Women and ICT in Development of Africa Gains of engendering ICTs in rural Uganda

Women and Information are two crucial elements in rural development, ICTs are an intrinsic part of this equation. Documenting the impacts and lessons learnt of ICT capacity development projects are likely to earn the support of donors and governments.

One of the female participants of an ICT training for women in Uganda gave me a hand-written letter of thanks. I met her during my visit to our ICT and gender partners in rural Uganda. Throughout a series of sessions in their local community information centre she and her fellow colleagues were taught how to use the computer, how to connect to the Internet, how to use such as applications as word processing, e-Mail, MSN and MS Office. Had they absorbed their newly acquired skills into their daily lives? Were they now among the connected, happily using ICTs to improve her livelihood? The hand-written letter symbolises part of the answer to this question and brings to mind a few important lessons to be reminded of in ‘engendering’ ICT at the grassroots level. Read more