mobile Cellular Phone to meet Communication Needs: Mobile Cellular Phone Communication is more a method of Communication for poor communities than economically stable ones.
Women in poor communities most often have no other choice of communication beyond the Mobile Cellular Phone as infrastructure is absent there. These communities develop coping strategies on how to utilize the mobile Cellular Phone around the limitations of costs of doing so.

· The Presence of the Mobile Cellular Phone stimulates gender based conflicts in Zambian Communities.
It remains largely difficult to establish whether the utilization of the mobile phone is a source of domestic conflict and gender based conflict. However, the frequency of cases where Gender based conflicts has occurred and the mobile Cellular Phone was cited as a contributing factor suggests adequate merit for investigation. The Socialization of Zambians based on deep cultural, traditional and religious grounds brings to the fore the principle that married couples are one. This principle contradicts the customized nature of the mobile phone that presents it as a personal and private property owned by its user. In a home where a couple each own a mobile phone, the boundary of ownership is often crossed out of both curiosity and suspicion on whom the other partner is communicating with. At this moment, conflict arises and the consequences in the extreme include gender based violence, divorce etc.

DISCUSSION
Women’s Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women’s Empowerment Organisations in Zambia. The Research to establish how members of the NGOCC Women’s Networks in Zambia utilize Mobile Cellular Phone Services in their work to Advance the status of Zambian Women was carried out in Lusaka over a one year period. The core respondent base was informed by 5 women leaders who are members of the NGOCC Network.
Assessment
· There is no compilation of Gender Disaggregated data on Mobile Cellular Phone use in Zambia.
Women’s Organisations that have been involved in work on women’s empowerment are usually incapacitated to carry out Research and often do not have documented records in terms of the relationship between women’s empowerment and ICTs like Mobile Phones.

The absence of disaggregated data makes it difficult for effective tracking of Women’s access and use of the Mobile Cellular phone. The opportunity to improve the general effects of the tool in women’s communication through service delivery is severely limited as a result. Other than the absence of disaggregated data, whose absence is indication of a lack of policy interest, general research on mobile phones in relation to women’s empowerment still remains scant to non existent.
The culture of institutional memory retention is poor. Officers tend to keep information in their private custody and after they leave office it vanishes with them. NGOCC Report.

The media laws of the country are the basis for the impediments to easy information access in public service institutions (Chanda, Liswaniso). Bureaucracy must be followed at all times.

The media largely remains a source of information on a wide spectrum of issues including information on gender. However it is mostly Skewed towards portraying women negatively. Many institutions are working to reform it. It is the chief source of the narrative of women’s oppression. (My views on the news! Morna, Ramaand Muriungi 2005)

NGOCC is working to develop a data bank on women’s status through its information resource center. There is a general absence of such measures across the board.

· Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests as the Mobile Cellular Phone becomes the most commonly used Telephone communication tool in Zambia.
Women who own mobile Phones communicate with other women as well as men. Un-moderated and free content developed as they communicate consists of common interest issues; free content and support across a wide range of needs is being rendered across these communities from monetary exchange, information exchange and basic sharing of experiences. Cultural relations are evolving as physical ties are being replaced with ‘electronic ones’. The NGOCC secretariat would rather call members’ mobile phones than fixed office lines because mobile phones surpass the bureaucracy and there is a guarantee of communicating with the desired subject.

To better visualize the concept of Mobile Communities created by the body of women users of the Mobile phone who are affiliated to the NGOCC network, we can hold the image of communities. Each community is configured when contact on a matter of common interest is initiated. Every individual user determines the configuration of participants in their own matter of interest and they play a leading role in determining the content produced through discussions.
As Chaitali Sinha puts it, in the paper ‘Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities’, A way to describe the value of networking on the mobile phone is the principle of Social Capital. In the paper, what is made clear is the fact that because of the circumstances of the poor, power and resources are achieved through collective efforts. Further, the Theory of Social Capital can be applied in showing the nature and extent to which social interaction between communities and institutions shape economic performance.
Beyond it’s individual members, organizations like the NGOCC have immeasurable potential through Social groups. Social Networks are the structural element s that it has utilized in achieving the vast changes towards women’s progress not only within its immediate organizational environment but also Nationwide.
While pointing out that communities can be created through exchanges of voice and data via mobile Phone, a major factor to consider is Money.
Only Women with talk-time (Call units) will be privileged members of the mobile community, with the ability to initiate conversation and having the power of choice of when to communicate. Those with no call units may be included at the discretion of those who do. This can present negative effects of such networking and exacerbate inequalities if not rectified. Beeping and the SMS are coping methods in situations where users want to avoid costs as they are almost free. Network members can beep the institution and the institution will call them back, this practice is widespread across the spectrum of users.
Formal institutions like the NGOCC are slow to adapt to the requirements of maintaining mobile communication networks. It supports members who face economic hardships by calling them to alert them on developments. Such members most often depend on a communal Mobile phone. In most cases, a person with a mobile phone becomes a communication hub for the community and they relay information establishing themselves as a community economical hub.
The advocacy department of the NGOCC does not incentivize to provide for mobile communication expenditure of officers.
Social Capital is created on the NGOCC network as members of mobile communities communicate freely, from any location across unlimited geographical locations in Zambia. Sinha argues that these phone calls reinforce social networks and in turn generate social capital. For the NGOCC this sort of capital is a prerequisite to policy influence and successful advocacy.
As is evident in the following cases where the mobile Cellular Phone was used for advocacy;
Case
Context
Action taken through the Mobile Cellular Phone
Result
Elections monitoring
During the 2006 General elections, the NGOCC networks campaigned for women by communicating women candidates to vote for
Alerts to the membership during campaigns where sent via sms and during counting of ballots, updates on who was winning where sent on the minute. This was never before seen in the closely contested election as fears of indiscriminate vote rigging where largely dispelled as a result
There is currently the largest number of women in Government and parliament than ever before.
Firing of the mayor
In early 2007, the mayor of Lusaka Susan Nakazwe ; a woman was expelled from her party for taking part in a Presidential parade to welcome the Chinese President that was forbidden by the opposition party she belonged to
Updates to expose the gender implications of losing the mayor in the position where sent out across the country through the mobile. SMSs where also sent to her to giver her comfort
The Female mayor lost her position but is aware of the support rendered to her.
Firing of the minister of Health
The Female Minister of health Angela Cifire was fired from her post in mid 2007.
SMSs to Angela Cifire where sent to give her encouragement and advocacy messages for reinstatement where sent across the country
She was reinstated as minister but in the different portfolio of Deputy minister of Sport
The Arranged marriage of a UNZA Student
There is currently a case in the High Court of Zambia where a University of Zambia student is being forced it marriage to an older man residing in Somalia by her parents
Updates on court hearings are sent to inform supporters to turn up in numbers to give support to the Female student who has been shunned by her family
The Student has won the support of many Zambians and her case is public knowledge
The constitutional making process
The process of developing and adopting a constitutional making process is underway in Zambia
The process of adopting a constitution in Zambia Is currently a contentious one with parties arguing on the mode of adoption. SMSs sent to networks on the issue largely give reasons for the best modes of adoption and implications of bad constitutions
The Process is currently underway

· Mobile Services i.e. The Internet, MMS and Radio Integrated into the Mobile Phone Service system in Zambia provide access to ICT services across the broad spectrum of Zambian women beyond Telephone (voice) Communication
A broad spectrum of Women is within reach of other ICT Services through their mobile phones, this includes rural communities. However access to services is not a prerequisite to utilization as Zambian women continue to face the challenge of illiteracy, and low incomes. Note that services while in reach require subscribers to pay for utilization, the charges for convenient utilization remain limiting for most Zambians.
‘Leap frogging’ is the description given to the phenomenal effect of innovations that come with the mobile Cellular phone. As Zambia is a late adapter of ICT, regulatory frameworks are still incongruent with demands of the rapidly changing communications landscape and do not provide adequate room for advancement of innovations. Mobile Cellular Phones are providing multi access to ICT with combination of voice and data services combined and accessed through the handset. All regions of the country are within reach of the service and the communities which had previously no fixed line Telephone infrastructure have leapfrogged to accessing internet, MMS and mobile Telephony Sinha.
Universal access to Communications infrastructure like never before looks achievable. The digital divide is reducing as greater access is becoming achievable.

· The poorer the Community, the higher the use of the Mobile Cellular Phone to meet Communication Needs: Mobile Cellular Phone Communication is more a method of Communication for poor communities than economically stable ones.
Women in poor communities most often have no other choice of communication beyond the Mobile Cellular Phone as infrastructure is absent there. These communities develop coping strategies on how to utilize the mobile Cellular Phone around the limitations of costs of doing so.
Sinha points out that although traditional trends explain the development of the fixed line system, the case for mobile phones is different. Research has found that the higher the level of income inequality, the more likely individuals in such areas will own a mobile phone. One of the reasons is the payment model of the mobile phone that can be described as an ownership model.
Belonging to a single person, it will be shared informally in the community due to a strong culture of sharing among women’s communities (Mato Shimabale Celtel) replicating the access effect as access is spread out across a spectrum of individuals. Actual statistics can be misleading due to this fact. It enforces a collectivist sense.

However, The research found that the value of the mobile is only as good as the content for which it is used in the community. “The Cell Phone is a highway” (Bob Wang ZTE). Individuals determines the general direction in which to direct its use. In poor communities, the mobile phone can be reduced to a mare status symbol and entrap the user into spending valuable resources to sustain communication through it, crippling, it will drastically reduce disposable income to other developmental activities. In the words of Leah Mitaba Communications specialist at NGOCC ; “I spent more on my Mobile last month than I do for my children’s School fees. After I found out, I wondered how I could have spent so much on the mobile Phone, I almost threw it away!” But even after her realization, she still holds on to the Tool. Her combined value for it deems to override her misgivings. Very suggestive of an addiction.

· The Presence of the Mobile Cellular Phone stimulates gender based conflicts in Zambian Communities.
It remains largely difficult to establish whether the utilization of the mobile phone is a source of domestic conflict and gender based conflict. However, the frequency of cases where Gender based conflicts has occurred and the mobile Cellular Phone was cited as a contributing factor suggests adequate merit for investigation. The Socialization of Zambians based on deep cultural, traditional and religious grounds brings to the fore the principle that married couples are one. This principle contradicts the customized nature of the mobile phone that presents it as a personal and private property owned by its user. In a home where a couple each own a mobile phone, the boundary of ownership is often crossed out of both curiosity and suspicion on whom the other partner is communicating with. At this moment, conflict arises and the consequences in the extreme include gender based violence, divorce etc. Organisations like the NGOCC are faced with the challenge of understanding the phenomenon and defining an approach to tackle conflicts.

In the book is multiculturalism bad for women? Saskia Hassen in an essay titled Culture beyond gender tackles culture. She describes Group rights as Cultural rights and stresses that group rights are considered a way of protecting the importance of culture. In this context, we observe that the rights of the individual woman user may contradict the principle of the cultural principle that women and men are one. Saskia insists that it is difficult for women to exercise their individual sense of self, and richness of experience/norms/rituals in most cultures where women are disempowered. It is this sense of self that is in conflict with the cultural demand for women’s subordination and yields the gender based conflict. Where the conflict occurs and affects women, it is most often the case that the woman sacrifices the group rights in favor of individual rights even at the cost of peace. But peace is not only the sole absence of physical conflict. In describing Peace Justin Kilcullen in Development of peoples 2007 contends that Development is the new name for peace, that development cannot only be limited to mere economic growth; and that to be authentic it must promote the good of every person and of the whole person. Current conflicts expose women’s resistance to cultural restrictions towards achieving the kind of peace or wholeness that is development. In effect, the mobile phone presents itself as a culturally revolutionizing tool. Organisations like the NGOCC can utilize the current conflicts to stimulate awareness on tolerance for women’s progress for a greater political awareness.

Main Conclusions
The research process revealed that Women’s Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women’s Empowerment Organisations in Zambia. The following findings provide an initial outlook of the Zambian Mobile communications landscape;
· There is no compilation of Gender Disaggregated data on Mobile Cellular Phone use in Zambia.

· Women’s Mobile Communities are forming around Networks sustained by the use of Mobile Cellular Phones along varied common interests as the Mobile Cellular Phone becomes the most commonly used Telephone communication tool in Zambia.

· Mobile Services i.e. The Internet, MMS and Radio Integrated into the Mobile Phone Service system in Zambia provide access to ICT services across the broad spectrum of Zambian women beyond Telephone (voice) Communication

· The poorer the Community, the higher the use of the Mobile Cellular Phone to meet Communication Needs: Mobile Cellular Phone Communication is more a method of Communication for poor communities than economically stable ones.

· The Presence of the Mobile Cellular Phone stimulates gender based conflicts in Zambian Communities.
As a tool it can be used to alleviate or enforce the negative cultural and historical discrimination of women. It is an opportunity for the creation of a reality that women want to see. The content created through it must be beneficial to women, it must be created and determined by women.
It can present women as equals over the network with men who in face to face interaction would be a source of intimidation, if viewed as a communication platform that cuts across the boundaries of culture and sidesteps bureaucracies.

Mobile cellular phone service providers, policy makers and gender activists can be included in the work towards women’s emancipation. They determine the political will that can insure positive access of women to ICT through ‘leap frogging’ for the benefit of greater access and closing the digital gap. It is a tool for the creation of political awareness, and breaks the hierarchical pattern of technological diffusion
Women can network through it and mobilise for their own increased economic empowerment and collective voice within the political system as a means towards ending institutionalised gender discrimination.
Actions
REDUCE COSTS RELATED TO USE
exploitative costing cripples users and reduces disposable incomes. Government policy intervention could reduce taxes that influence cost and where in merit, as in the European Union Roaming charge intervention[2], tone down exploitative costing frameworks
MOBILIZE WOMEN AND CREATE MOBILE COMMUNITIES
From examples of effective Mobile Phone enhanced mobilization, it is clear that formalization of mobile communities would add to effectiveness of this method of advocacy. networks like the NGOCC can include expenditure for mobile Cellular Phone advocacy into the program and advocacy budgets. They can work towards creating beneficial ways for inclusion of women of all walks of life into these communities i.e. Women with Disabilities.
ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN SPECIFIC SERVICES
Currently there are services integrated by the service providers for groups like farmers, business etc where users can access commodity prices, and flight schedules at a limited cost. For women’s advocacy, information on what to do in times of abuse, maternal health notes and definitions of women’s disempowerment situations can also be posted for free access to users.
TRADE IN MOBILE CELLULAR PHONES AND MOVE BEYOND MARE USE TO PROVISION
As opposed to being mare users, Women’s groups can evolve to being communication hubs in their communities by trading in the Mobile Communication services. This provides opportunity to shift to a position of influence in the community and they can quickly also become Economic nodes (Sinha)
INCREASE EDUCATION PROGRAMS ON THE POTENTIAL RISKS RELATED TO CELL USE
Mobile Phone base stations are a hazard to the health of communities residing in close proximity to them (WHO IEGMP 2000) Generally a contentious issue, Mobile Phone triggered radiation poses a potential risk to users[3]. While many researches have shown the unlikelihood of this being a fact, and point out at the stringent measures mobile phones meet before passing for human use (WHO IEGMP 2000), little research accounts for modified, recycled, outdated and broken down mobile phones that are largely used by women in poor communities who cannot afford to purchase new quality approved handsets.
Because of this general concern, further research needs to be done on the implications on health. And policy intervention to Increase regulation that monitors quality requirements of the tools being used is imperative.
Other work needs to be done on enhancing on knowledge of how economically disempowering ineffective use of the Mobile Phone can be and the cumulative effect of potential pollution as a result of the build up of mobile phones in developing countries like Zambia.
Women’s Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women’s Empowerment Organisations in Zambia but this is largely dependent on how women choose to utilize the tool.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The GRACE Zambia Research was a real learning experience on the uncanvassed terrain of ICT and women in Zambia. My interaction with the various groups through the process proved to be an invaluable self-development and improvement experience. I would love to believe that the questioning process that was the interaction between myself, and respondents from the various sectors proved mutually beneficial. I wish to thank the IDRC for their overall support of the GRACE Africa Project and more specifically Heloise Emdon for her encouragement. The GRACE Africa Research team (Graciousnesses) were a consistent motivation in my research journey and I felt like a string in the fine cord. I wish to acknowledge Ineke Buskens for her confidence in me, and Anne webb for being a backbone in my jelly research journey and webbing me in.
I wish to thank my family for their moral support, Sara Longwe Roy Clarke Jenah Daka and Grace Bwalya for being my consistent pillars of strength and understanding my choices.
The research respondents where invaluable and I wish to thank them for taking their time off busy schedules to attend to me. Mato Shimabale Strategic Marketing Manager at Celtel Zambia, Bob Wang at ZTE, Charles Kaile Data clerk MMD Secretariat, Kiato Biemba Mobiliser MMD Secretariat, Felix Mwansa Research and publications MMD Secretariat, Mr. Daka Assistant Personnel Manager Zamtel, Susan Chilala Zambia Council for Social Development Zambia Association for Research and Development ZARD, Priscilla Mpundu former Past Executive Director ZARD, Susan Mwape CSO APRM Zambia, Priscilla Jere Oneworld, Leah Mitaba NGOCC, The NGOCC Secretariat and Zambia Competitions Commission ZCC.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Against Neoliberalism: Gender, Democracy and Development Chachage,Chachage and Mbilinyi 2005)
Beijing +10 shadow report on the situation of women in Zambia (NGOCC 2004)
Beyond God the Father toward a philosophy of women’s liberation(Daly 1985)
Do Mobiles cost the Earth? (Kives BBC : http:www.bbc.co.uk/z/hi/science/nature/6174422.stm)
Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities (Sinha 2005)
Electromagnetic Fields and public health: Mobile telephones and their base stations (WHO IEGMP 2000: HTTP://www.who.int/mediacentre/facsheets/fs1923/en/pnt.html)
Fine lines or Strong cords? Who do we think we are and who do we think we can become in the quest for quality in Qualitative Research (Buskens 2001)
Handbook of media laws in Zambia (Chanda and Liswaniso 1999)
Informal economy fighting poverty in Zambian Markets ()
Is Multiculturalism bad for women? (Okin)
My views on the news! The southern African Gender and Media Udience Study (Morna, Ramaand Muriungi 2005)
National Communication and information Technology Policy (Zambia 2006)
Power and self (Mageo 2002)
The Development of peoples. Challenges for today and tomorrow essays to mark the Fortieth Anniversary of Populorum Progressio (2007)
We make the road by walking, conversations on education and social Change (Horton and Freire 1990)

[1] According to the NGOCC report on the status of women 2004, five priority areas in Zambia for the advancement of women include;
· The persistent and growing burden of poverty on women and their unequal access to resources and participation in economic structure and policies;
· Inequality in access to and opportunities in education, skills development and training;
· Women’s unequal access to health and related services;
· Inequality between women and men in the sharing of Power and decision making; and
· The rights of the girl child

[2] www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/idselect/iducom/79/791.pdf
[3] http://new.independent.co.uk/sci-tech/article3353768.ece

A Book is born!

2008-10-13T16:06:00.006+02:00

To read the Complete Book visit the following link: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-135944-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining

AfricanWomen and ICTs
Investigating Technology, Gender and Emp owerment
Edited by Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb

The revolution in information and communication technologies (lCTs) has vast implications
for the developing world, but what tangible benefits has it brought, when issues of social
inclusion and exclusion, particularly in the developing world, remain atlarge? In addition, the
gender digital divide is growing in the developing world, particularly in Africa. So what does
ICT mean toAfrican women?

Afican Women and lCTs explores the ways in which women in Africa utilize lCTs to facilitate
their empowerment;
whether through the mobile village phone business, through internet
use, or through new career and ICT employment opportunities.

Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this timely book features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated
situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion includes such issues as the notion of lCTs for empowerment and as agents of change, lCTs in the fight against gender-based
violence, and how lCTs could be used to re-conceptualize public and private spaces.

ICT policy is currently being made and implemented all overAfrica, but the authors argue
that this is happening mostly in the absence of clear knowledge about the ways gender
inequality and lCTs are impacting each other and that by becoming alert to a gender
dimension in ICT developments at an early stage of the information revolution, we may be
able to prevent greater scaled undesirable effects in the future.

Contents

Introduction

lneke Buskens
and Anne Webb

1. Doing research with women about their lives - Ineke Buskens

PART 1: Finding Oneself in ICT Space: acceptance
and use

2. Women's use of information and communication technologies in Mozambique: A tool for empowerment? -Gertrudes Macueve, Judite Mandlate, Lucia Ginger, Polly Gaster and Esselina Macome

3. Considering ICT use when energy access is not secured:A case study from rural South Africa
- Jocelyn Muller

4. Women's use of cell phones to meet their communication needs - A study of rural women from northern Nigeria - Kazanka Comfort and John Dada

PART 2: Female Only ICT Spaces: safety, self expression and sharing

5. Egyptian women artisans facing the demands of modern markets: Caught between a rock and a hard place - Leila Hassanin

6. When a gender-blind access policy results in discrimination: Realities and perceptions of female students at the University of Zimbabwe - Buhle Mbambo-Thata, Elizabeth Mlambo, Precious Mwatsiya

7. Using lCTs to act on hope and commitment: The fight against gender violence in Morocco -
Amina Tafnout and Aatifa Timjerdine

8. An alternative public space for women: The potentiaf of lCTs - Leila Hassanin

PART 3: Using ICT SpacesActively, Effectively and Creatively

9. Mobile phones in a time of modernity: The quest for increased self-sufficiency amongst women fishmonger and fish processors in Dakar - lbou Sane and Mamadou Balla Traore, Senegal

10. The names in your address book: Are mobile phone networks effective
in advocating for women's rights in Zambia?
-Kiss Brian Abraham

11. Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: Examining and contextualizing women's choices -
Alice Wanjira Munyua

12. Internet use and empowerment of women entrepreneurs of the textile sector in Douala
- Gisele Yitamben and Hise Tchinda

13. lCTs as an agent of change: A case of grassroots women entrepreneurs in Uganda - Susan Bakesha, Angela Nakafeero and Dorothy
Okello

14. The mobile pay phone business: A vehicle for rural women's empowerment in Uganda - Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo

PART 4: Creating New Spaces Through lCTs: Self determination
and influencing others

15. Professional women empowered to succeed in Kenya's ICT sector - Okwach Abagi, Olive Sifuna, Salome Awuor Omamo

16. Reflections on the mentoring experiences of ICT career women in Nairobi, Kenya: Looking in the mirror - Salome Awuor Omamo

'17. Our journey to empowerment: The role of ICT - Ruth Meena and Mary Rusimbi

18. Epilogue: From a woman's place to
a woman's s Day -lneke Busken

Women's Woes

2008-02-07T14:22:00.001+02:00

Women's Woes, originally uploaded by kiss1.

The Burden is Overbearing

CONFRONTING THE RESEARCH TERRAIN OF WOMEN’S USE OF ICT IN ZAMBIA

2008-02-07T13:52:00.001+02:00

ABSTRACT

The process of research is one of constant learning and openness to new ideas and experiences. Through the research objective, the researcher interacts with the environment that embodies the research focus and establishes truths from the experience and becomes a part of the known truth. The GRACE Research Zambia Project was characterized by the following elements; Respondents, Object of Research and the Research methodology. These elements define the research terrain of the Zambia project. Overcoming the obstacles in the terrain yielded valuable lessons.

CONFRONTING THE RESEARCH TERRAIN OF WOMEN'S USE OF ICT IN ZAMBIA

Introduction

The process of research is one of constant learning and openness to new ideas and experiences. Through the research objective, the researcher interacts with the environment that embodies the research focus and establishes truths from the experience and becomes a part of the known truth. The conclusions or revelations of the research process are carved by the interaction between the researcher and the research environment.

GRACE Research Zambia Project Research process revealed that Women's Effective adaptation of the Mobile Cellular Phone for Progressive Communication can contribute to Enhancement of women and Women's Empowerment Organisations in Zambia. The Research objective was to establish how members of the NGOCC Women's Network in Zambia utilize Mobile Cellular Phone Services in their work to Advance the status of Zambian Women.

The GRACE Research Zambia Project Research process involved Qualitative Action Research methodologies

The Research process identified respondents and structured the group in two classifications as follows;

Women leaders of the NGOCC Network
Respondents with background information on the system of Mobile Cellular Phone Service provision.

The main body of the research findings is determined by the 1^st classification which includes 5 women leaders of the NGOCC network from 5 separate NGOCC Member Organizations with separate mandates and a common interest in empowerment of women. This classification gives detailed personal accounts of how women in this sector use the Mobile Cellular phone as a tool for communication both in their lives and collectively within networks; their insights shed light on the personal experiences that characterize women in this group.

The second Classification mainly includes officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision Companies, the Competitions Commission of Zambia and an official from the National Communication Regulation body the Communications Authority of Zambia CAZ. This classification mainly gives technical insight in the systems of service delivery and the possibilities for change both possible and intentioned.

Throughout the research process, a participatory process with respondents was utilized based on acceptance of the understanding that Social innovations succeed when social sectors play a role and intentionality of women users is complex and undeterminable; Only the general sense indicating patterns was considered through a rigorous process informed by a selection of Qualitative Action Research methods that encompass the general GRACE Research methodology process.

These methods include;

The Free Attitude interview
Appreciative Inquiry
Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis(Exercising a reflective stance)
Literature Reviews

The respondents where active participants in the research process and they gave their consent and endorsement of the research process.

Research dilemmas and Alleviation

Highlighting experiences of confronting the Research dilemmas gives greater insight on the lessons learnt and lessons that can be shared with other Researchers doing similar work.

The Research platform

The research environment that underscored the GRACE Research Zambia Project was characterized by the following elements;
Respondents, Object of Research and the Research methodology. These elements define the research terrain of the Zambia project.

Respondent
The respondent base was characterized by two classifications of respondents;

Respondents with background information on the system of mobile Cellular phone Service provision.
This category included officials from Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers, officials from a Government regulating Authority and selected communications specialists.
Women leaders of the NGOCC Network

This comprised 5 women leaders of member organizations of the NGOCC Network.

Classification: 1

Government Departments: Slow Yields

It is generally difficult to collect information from Government institutions in Zambia because of their bureaucratic organizational systems. They do not have effective data retention systems and specific information on the status of women in relation to access to ICTs.

Institutional and valuable data is usually in the custody of long serving individuals and selected experts or professionals (NGOCC 2004)

Oral history in most cases becomes the best methodological option for extraction of valuable information from individuals.

Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers: Fear of Infiltration

Conducting Research with a Mobile Cellular Phone Service provider is challenging. They instill measures to prevent from infiltration of competitor service providers by concealing information on practices to the extent that they will avoid any conversations with an external researcher. This occurred with MTN when they failed to meet appointments made by the GRACE Research Zambia Researcher on five occasions over a period of one year. To date, the meeting has not taken place. The extent of their barrier is the creation of their own internal intelligence marketing departments whose aim is to decipher private information of their competitors and inflict counter measures to gain competitive advantages (Internal Source).

The best data sources on the characteristics of mobile service provision and its influence on women users are the mobile service providers themselves. The stringent measures they create to insure impenetrability are a stumbling block to many institutions that could use this wide knowledge to enhance women's progress.

Allaying fears and working through internally placed individuals can prove valuable in extracting valuable internal information.

Classification: 2

Women's Networks: Fortified

There is a lack of constant cohesion among women's networks in Zambia.

Only when a pressing issue of common interest arises do they collaborate to advocate collectively.

However, in a general sense, unspoken tensions exist between women's organizations that are members of women's networks. These tensions may include suspicion of other organizations collaborating with policy making organs of government that generally pass policy that does not benefit women, (The underlying observation of Kate Young in an essay titled Planning from a Gender Perspective in The Women, Gender and Development reader is that Women's NGOs may not completely act on behalf of the people they claim to represent because they are led by a powerbase of people from the same Social stratum that is likely to be closed to ideas from other groups)
and tensions created by donor organizations as these organizations have to struggle for funds from the same donors to finance their varied organizational programs. An external researcher can be viewed with suspicion and denied an opportunity to penetrate this layer of protectionism.

The struggle for emancipation of women can be frustrating as the largely patriarchal society continues to block progress on many fronts. Officers in these organizations exhibit apathy and fatigue from time to time when confronted with a research questioning process like an in-depth interview on the subject of women's empowerment (Phyllis Chesler points out that women are harder on other women and this could explain their apathy of the subject to a degree) and a 'what's in it for me' attitude tends to surface.

Absence of organized and relevant up-to-date databases on the status of women in women's Organisations continues to be a challenge for research.

The lack of cohesion is usually the weak link for these organizations and an influencing factor in failures to change mindsets and policy.

Resource wars and ideological mismatches among women's organizations must not supersede holistic women's emancipation.

To allay fears of infiltration and resource rivalry, the researcher could use the strategy of idealism to appeal to the idealistic principle of women's emancipation that binds all women empowerment organizations.

The Object of Research

The underlying need for the research was the need to understand the effect of the Mobile Cellular Phone as a phenomenon affecting women's empowerment in Zambia.

The Mobile Cellular Phone: Amorphous

Research on ICT must strive to remain current in light of the fact that ICT innovations like the Mobile Cellular Phone guarantee the constant change of reality in this sector.

Even more challenging is a research focus that highlights women's use of mobile Cellular Telephony. This remains one of the fastest growing sectors in Zambia with constant advancements in technological formulations that guarantee changes in user trends from time to time.

Owing to the modernity of the tool, there still remains little background data detailing its extended social influence. Most of the data that exists remains speculative.

The Research methodologies

Qualitative Action Research methods that encompass the general GRACE Research methodology process frame the knowledge construction process.

These methods include;

The Free Attitude interview
Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis(Exercising a reflective stance)

Appreciative Inquiry

Literature Reviews

The analysis of data is cardinal to constructing the knowledge that encompasses the research results.

The Free Attitude interview

When the free attitude interview is employed as opposed to the structured questionnaire driven interview, the researcher must be prepared to digest a multitude of data. The underlying principle in this approach is that the respondents' responses are information and must not influence conclusion to the extent that the researcher uses the respondents' analysis as the research analysis in the Research findings. A good companion to this interview technique is the Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis (Exercising a reflective stance).

The main challenge of this interview technique is its demand on the respondents' time. Considering the challenges of penetrating the spectrum of respondents outlined above, a measure of confidence and trust must be established between the researcher and the interviewee.

The ideal would be a positive mutual regard platform between researcher and interviewee as a prelude to the free attitude interview

Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis(Exercising a reflective stance)

The Writing, reading and feedback exercises through the Probing depth analysis (Exercising a reflective stance) is a valuable aid in assessing the kind of data generated in a free attitude interview; the two go hand-in-hand.

It demands a great amount of energy from the researcher as they must constantly exercise patience with themselves in answering their own question to achieve a greater clarity. This remains a major challenge as it may begin to take up much of the energy that the researcher would rather spend on other mechanical tasks.

Using this technique requires a flexible mindset and as an alternative to structuralized Frameworks, it provides an opportunity for the researcher to create their own alternative theories on the matter at hand.

It requires objectivity from the researcher if they are to avoid prejudiced opinions to seep into the truth of the knowledge created.

Appreciative Inquiry

An Appreciative Inquiry approach to a depth research must be a cautious one. In the case of women's use of the Mobile Cellular Phone and women's empowerment as a result, there are many issues to consider if the research process is to achieve resonating effects and maintain justice to the data.

In the first place, the Appreciative Inquiry approach disregards the elements of a phenomenon that do not work or negatively affect a community; instead, the approach is characterized by a specific focus on elements of phenomenon that affects a community positively or works to their benefit. It suggests that amplifying the positive elements will amplify gains and benefit the community of users of these elements than if the community worked to remove the negative effects by focusing on them.

This Principle's main challenge is the threat of obscuring the negatives for the benefit of the positives to the extent that the negatives continue to exist but only this time they are ignored and as a result they could exacerbate.

Adaptive preferences by women are practical results of appreciative inquiry principles practiced in society. The existing injustices towards women can only strive if they are continuously adapted to and women can only stand the injustices if they adapted to them and self-created positive meanings for them.

However, a beneficial appreciative strategy and positive application of appreciative inquiry principles is one where there is an exposure of the negatives and an adaptation to the current while the negatives are isolated and work towards their elimination continues. This calls for a cumulative process of improvement both at amplifying what works and eliminating what doesn't.

Summary

Government Departments: Slow Yields
It is generally difficult to collect information from Government institutions in Zambia because of their bureaucratic organizational systems. They do not have effective data retention systems and specific information on the status of women in relation to access to ICTs. Oral history in most cases becomes the best methodological option for extraction of valuable information from individuals.

Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers: Fear of Infiltration
The best data sources on the characteristics of mobile service provision and its influence on women users are the mobile service providers themselves. The stringent measures they create to insure impenetrability is a stumbling block to many institutions that could use this wide knowledge to enhance women's progress. Allaying fears and working through internally placed individuals can prove valuable in extracting valuable internal information.

There is a lack of constant cohesion among women's networks in Zambia.
Only when a pressing issue of common interest arises do they collaborate to advocate collectively, they exchange experiences and share ideas. Resource wars and ideological mismatches among women's organizations must not supersede holistic women's emancipation. To allay fears of infiltration and resource rivalry, the researcher could use the strategy of idealism to appeal to the idealistic principle of women's emancipation that binds all women empowerment organizations.
The Mobile Cellular Phone: Amorphous
Research on ICT must strive to remain current in light of the fact that ICT innovations like the Mobile Cellular Phone are constantly changing in innovation that influences use and user trends
Free attitude interview
The main challenge of this interview technique is its demand on the respondents' time. Considering the challenges of penetrating the spectrum of respondents, a measure of confidence and trust must be established between the researcher and the interviewee.
Writing reading feedback exercise
It requires objectivity from the researcher if they are to avoid prejudiced opinions to seep into the truth of the knowledge created.

Appreciative inquiry
However, a beneficial appreciative strategy and positive application of appreciative inquiry principles is one where there is an exposure of the negatives and an adaptation to the current while the negatives are isolated and work towards their elimination continues. This calls for a cumulative process of improvement both at amplifying what works and eliminating what doesn't.

The obstacles in a research environment are not insurmountable, in fact to a greater extent they are enriching to the whole research process as they further develop the Researcher. There is need for progressive collaboration between Social Service advocacy initiatives and corporate interests in Africa. The Exploitative nature of such industries can inflict reduction in the gains of women's progress so far. It is imperative to study possible models for corporate induced sustainable Social Development models.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

137 women's ways of knowing: the development of self, voice and mind. Belenky et all (1986)

Buskens 2008

Effect of mobile telephony on empowering rural communities (Sinha 2005)

Mobile Cellular Phones For Zambian Women: Making Life Better. (Abraham 2008)

The thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry (Hammond)

Woman's inhumanity to Woman (Phyllis Chesler 2001)

Beijing +10 shadow report on the situation of women in Zambia (NGOCC 2004)

Fine lines or Strong cords? Who do we think we are and who do we think we can become in the quest for quality in Qualitative Research (Buskens 2001)

Women, Gender and Development reader (Visvanathan et al 1997)

Afro cease fire

2008-01-31T12:57:00.001+02:00

Afro cease fire, originally uploaded by kiss1.

What are theimplications of secterian violence and to what extent can the fires of despair triggered by such an act be quenched?

An Observation on how to Approach Kenya

2008-01-31T12:50:00.000+02:00

By Ineke Buskens:
Director Research for the Future
GRACE Africa Research

Remember the golden rule:

"If you do not understand a phenomena, study the effects."

That may require a long time focus and careful, unemotional observation.

And that is exactly what we as researchers are trained to do.

If we study the situation in Angola, it is easy to see in hindsight that the escalating "tribal" violence, served the oil and diamond industry.

And it gave those industries such an opportunity to build a power position that they ruled the country, at least when I was there in 2000.

I would not be surprised if they are still ruling the country.

When I studied the economic situation in Brasil in 1987 (I lived there from 1985 - 1990) when there was a 3% inflation rate and therefore also a 3% overnight interest rate, I learnt that this situation did indeed benefit a certain party: the heavy metal industry.

When I arrived in South Africa in April 1990, it only took me 6 months to conclude that a third force (that was instigating "black on black violence") did indeed exist as so many black intellectuals claimed.

This was later proven to be so.

We all know who benefited from that.

One word of caution / consolation here: whilst it is possible that just as in Rwanda, an escalating genocide is happening in Kenya at the moment, it is also possible that the media exaggerates. Remember the media is owned. There is really no way how we can really find out what is happening unless we go there. And I would not advise you to do this.

Study Rwanda now and ponder who benefited from the genocide.

It is an old, old story I am afraid, already known to the Romans: "Divide and Rule".

That is how they built their empire.

You have read the book: Confessions of an Economic Hitman?

How to "live" with this insight, how to share a planet with such power lust / greed / destructive mind sets, is something we all have to find a personal answer to as awake, aware and socially responsible persons living on this earth.

One of my personal strategies is this: as I know that the personal is politics, I examine myself whether I have the behavior that is causing the destruction, in me; whether I have this in some measure in my life towards other people:

Do I have power lust?

Am I greedy?

Am I prejudicing against other people, based on gender, ethnicity, class?

And then I work with myself so that at least my frequency does not increment the frequency that is damaging the world.

And then I get on with what my hand has found for me to do, so that I continue to contribute positively to the world that I hold in front of me all the time: where all human beings are sovereign, aware and loving themselves and each other.

I have very often in activists seen the very characteristics that have caused the problem they are fighting.

Such incoherence, such impotence, such misguided passion.

Now a personal word of caution to you:

Although I understand your despair, getting emotional will not get you anywhere. What you need is focus and discipline and self love.

Making Life Better

2008-01-31T12:11:00.001+02:00

Making life better for Zambian women through Mobile Cellular Phones

Introduction

The slogan of Celtel one of the Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers in Zambia is 'Making Life Better'. According to Celtel, the provision of the service to all corners of the country is a way of contributing to the betterment of Zambians. However, Celtel is not the only provider of Mobile cellular phone services in this country; there are two others, Zamtel and MTN. Collectively they hold the view that their services are not only the answer to Zambia's communication needs but also to its Social and Economic ills. Taking the credit for the presence of these Service Providers however is the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), a party that has been in power since 1991 and introduced the liberalization policies that ushered in many changes to the various social and economic sectors of the country. Civil Society Organizations in the country however have constantly argued that the liberalization policies have contributed a great deal to the rise of poverty levels in the country, at the wide end of the poverty threshold are women and children.

The GRACE Zambia Research Project probed the systems and institutions whose collective responsibility is the provision of the Mobile Cellular Phone Service. It also investigated the institutions that monitor Gender issues and the well being of women in relation to these ICTs. The Project took an appreciative inquiry approach on making life better through cell phones.

Until around 1996, telephones in Zambia where confined to major towns and cities, the available system was the landline telephone, and it depended on the laying of cable networks across the country, a terribly expensive and time consuming task that limited progress. The only Telecommunications Company in the country was the state owned Postal and telecommunications company PTC. By ---DATE OF LIBERALISATION OF THE MARKET------ the MMD Government that took over from UNIP went on a major liberalization exercise; it commenced to privatize state owned companies including the PTC in a bid to enhance effectivenesses of service delivery. The State converted the PTC into a parastatal Company now known as Zamtel, a modern company providing Internet, telephone and Mobile Cellular phone communication services in the country for profit.

Before Zamtel was formed however, two other Mobile Cellular Phone companies had already begun providing Cell services. These where Celtel and then MTN.

Mobile telephone services are widespread, touching all corners of the country. Many people own mobile handsets even in poor communities. The use of the service has been made convenient with a booth at most street corners providing both call services and airtime recharge cards for handsets. The transformation of the mobile phone from symbol of prestige to symbol of basic communication is all too clear in this poor country.

With respect to the new Mobile Telephone services, what then does the slogan 'Making life better' mean to women in Zambia? Does it mean that women have more freedom to communicate, do they have more control on the content of their conversations on the tool, and have they got communication access to a greater number of people? Do they have more freedom to express themselves? These and many other questions are still being probed by Zambia's Women's empowerment organizations and the institutions of authority but a brief look at a few stories and factors can bring us a little closer to the answers.

This GRACE Zambia research while examined the work of the policy makers, the service providers, the NGOs and a few users-The major players in this subject. The fact that there is no gender specific data on the subject of mobile cellular phones in the country coupled by the fact that the service providers do not take any interest in observing differentials in use between men and women made the research daunting.

The Research revealed that there are variations in the uses of the service between rural areas and urban areas; it revealed that male spouses relate to women who use the service differently from the time that they had no access. The research revealed that there are some specific uses that dominate the overall use of the phone and these are use of the phone for business activities, use of the phone for information gathering, communication with the family and for emergencies.

This research project is the first of its kind on the relationships between the systems that provide the service and the well being of women in Zambia. It is important to note that most other researches on Cell phones in Zambia have been mainly motivated by corporate entities that provide the service for marketing purposes. The findings of this project are important for the major ICT players in Zambia and abroad which are responsible for policy implementation on ICTs and Women's empowerment in work towards achieving the MDGS and bridging the digital divide. The research material can also prove relevant to private companies in the field.

Findings enforce the fact that there is a great demand for the service in the rural areas and demand has for a longtime been stifled by lack of infrastructure in the recent past. Both high tariffs at present and high cost of equipment such as handsets have also been a constant barrier to provision of the service in the rural areas.

It is cardinal to note that the opposition to provision of the service in the rural areas has been on pretext that demand is low and investment in such areas would amount to low turn outs of both development in the rural areas and profits for investors be it Government or the private sector.

An overview of the Status of women in Zambia

The Legal system

Zambia
has ratified various
international and regional instruments on gender. Among these is the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Declaration on Gender and the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children. Other instruments related to women that the Country has ratified include the UN Charter on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

In the quest to insure gender equity, the government adopted the National Gender policy in 2000; the policy defines guidelines of mainstreaming gender issues in all national development initiatives. Taking into account provisions of the international and regional instruments on gender, the government formed the Strategic Plan of Action (SPA) for the implementation of the Gender policy.

While it is admirable that the Government has taken to ratify the well-versed instruments on the advancement of women, such acts are close to meaningless if the Government is not committed to the implementation of the Gender development initiatives in the Nation especially through the deliberate creation of clauses on the subject in the National Constitution.

According to a Research by the NGOCC on the status of women and provisions in the legal framework,
the country tolerates a dual legal system that consists of cultural laws on one hand and statutory laws on the other. Of note is the fact that customary law tends to portray tendencies of legalised discrimination against women. This illustrates the entrenchment of imbalance of equality of genders in this society.

Because the country is going through an unprecedented reform period with the process of creating a new constitution well underway, stakeholders and the civil society continue to hope for a women friendly constitution.

Women in positions of Power

There are no legal impediments that restrain women from aspiring and being voted into political office, despite this, women have remained almost invisible in positions of power. However, since the 2006 Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections, there has been a great increase of women voted into the respective offices except for the Presidency where no woman stood for election.

There are about --- No. Of female representatives in Parliament as opposed to ---No. males. Under the Zambian Constitution, there must be 150 elected Members of Parliament and 8 Nominated Members of parliament.

The Electoral system has for a long time been a hindrance to women's participation, this has been due to the absence of affirmative action in favor of women's participation as opposed to the traditional 'Equal' approach

There is an increasing realization that while women account for half the voting population, only about 15% participate as candidates and officials in decision-making processes.

Zambian citizens are required to have Green National Registration cards for both identification and use in periods such as elections, a study by the Gender in Development division revealed that a great number of women as opposed to men do not have the cards due to the long distances to registration points especially in rural areas. As a result, most women are deprived a services and even opportunities to vote

Traditions, customs and cultures

A contentious issue, tradition and culture in relation to advancement of women continue to steer debate. Zambia other than being an African country with a deep sense of indigenous culture flaunting 72 local languages and an array of traditional ceremonies was declared a Christian nation in -------by the then President Frederick Chiluba (though declared a Christian nation, the country remains a circular state as there are no provisions in the constitution deliberately enforcing this fact).

The ethnic groups in most cases find points of similarity but the country as a whole is part of the world and there are deep modern influences spurned by the inescapable 'global village'. Overall despite a few elements, Zambian culture is patriarchal; men dominate the customs and traditions. Division of labor by stereotype between men and women is the order of the day.

The Christian influences which enforce the superiority of men as head of the households over women cast a shadow on the emancipation of women while the customs insure that initiation ceremonies and premarital counseling enforce the view that the wife must be submissive to the husband, while men must pay the bride price to signify ownership of the woman.

The woman culturally does not own much and the stereotype role of looking after the home has seen her as the primary care taker of children. With the scourge of HIV/AIDS and the gradual increase of orphans, the extended family system has seen an increased burden on women in this regard. The cycle is hard to break, as women raise their children with values they where taught, relegated to being conveyor belts of a culture that binds them, they continue to feed the system, sustaining it through the generations.

Women and living

According to the CSO (2000), over 80% of the rural population were poor compared to about 60% in urban areas. The population of people living in urban areas had declined from 38 percent in 1990 to 36% in 2000; this reduction can be attributed to the soaring numbers of the unemployed due to the privatization processes from 1991 onwards.

The underlying facts indicate that persons in female-headed households are more likely to be extremely poor as opposed to their counterparts in male-headed households.

Soaring levels of poverty among women are a perpetual challenge; women and children are more likely to be poor and incapable to access resources unless Government implements deliberate and drastic measures.

A logical explanation for women being at the higher end of the poverty index can be their inability to be seen as part of decision making on resource allocation at basic household level leading to their lack of control over resources and relegating them to threat of exposure to poverty or its potential at all levels.

Until the gender policy and attempts to mainstream gender issues, the inability to have foresight of implications of inclusion of the gender perspective in the past policy initiatives has caused major damage that will take a while to repair or even envisage.

Women and access to ICTS in Zambia

On the 28^th of March 2007, the government of the republic of Zambia through a long-standing consultative process with civil society, the business sector and other governments introduced and launched the Zambia national Information and Communication Technology Policy (ICT Policy). The first of its kind, the policy was a result of the realization that ICT where receiving worldwide attention as a means for development in such forums as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Campaign and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

With inclusion of ICT in the fifth National Development plan 2006 to 2010, the policy is designed on 13 'pillars'

Human resource development
Agriculture
Tourism, environment and natural resources
Education
Health
E- Commerce
E- Governance
Youth and women
Legal and regulatory Framework
Security in information society
Access, media, content and culture
ICT Services

The policy is intended to be government led, and the government intends to involve the private sector. The launch was characterized by pomp and splendor with private sector stands showcasing new and advanced technologies and gadgets, free T-shirts where dished out and ministers and the Vice President made statements on the need for the policy. The Minister for communications and Transport conceded on the lack of competence in the regulatory framework which traditionally separated management of broadcasting, telecommunications, online media and information technology with the ministry of Information and Broadcasting being solely responsible for broadcasting services such as Television and Radio, the Communications Authority of Zambia being responsible for regulation of all Telecommunications and online media while the ministry of communications and transport remains to regulate information technology. In his speech, the Minister insisted on the Convergence of ICT and defined it as the culmination of services that would make up the ICT sector.

It has become evident that Zambia is lagging behind in keeping with progressive technological trends because of this technicality. A practical example is simply the fact that it is illegal to operate a service such as skype because one can simply not acquire a license to provide the service because no such license exists under Zambian law. This being the case, Zambians can still access and use the service because it is free on the World Wide Web and because of this, the Government has urged the Communications authority to quickly stop its usage by any means possible until a means of regulation is achieved. Meanwhile, With a Mobile cellular phone, one can access the Internet, listen to the radio make calls and send pictures. With such complexities of comprehension, balancing and management of ICTs in the Country, one wonders at the position of women in the fray.

On close scrutiny, the section of the ICT Policy specifically mentioned on bullet 8 above and located in part 2 chapters 6.11 seems to intend to target women. What becomes evident however is how women's issues become molded with that of children and lose their individuality.

Gender specialists in Zambia have argued against this form of generalization for a long time, "it is either women, children or women children and the disabled" in the same clauses in our country's official documents" argues Susan Chilala from the Zambia council for Social Development. One almost gets the temptation to think that the section on women was added for the sake of it. All the same, the mere fact that women have been included in the policy is a step in the right direction, a lot still remains to be done to carve practical milestones for women through the policy.

The introduction to the policy clearly states that one factor that represents the gap between poor countries and rich ones is the inequitable access to resources among the citizenry and the lack of technology to exploit vast Natural resources available in those countries, it further goes to state that the fundamental difference between the developed and the developing countries is that the former are also rich in information and as a well developed citizenry which is able to adapt quickly to changing social and economic environments, hence utilizing opportunities to overcome developmental challenges such as poverty.

If this can be used as a rule at Zambian community level, then we can assume that the soaring poverty levels among Zambians in relation to those that are not poor or are becoming less poor is due to differentials in access to technology and information. We can also further assume then that there must be an even further lack of information and technology among women in comparison to men as women indicate a higher prevalence of poverty. In Global ICT language, the term digital divide is used to describe the technological gap between people that have fully exploited ICT and those that have not, this divide is almost always associated with the developmental gap in terms of social and economic performance. For purposes of illustration, we can say that women and men in Zambia may be at threat of standing at opposite ends of a widening digital divide.

While it is tempting to jump at such conclusions, it is also important to be reminded of the various social factors that come to play to enhance the 'resource divide' and have been touched on above.

Mobile Cellular Phones, an ICT for all

During the GRACE Zambia Research, the researcher would ask respondents what they knew about ICTs, the almost obvious response would be- "what are ICTs?" This, in a country where community radios have mushroomed, and billboards advertising Mobile cellular phone companies stretch as far as the eye can see in the cities, and Mobile Cellular phone companies paint their colors on every shop from city to rural village across the country. People are using the tools regardless of whether they know what they are. The bottom line is use. What do they use these tools for? How do they acquire them and possibly we dare to ask why they use them.

Some General Mobile Cellular Phone uses in Zambia

All users of Mobile Cellular Phone services in Zambia are consumers, spending their money on the airtime in exchange for a chance to have a dose of communication on their handheld gadgets; they feed the corporate monster that provides the service. Most people approached in the research could not make up their minds on whether they gained from the money they spent on a daily basis to use their phones, the mutual complaint is that the cost of airtime is high but while they complain, they almost subconsciously 'move' in rows towards the nearest airtime counter.

The mare fact that sales of the scratch cards is higher than ever signifies the insatiable appetite of Zambians to use Mobile Cellular phones. It is either good marketing strategy, or simply real need. The GRACE Zambia Research investigated a few users from a small cross section and found the following where the general reasons behind the 'moving' towards the counters; emergencies, maintaining social networks like family and friends, earning money (mostly an assumption which under scrutiny boiled down to complaint that it leads to loosing money), information.

In the cloud of conversation and 'moving' to the counters, there are practical examples of organized use of the Mobile cellular phone by women worth learning from. Before we get to those, mention must be made that most retailers at those counters are women. The mobile cellular Phone Service providers have ushered in a whole new class of informal sector business. The business has become a livelihood and a rescue for countless unemployed women and youths (the hardest hit by poverty and unemployment).

An example worth noting on practical uses of Mobile Phone technologies by women in Zambia is the Chipata Women's Mobile Communication Project. A Partnership between One World Africa (OWA), Celtel and the District Women's Association (DWDA) in Chipata (A rural town in the Eastern Province of Zambia). The Projects goal is to improve the lives and livelihood opportunities of members of the DWDA through access to information. The DWDA is a farming corporative run by women, in the initiative, the women run the only payphone booth in the area. The booth has become a means of access for the community to the outside world reducing costs such as travel by road. While connecting the community to the outside world, the ownership of the equipment has granted the women more influence in the community and as a farming corporative, they have more capacity to choose markets for their produce, with the click of a button, they can gain information on market prices of their produce from various markets before traveling. In return, Celtel uses them as freelance retailers, using them as an extension of its tentacles in the remote area, squeezing every possible communication penny possible. Asked why Celtel chose to partner with a women's association, Mato Shimabale the Strategic Marketing Manager for Celtel maintained that women in Zambia form more organized groupings than men, "they do it at many social levels, be it Church, NGO etc. They simply have the ability to be accountable in unity," he said.

Other organized beneficiaries of the 'deal' based on the same model include the Maureen Mwanawasa Initiative (MMCI) an NGO headed by the first lady Maureen Mwanawasa.

The easy assumption would be that women are prone to gossip and thus would use the mobile phone more than men do, the reality is proving the contrary in the home, as men find that their wives are airtime banks, because they have less conversations on the phones than they do.

Economic considerations

The Mobile Cellular phone Service provision process in Zambia works according to a meticulous system; locked in an embrace, the Government, corporate service providers, and civil society simultaneously influence the quality of access the end user or consumer will assume. The end user's main concern is cost of service, the civil society's advocacy is around greater access for all, the corporate provider complains of limiting laws, harsh taxes, cost of investment while government insists on improving the standards of living but contends that it can only do so if taxes are paid accordingly. The Celtel Strategic marketing manager argues that with soaring poverty and women hanging on the losing end, it is important to Asses policy direction. "Communication is tangible, it is something we can see, and it changes peoples lives. If Government would lower our costs of investing in the rural areas, reduce taxes on service providers, we would provide the service to the people at greater affordable prices, this can contribute to improving standards of living".

Whatever the formula for beating poverty, the 'influence' embrace might be stifling the free breath of communication of the end user. The question of fairness is a fundamental question in the approach of issues related to access to resources and attainment of full inalienable rights, however for the purposes of this research, the focus of fairness is the sum of the latter with respect to women.

Social challenges

Women's access to communication is subject to suspicion and scrutiny in the home according to the hints of a number of local songs. Reflecting, the underlying tensions between partners on women's newly acquired ability to freely communicate, the songs usually hint at moral reasons for access and use of the cell phone by women and men.

Women in Zambia face three major challenges in their access to ICTS according to the Non Governmental Organization Coordinating council (NGOCC).

Women are Illiterate.

According to the CSO 2000, girls are likely to drop out of school in comparison with boys, this simply because of the preference given to boys by poorer families in partitioning of education resources, or early pregnancy leading to early marriages. Against this background, the deep cultural scar that insists comically that women have no business with all other things other than the kitchen might be the reason why most women still do not have such things as email addresses in Zambia. Fortunately, the cell phone needs little education to operate and according to Bob Wang from ZTE an ICT solutions company investing in Zambia "good tools need little or no education for their operation"

Women are impoverished

In Zambia the poverty stricken have little or no access to education and resources. A relatively cheap handset in April 2007 on average would cost about K150, 000.00 ($US 37.5), meanwhile, according to the United Nations, the majority of Zambians 80% live on below a dollar a day.

Women are Domestic

The cultural setup insures that women are domestic dwellers, spending most of their time in the home away from other forms of ICTs that are not mobile (internet, payphones) unless such amenities are in the home.

Had the NGOCC female representative not issued such a statement and instead a man, they would have been found vicious. One would equally argue that the truth usually is. The generalization however must not overshadow the vast majority of emerging women who have benefited from affirmative action and more enlightened family settings. It must not overshadow women who are the fruits of Civil Society advocacy and are making a marked difference on the image of the Zambian woman in Zambia.

Recommendations

With the service providers holding the reigns, the public remains at their mercy. Consistently subjected to high tariffs, second-rate service and unreliable support from the consumer protection institutions. With all the political weight shifting and money swapping, women remain low as a priority, relegated to having their particular issues merged with those of other groups (Youths, Children, The disabled) with specific needs themselves. The buzzword in the media is women's equality and empowerment and equality for all. The interpretation seems not to trickle down to access to communications as much as it should, if it does, it is in 'experiments' and not through direct policy intervention. Specific attention must be given to the traditionally marginalized female sex.

The ICT policy is a step in the right direction, working towards achieving the MDGS by 2010 will need a concerted effort and if access to information is a major ingredient for development, women need to be at the greatest receiving end, some deliberate efforts must be put in place to insure this.

In tune with the influential players in the process of provision, individual recommendations are as follows:

Government:

Government intends to utilize the SUNRISE method to implement the ICT policy. As has been the case in the past, the lack of stakeholders to own initiatives has stopped many a policy dead in its tracks. Implementation is cardinal and the Government needs to

Mainstream the policy in all systems of government
Encourage private sector investment in the industry
Tighten transparency and reduce corruption in the disbursement of resources towards the sector
Deliberately relate the Gender policy to the ICT policy
Reduce duplication and confusion at regulatory level by integrating the departments within the Ministry of Information, the Communications Authority and the Ministry of communications and transport that are directly tasked to regulate ICT in keeping with the convergence of ICTs at global level.
Reduce restrictions on the freedom of information and encourage such ICT platforms such as skype that promote cost effective and easy communication.
Encourage education among girl children
Promote high standard user friendly ICT equipment
Lowering of tariffs on imports of ICT equipment
Subsidizing rural development through sharing of costs of investment with private sector investors i.e. sharing of costs of erection of transmission towers etc
There is a real need to develop sustainable energy sources i.e solar energy that can help sustain Mobile cellular phone use in rural areas where infrastructure for electricity has not yet been built.

Civil Society:

The Civil Society is vast in Zambia, with well over 150,000 NGOs in the country, there is almost a non-existence of coordination, and this has caused the Zambian fragmentation of civil society. A fragmented entity has less influence over policy development and implementation processes. The Civil society in the quest for the empowerment of women through ICT should;

Employ a sectored approach to development and target women's development through ICT. They should delegate organizations that are experienced in the field of ICT and well being of women to lead the dialogue with policy-making institutions.
They must introduce programs which like the Chipata experience translate ICT tools into resource generating and life improving implements
They should be vocal and consistently checking the transparency in resource allocation towards the sector.
With the emergence of ICT, freedoms of information are accelerated. The civil Society must continue to promote and protect this free and open culture.
Institute research projects to gain greater understanding of the impact of ICT on women and other marginalized groups.

Corporate Service Providers and retailers of accessories:

Despite the National gender policy and the insistence on mainstreaming gender, the service providers still do not record the gender differentials of their subscribers. This is retrogressive in the tracking of improvements in women's access to mobile phones. The corporate world should assist Government in the implementation of the ICT policy.

They should lax on the mentality of market forces determining the quality of service for the consumer but rather view their contribution as a moral obligation for National development.
They should internalize the Gender policy and make it easier for women to utilize their services.
They should reduce on the price of ICT tools and fund community development programs to improve access to the service.

Users:

There is a need for Zambians to learn their fundamental rights. The lack of education in this regard has consistently handed citizens a raw deal in development. Development of a culture of volunteerism and behavioral change is the only way to break the social mentality that binds women and decelerates personal human development. Users should;

Be aware of their consumer rights to complain if they feel that the costs of access to ICTs is too high or the services do not adequately satisfy their needs
Users must encourage the use of ICT at domestic level by women and girls.
Use the ICTs more for self-development as opposed to non-productive leisure.

Conclusion

The mobile Cellular phone technology is a basic method of communication Zambians can utilize, however there are many barriers for the poor; these include mainly cost and lack of basic skill. Like any tool, the Cell Phone can be abused. Benefits from the tool can only be derived if users utilize it for positive self-development and community improvement. " The cell phone is like a high way, users have self motivation and they go in their own respective directions. The highway does not dictate where the user goes or how the user can use it" says Bob Wang from ZTE. Similarly women can use the tool for either self-improvement or retrogression, what remains clear is the need for a concerted effort to enhance women's access. Only then will life be made better.

2008-01-18T14:03:00.000+02:00

The Kenya Crisis: An afro Headache

2008-01-18T14:02:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday 15^th January 2007 I asked one of my editors whether I could do a cartoon on the Kenya Crisis, his response was a clear no; in his words, " I wont touch Kenya with a 15 meter pole". It seems as though he wants to be cautious with the hot issue. He doesn't stand alone either, conspicuous, is the lesser than caustic responses from the usually vocal American Government, The European Union, and the African leadership (Both Civil and Political). They all seem to be playing the crisis down while the people of Kenya are being maimed. Reminiscent of the delays in mitigating the Rwanda and Burundi genocide.

Kenya is a great country, Whenever I hear the word 'Harambe' a word in Swahili which means to me sharing and caring I think of Kenya, where I heard it first. My visits there before the current baffling crisis where always comfortable as its similarity with Zambia where striking. Multi-cultural with no trace of intolerance, people of mixed class walking side by side with no apparent tensions. Utopian, but non the less this was always the general sense. Today, in the media, we observe tribal violence, people maiming each other, the Police using live ammunition on civilians, political leaders giving no guidance and almost a non existent idea of what civil Society is doing at least in the press. The country is melting down from where am looking and there seems to be no end in sight.

The problem presents itself as Political, but simmering away below the surface, Economic injustice, tribal discontent and social frustrations have reared their ugliness through the violence we are seeing. Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki are the two elephants battling it out from their leather couches with no regard it seems for the suffering grass. The SABC reports that 250,000 Kenyans are displaced, 1000 people have died due to ethnic violence since the disputed elections two weeks ago and the Country has lost 3% of its GDP. Numbers, numbers representing innocent civilians, children, injuries and shortages in hospitals.

Am reminded of a meeting of the Africa Social Forum Council I attended back in January 2006 at the Polycentric World Social forum in Bamako Mali. Halfway into the meeting, a comrade from Kenya raised a point of order against the leadership of the Social Forum process within Kenya who where also present at the meeting and bidding to host the 2007 World Social Forum. He accused them of coming from the same tribe and leading the process along tribal lines. Of course this caught the pan African meeting by surprise and the argument of tribe seemed trivial and out of context, he was unilaterally dismissed as the meeting went on to other topics on the agenda without giving him a response. Much Later the World Social Forum took place in Kenya successfully in January 2007 with participation of delegates from all over the world.

Eerily today, January 2008 I observe on France 24 TV news, maimed bodies of Kenyans all in the name of Tribe and Politics the other way round or both.

Even worse, is the loud silence from members of the Civil Society Networks I'm subscribed to. In the past, very keen to comment on the wide range of issues on the list serves, they seem to have gone silent on the issues in Kenya itself. I would personally be more comfortable with news from these comrades than the news am seeing on the Television. It worries me as I begin to imagine possible scenarios; are they in danger, do they belong to the 'wrong' tribal groups, what are the implications on the status of women and children, is the situation not as bad as it is being portrayed in the media, why are they not updating the networks?

Information is power, powerful too is the power of the collective good. The way we have come together as Africans to overcome mutual problems is the same way we can quell the fires of Kenya. I believe that the networks have the power to speak out against the many Injustices that are present in many African states and like in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi can break out anywhere in African communities, with no warning. I wonder at the contingency measures being put in place by other African states to prevent these occurrences within their borders and the possible implications on Human Rights.

Why Patriarchy

2007-12-18T02:07:00.001+02:00

the patriarchy, originally uploaded by kiss1.

Very big Question mark

FINDECO

2007-12-18T01:43:00.001+02:00

DSC03103, originally uploaded by kiss1.

Lusaka entered from the South. These Mamoths where all built when Zambia was booming from Copper profits. The companies that built them have since collapsed and they remain dry and rundown.

With the rise in copper prices and renewed consumer confidence in the zambian economy, many observers are beginning to hope for economic revival

Ku Town

2007-12-18T01:40:00.001+02:00

DSC03118, originally uploaded by kiss1.

The majority of Zambian workers will travel to their places of work in Public buses. overcrowded and disrespected by the conductors, they sit idly till their next bus stop. The concept of consumer satisfaction does not exhist here.

Kunjanji

2007-12-18T01:37:00.001+02:00

DSC03099, originally uploaded by kiss1.

A typical Zambian dawn in the poverty stricken townshps. pictured here is the area around Misisi a compound near the greater City of Lusaka.
Massive unemployment has given rise to the informal sector. Many households are left to fend for themselves by selling low value goods, with their meagre gains, they hardly manage to have a meal a day let alone afford rentals for shops.

Pictured here, these venders have no choice but to sell teir goods on a rail line with no fear for the hazards.

DSC03109

2007-12-18T01:31:00.001+02:00

DSC03109, originally uploaded by kiss1.

The sunsets over a defunct rail line as a communication tower cuts through the sky heralding the end of the old and birth of the new.
Somwhat eery, time will tell wether replacing traditional communication methods will benefit the majority of people.

2007-04-30T17:24:00.000+02:00

GRACE Research Zambia PROJECT CONTEXT

2007-04-30T16:59:00.000+02:00

Making Life Better

The slogan of Celtel a Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provider in Zambia is ‘Making Life Better’. According to Celtel, the provision of Mobile cellular phone services to all corners of the country is a way of contributing to the betterment of Zambians. However, Celtel is not the only provider of Mobile cellular phone services in this country; there are two others, Zamtel and MTN, Collectively they hold the view that their services are not only the answer to Zambia’s communication needs but also to its Social and Economic ills.

Taking the credit for the presence of these Service Providers however is the Movement for Multiparty Democracy MMD, a party that has been in power since 1991 and introduced the liberalization policies that brought in many changes to the various social and economic sectors of the country. Civil Society Organizations in the country however have constantly argued that the liberalization policies have contributed a great deal to the rise of poverty levels in the country, at the wide end of the poverty threshold are women and children.

This Research Project aims to explore the various factors involved in the dynamics of provision of the communications service, the Research Process involved probing the effects of the service on the communities which had previously not had the technology, observing the cultural, social and economic changes which have been observed and can be related in a way to the provision of the service.

The project also intends to find the place of women in the process by questioning their position at the various stages of provision or decision-making. The following sectors have been a major focus of the research: Government, Interest Groups (Ruling and the opposition Parties), Civil Society, Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers and Ordinary Mobile Cellular Phone Users.

1. Government
The Government in Zambia through its provision of services and implementation of policies has the task of keeping abreast with modern developments in the communications industry. The major hindrance to the development of the communications and media industry has been the Government’s policies forged by concerns of National Security and State control, and this has been a major preoccupation of government vs. Civil Society conflicts. At the moment, the Communications Authority a wing of Government tasked to regulate communications services has developed a confidential document recommending to the government to amend laws related to communication, the chapter would briefly focus on these facets as they have affected access by ordinary people.

2. Interest Groups (Ruling and the opposition Parties)
Political parties have provided alternative models to the current status of the nation, the research process will probe a few that relate to women and communications vis-а-vis the Governments current interventions.

3. Civil Society
Civil Societies work for the common good of all Zambian citizens can be valuable in the probe on its work towards empowerment of women, the research process intends to give an insight on it’s work.

4. Mobile Cellular Phone Service Providers
The Service providers in Zambia have the opportunity to provide an opportunity for women; the research will view the various challenges they face; experiences, their expectations, view on possibilities, opportunities and their suggestions for national development through ICTs.

5. Users
Users have various views on how they are affected by the ICT service; the research will share their experiences and question whether ‘User’ has or must have a gender.

The Zambia GRACE Research will contribute to the discussions on whether life can, is, isn’t or won’t be better for Women in Zambia through Mobile Cellular Phones.

2007-04-30T16:48:00.000+02:00

ZAMBIAN MOBILE CELLULAR PHONE SERVICE PROVISION
RESEARCH PROJECT

Introduction
The GRACE Research Zambia Project on Mobile Cellular Phone Service Provision and the Advancement of Women in Zambia is a sub project of the overall Gender Research in Africa into ICT for Empowerment GRACE. The Project comprises 15 subprojects, reflecting 14 research sites in 12 countries. The 2-year project is being implemented by the International Development Research Center- Canada and the Research for the Future- South Africa.

Problem Statement
Until recently Cell phone usage in Zambia was very limited with coverage only in urban areas. Three companies now provide the service and there has been a growth in its usage. There are more than 1,000,000 users of mobile cellular phones in the country; the service can be accessed across the country, translating to access to phone services where infrastructure for conventional telephone lines has not been built. People in remote areas are now within reach.

Objective
The general aim of the Zambia project is to explore how the Provision of Cell Phone Services affects the advancement of women in Zambia by examining the experiences of cell phone service providers, policy makers and women’s empowerment organizations.

Methodology
The knowledge construction process informing the research is central to the results. In order to achieve a sense of women’s realities, the researcher designs a methodology grounded in the enhancement of critical reflexivity towards self and others and their creativity. The research questions and methodologies are grounded in the principles of action research. Emphasis is on qualitative research techniques and Appreciative inquiry.

Results
The on-going project will contribute to debates focusing on women’s empowerment and ICTs through finding its own understandings of what “empowerment” and “gender” may mean in multiple African ICT contexts. The lessons learnt will be shared with policy makers and educators in the form of contextualized and local-specific recommendations.

Conclusions and Recommendations
The Research process is nearing its final stages and the results continue to form a pattern that suggests many possibilities for constructive uses of ICTs for the benefit of women and the need for policy intervention to regulate corporate influence on the quality and the nature of services.

2007-04-30T16:42:00.000+02:00

GENDER RESEARCH IN AFRICA INTO ICTS FOR EMPOWERMENT (GRACE)

The Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE) project aims to explore the ways in which women in Africa use ICTs to empower themselves, the external, structural barriers as well as the internal factors which prevent or enable them to use ICTs to their advantage, and the strategies they employ to overcome these impediments. The research is highly original on two levels: the subject matter and the research coordination approach.

The project comprises 14 sub-projects, reflecting 14 research sites in 12 countries. While coherent with the general aim of the overall research initiative, the sub-projects differ from each other greatly in terms of target group and research focus. Furthermore, the concepts of gender and empowerment which frame the project’s general direction and commitment do not have unequivocal meaning within the sub-projects.

The project aims to contribute to debates focusing on women’s empowerment and ICTs through finding its own understandings of what “empowerment” and “gender” may mean in multiple African ICT contexts. The lessons learnt will be shared with policy makers and educators in the form of contextualized and local-specific recommendations.

The approach to the knowledge construction process informing the work is central to the results. In order to achieve a sense of women’s realities in the 12 countries, the focus of the approach taken has been to create the space for the14 research teams to develop their own methodology grounded in the enhancement of their critical reflexivity towards self and others and their creativity. The research questions and methodologies, the research trainings, as well as the ongoing mentoring and support programme accompanying the research are grounded in the principles of critical emancipatory research, better known as action research. Because very little research has taken place in Africa into gender, empowerment and ICTs, emphasis is placed on the use of qualitative research techniques as these techniques yield in-depth data and are able to highlight the various dimensions and aspects of the phenomena.
An important focus of the overall project is capacity building. Researchers are being provided with opportunities to develop research capacity as well as capacity to use ICTs effectively. The project made provisions for intensive training and ongoing mentoring and support. It endeavours to integrate the research and the ICT aspects into a holistic capacity building experience for the participants. Longer term objectives include:
The formation of a research network that can do ongoing gender, empowerment and ICT research in Africa.
The establishment of a research base in various institutions throughout Africa that can contribute to the debates around gender, empowerment and ICT issues.
Public policy influence at local, national and regional/global levels.
Capacity building workshops were held in July 2005 and June 2006, with a third workshop planned for July 2007. At the first workshop the GRACE researchers consolidated their methodological approaches, learnt how to use a qualitative analysis ICT tool (NVivo), gained other advanced ICT and knowledge networking skills, learnt how to use digital cameras and recorders and how to edit sound and images using their computers. The second workshop focused on enhancing research-writing skills and provided an opportunity for focused discussion on the research conducted.
Site visits were made by the Research Director prior to the second workshop. The project coordinator also worked closely with each research team through their design and implementation of their individual research strategies. This has been followed by detailed responses to draft research reports and chapter abstracts, ongoing provision of relevant literature recommendations, and discussion of issues and analysis. Online communications are conducted via a specific research-space list and directly between the research coordination team members and the researchers. Results will be documented in a professionally edited online and printed publication.

This 2.5-year project (April 05-Sept 07) is being implemented by Research for the Future, based in Cape Town.

Contact Details:
Kiss Brian Abraham
P.O Box 32295
Lusaka, Zambia 10101
Phone: +260 977 474801

kissabrahams@gmail.com
www.GRACE-network.org

Contact Details:
Ineke Buskens
GRACE Africa Project Leader and Research Director
www.GRACE-network.org