africa: Gender and Agriculture in the Information Society

Gender and Agriculture in the Information Society
A statement prepared by participants at the first-ever meeting on gender,
ICTs and agriculture in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific
(CTA Observatory meeting, September 11-13, 2002, Wageningen, the Netherlands)

Actions that empower the poor, broaden their social and economic
opportunities and reduce their vulnerability to disease, hunger, and
disasters are the three key factors to eradicate poverty. This is also the
primary focus of the Millennium Development Goals agreed by the
international and national development communities.

The advent of the information society offers increased scope for
information and communication technologies (ICTs) to be used to address
poverty and to enhance rural livelihoods. Thus, ICTs can empower rural
people, by amplifying their voices. They are 'enabling' tools that can help
poor rural women and men to capitalise on emerging opportunities,
especially in education and income generation. Moreover, they are being
used to help to cushion shocks and disasters such as disease and hunger.

However, gender disparities mean that these opportunities are not
immediately available to the poorest of the poor - who are mostly women.
This is compounded by the dwindling attention given to rural development
itself.

To address these disparities, concerted action needs to be taken in two
broad areas:

1) Ensure that rural women are able to use ICTs to improve their
livelihoods, and those of their families and communities, and to amplify
their voices in local and national forums;

2) Ensure that development actors systematically adopt gender
sensitive approaches in their programmes, especially those in agriculture
and rural development.

To achieve these goals, the following priority areas need to be addressed
by all stakeholders, including rural communities, governments, civil
society and the development community.

Priority areas for gender, ICTs and agriculture

* Mainstreaming. Gender must be mainstreamed in all development activities,
from formulation and design through to implementation and evaluation.
Ensuring the participation of poor rural women in these processes is a key
dimension.

* Policy. National policy formulation on rural issues, and/or ICTs should
give high priority to actions that promote gender equity and provide an
enabling environment for rural women to improve their livelihood opportunities.

* Access. Affordable ICT infrastructure and support services must be
brought to rural areas. Access to this infrastructure should be based on
community priorities as well as local gender-sensitive principles.

* Content. The knowledge of rural women is a valuable resource and driver
of local livelihoods. Women also have specific information and
communication needs that should be explicitly recognised - and acted upon -
by development actors. The creation and exchange of local and
locally-relevant content by rural women themselves or customised to their
needs and situations (in local languages for example)- should be top priority.

* Human capacities. Education and learning opportunities should be made
available to all rural women and men to realise the Education for All
principle. Girls and women should receive priority with respect to ICT and
related skills development schemes to ensure their active participation in
rural development and in the information society.

The real challenge is to converge efforts on gender, ICTs and agriculture
for rural development.

By adopting these actions and priorities poor rural women will finally be
able to use information and communication technologies in ways that improve
food security and provide sustainable livelihoods and ultimately the
quality of life in rural areas.

This statement is also available online at:
http://www.agricta.org/observatory2002/observatory_statement.pdf
http://www.isnar.cgiar.org/publications/briefing/bp55.htm
http://www.ictdevagenda.org/frame.php?dir=07&sd=10&id=291