From shuyer at wigsat.org Wed Aug 19 19:26:58 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:26:58 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] IDRC opportunities Message-ID: <3A4C4950-CD52-4DAF-943B-15565FF1DE7A@wigsat.org> IDRC Internship Awards Deadline: September 12, 2009 http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-84370-201-1-DO_TOPIC Call for Papers: ICTs and Development ? An International Workshop for Theory, Practice, & Policy Deadline: Octobre 1, 2009 http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-141733-201-1-DO_TOPIC IDRC Doctoral Research Awards Deadline: November 1, 2009 http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-23374-201-1-DO_TOPIC Career Opportunities Current job postings, IDRC's Code of Conduct, and salary scales. http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-26272-201-1-DO_TOPIC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shuyer at wigsat.org Thu Aug 20 11:24:26 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:24:26 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] =?windows-1252?q?Mobile_phones_alone_can=92t_empower_?= =?windows-1252?q?rural_women?= Message-ID: Mobile phones alone can?t empower rural women The News www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=193298 Sunday, August 16, 2009 By Our correspondent Islamabad With socio-culture factors constantly resisting their access to information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs), only availability of network coverage and mobile phones alone cannot ensure that the potential of ICTs would reach female users in rural areas and contribute to their empowerment. These findings make part of a study on ?The Gender Digital Divide in Rural Pakistan?, launched by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) during the 55th meeting of the study group on Information Technology and Telecommunications. The study concludes that the rapid increase of mobile phone penetration in Pakistan during past decade is insufficient to enable rural women?s access to telecommunication. Sharing her interesting observations on this occasion, lead researcher Dr. Karin Astrid Siegmann emphasised that the government should not neglect ?old? ICTs such as radio and TV in its efforts to harness the potential of ICTs for greater gender equality. ?These technologies are more accessible for female users, e.g. in terms of the permission required for their use and the necessary language skills,? she pointed out. The study group meeting titled ?Women and ICTs: Exclusion or Empowerment?? was also addressed by chief guest Mushtaq Ahmad Bhatti, Member (telecom), Ministry of Information Technology, Nazima Shaheen, Project Coordinator SDPI and Sana Shams, Senior Regional Research Officer, Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP). Chairman Gallup Pakistan, Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, presided over the meeting. In his welcome note, Executive Director SDPI Dr. Abid Suleri said that rural women?s empowerment was key to reduce rural poverty. He highlighted the contributions of SDPI in policy research on gender as well as ICT issues. Nazima Shaheen gave presentation on ?ICTs for women?s empowerment - learning from best practices?. She provided examples from Pakistan and around the globe on how ICTs had contributed to women?s empowerment in areas as diverse as business promotion, education as well as water and sanitation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shuyer at wigsat.org Thu Aug 20 11:24:41 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:24:41 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] Nominations are sought for UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication Message-ID: <79192E66-2981-4825-8179-5F5B1C81B78D@wigsat.org> From web2fordev. Nominations are sought for UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication 09-07-2009 (Paris) UNESCO has launched a call for nominations for the 2009 UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication. Potential submitters are invited to propose nominations in consultation with the National Commissions for UNESCO or with relevant non-governmental organizations maintaining consultative relations with UNESCO. The deadline for submitting nominations is 30 October 2009. Established in 1985, the UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication aims to reward a pioneering activity which contributes to improving communication in rural communities, in particular in developing countries. Awarded on a biennial basis, it consists of a sum of US$ 20,000 and a diploma. The last recipient of the Prize was the Indian daily newspaper Malayala Manorama, which was selected for its imaginative communication campaign aimed at raising awareness among the people of Kerala on the importance of water conservation as a solution to the problem of droughts in the region. The Prize will be awarded for the eleventh time during the 27th session of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), which will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 24 to 26 March 2010. Nominations should include a description of the candidate's background and achievements, a summary of the work, publications and other supporting documents of major importance; a description of the candidate's contribution to the Prize's objectives; and recommendations from the National Commissions for UNESCO or the NGOs enjoying a consultative status with UNESCO. For further details on how to submit a nomination, please click here (PDF): http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/28926/12469548793Rural_prize_call_for_nominations_2009.pdf/Rural_prize_call_for_nominations_2009.pdf Source: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28941&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anup Kumar Das New Delhi, India http://anupkumardas.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Looking for local information? Find it on Yahoo! Local http://in.local.yahoo.com/ ________________________

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Visit [web site]( http://dgroups.org/groups/web2fordev ) Click [here]( mailto:leave.web2fordev at dgroups.org ) to unsubscribe The email is intended only for the recipients. The owners of the Dgroups cannot be held responsible for the contents of the email message. From shuyer at wigsat.org Thu Aug 20 11:34:27 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:34:27 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] Call for Papers:: ICTs and Development - An International Workshop for Theory, Practice, & Policy Message-ID: <45F72A49-1029-4230-B16A-F8FF9BED8F7C@wigsat.org> From [web2fordev] Call for Papers:: ICTs and Development: An International Workshop for Theory, Practice, & Policy 11-12 March 2010 Organized by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India Sponsored by International Development Research Centre, Canada Call for Papers Unpublished, original empirical papers are invited for the forthcoming international workshop on ICTs and Development: An International Workshop for Theory, Practice, & Policy to be conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India, during 11-12 March 2010. The workshop aims to provide a forum for scholars to share their empirical research with academic experts, policymakers, and activists from the regional and international development community. Papers should examine how mobile phones, computers, and the Internet influence the empowerment of marginal individuals and communities, including whether ICTs create and enhance livelihood opportunities for people in the developing world. Papers should be in the range of 5,000-8,000 words (including abstract and bibliography) and should include a clear discussion of the implications of the findings for development policy and/or practice. No more than twelve papers will be selected by the workshop organizers for presentation.The first author of each paper chosen will be given air fare and lodging/meals. The workshop is part of the project, ICTs and Urban Micro Enterprises: Identifying and Maximizing Opportunities for Economic Development, and is supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada. The organizers are committed to finding an appropriate publication venue for all papers accepted for the workshop. Deadlines: Submission of manuscripts: 1st October 2009 Announcement of results: 1st December 2009 Submission of final version of the paper: 1st February 2010 For submission of manuscripts and other enquiries, please write to ICTD2010[at]gmail.com Workshop Organizers: Dr. P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India Prof. Mark R. Levy, Michigan State University, USA Further Details: http://cssp-jnu.blogspot.com/2009/08/cfp-icts-and-development-international.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anup Kumar Das New Delhi, India http://anupkumardas.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. Click here http://cricket.yahoo.com ________________________

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From shuyer at wigsat.org Thu Aug 20 11:24:51 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:24:51 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] Computers Bring Jobs to Rural Women Message-ID: From IWDA - E Gender July 2009 INDIA: Computers Bring Jobs to Rural Women By Gagandeep Johar http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47074 A confident Neelam Saini, 18, told her parents she won?t get married now. She wants to keep working and study. Credit:Gagandeep Johar/IPS BAGAR, India, Jun 3 (IPS) - What strikes a visitor entering the Source for Change business processing centre (BPO) in rural Rajasthan, a deeply conservative state where women are veiled and child marriage still rampant, is the near absence of men in the building. There are only rows of women to be seen behind computers that stretch from end-to-end of the single-storey house painted in green that has been transformed into the Source for Change office. BPOs are a 28 billion dollar industry in India, based mainly in cities like Bangalore. Source for Change has launched a social revolution in and around Bagar, a quiet town of some 10,000 people, some 600 kms north-west of New Delhi. Before it opened, educated girls here had only two options: work on farms or at home. Now after two months of training, each employee is assigned independent data entry duties, the BPO?s main work for clients like the Piramal Group, a big Indian drugmaker, and Pratham, a Delhi-based non governmental organisation for children. Neelam Saini, 18, has been with Source for Change for 18 months. "I joined after class 10," she says. "We are four girls and two boys. I am the oldest. My father - a farmer - said he could not afford to educate us beyond class 10." Building Block Alim Haji is one of the three young co-founders of Source for Change, a BPO in rural Rajasthan. An optical engineer from the U.S., he moved to Bagar to find a more meaningful life. Excerpts from an email interview: IPS: Do you think the project is slowly improving gender equations in Bagar? AH: I don't believe that we've reached a threshold where we can say we have an impact on the entire town. However, I feel we are beginning to see signs of change in the households. By having a social network available at the workplace, the information asymmetry or lack of exposure outside the household for women is dissolving. This access to information is a building block toward empowerment. IPS: Do you think the associates are becoming more assertive and sure of what they want in life. AH: In a few cases, we have seen the associates have decision-making power in the household. Since the parents have allowed their daughters/ daughters-in-law to join Source for Change, their reaction to this change is well received. Nobody has been pulled out for being too assertive. IPS: Does working at the BPO improve their marital prospects? AH: After speaking to some of the associates, the general consensus is that it comes down to which type of person their family prefers for them. In some cases, the guy will prefer someone who doesn't work, and in other cases someone who does work. Now a confident Saini says she intends to keep working and study further. "Earlier I used to feel that since I am 10th class pass there is nothing much that I can do. But after working here I feel I can do many things. I have filled the admission form for class 12, and intend to take that exam next year as a private student," she explains. Are her parents proud of her? They are "very proud of me," she says, a wide grin on her face. "Also," she adds in a serious voice, "because I am working my siblings will also be able to study further." The average salary is 4,000 rupees for an eight hour day. The BPO, an initiative of the Piramal Foundation, was set up in 2000 by three men: Shrot Katewa a biotechnologist from the University of Rajasthan, Alim Haji, an optical engineer from the University of New Mexico (U.S.) and Karthik Raman, a graduate in economics from Case Western Reserve University, U.S. Only Katewa is a local person - from Bakhtawarpura, a small village near Bagar. However, unlike his co-founders he has previous experience working with BPOs having worked with two companies in Mumbai. Both Haji and Raman wound up in Bagar just by chance. The former "tired of my windowless office" in the U.S. decided he did not want to spend the rest of his life like that and found the Piramal Foundation on the internet. Raman has worked amongst tribal communities in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The Piramal Foundation is supported by the family-run Piramal Group, a giant pharmaceutical company with a turnover of 5 billion dollars. The group?s early founders were born and brought up close to Bagar, and the Foundation is associated with many other projects in the area including the Bagar Employment Institute which runs courses in English- speaking and computer literacy. Sonam Jangir, 18, who is in the first year of an undergraduate programme, says she is the first woman from her village, Islampur, to have a job. "My parents asked me why did I want to work when no women in the family had ever worked? I told them this is an era of computers and it is essential to know computers," she says. She may have started a revolution in her village. "After I started working, five more girls from my village have got enrolled," she says with quiet satisfaction. The BPO states its mission is to address the serious problem of lack of job opportunities for educated women in rural India. As Katewa, one of the founders, puts it: "A major problem in this part of the country is that while women were being educated, they were married off and their potential was wasted. "We thought one of the ways to utilise their talent was to keep them here since the other constraint is that women are not allowed to move away from their homes in search of jobs," he adds. Initially the going was tough. There was stiff resistance from family members. "We had to convince the men in the household like the father- in-law, brother, father, husband that this was something they should let their daughter-in-law, daughter, sister do," says Haji. "On the first day of training, there was a crowd of men outside the office," he recalls. "They wanted to check out the place and us, whether their women were safe or not!" Now Source for Change has expansion plans and intends to increase its employers in Bagar to 100 associates by January 2010. There are plans also to create a network of offices that will be spread across Rajasthan, each employing between 100 and 150 women. With new clients like the Rajasthan government and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the biggest business association in the country with 7,500 members, the BPO can afford to make new plans. In Bagar, its youngest employees are 18 and the oldest, Sunita, is 30. For Sunita Chowdhary, the BPO has been a life-saver. "My husband is not working," she confides. "Because of this job, I am able to educate our two children." For Saini too, her life has changed. "Earlier I was very quiet and never voiced my opinions," she introspects. "But now I feel confident to say what I am feeling. My parents were asking me to get married and I told them, I don?t want to for another four years. I want to work for Source for Change!" (END/2009) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shuyer at wigsat.org Wed Aug 26 12:28:11 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:28:11 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] Call for Proposals: TWOWS e-networking site Message-ID: <7CABE891-8B86-4A0C-94B4-15E691E3A171@wigsat.org> Call for Proposals: TWOWS e-networking site The Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS) is planning to expand its e-networking and membership support web platform to provide increased support and networking for its membership and Fellows. TWOWS considers its membership its greatest asset, and intends to use the web and related e-functions to become the primary means of interaction and communication with its membership and expanded network, including national chapters in the developing world as well as collaborating organizations and supporters. The expanded functionality is intended to increase interaction with and among its membership; provide a range of resources and support services to its members; improve communication with collaborating organizations, and make information more readily available to members. The deadline for bids has been extended to September 20, 2009. For more information, contact: Leena Mungapen, TWOWS Secretariat info at twows.org -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TWOWS-RFP.doc Type: application/octet-stream Size: 133632 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- From shuyer at wigsat.org Thu Aug 27 17:18:31 2009 From: shuyer at wigsat.org (Sophia Huyer) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:18:31 -0400 Subject: [Ict4women] Gender equality and the role of the media in agriculture and rural development In-Reply-To: <755762480.1171391251402549371.JavaMail.root@huron.cs.uoguelph.ca> Message-ID: <771A6CA7-3FAA-406C-AB0C-D53B4B40C569@wigsat.org> (PLEASE HELP TO NETWORK THIS REQUEST- SUBMISSIONS DUE SEPT. 3rd) Dear ictruralwomen and GenARDIS listserve members and networks in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions CTA (www.cta.int) recently invited proposals for its annual seminar to be held in Brussels, October 12-16, 2009 . UNFORTUNATELY THERE WERE VERY FEW SUBMISSIONS ON THE SPECIFIC TOPIC OF GENER EQUALITY AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (IN AFRICA, CARRIBEAN AND/OR PACIFIC NATIONS). This low response is not in keeping with the many good activities going on in the field of gender and ICTs/ media in agricultural and rural contexts. It was decided to do one more specific call to the networks active in this area of work to generate a critical mass of presentations/posters that address gender issues in rural media/ICTs/extension. Please email an abstract (a short descripion of your presentation with your full contact information) to Dr. Helen Hambly Odame (hhambly at uoguelph.ca ). It must be received by September 3rd. We will require 2-3 presentations. The presentation may be a specific case study, development project experience or research results that focuses on gender equality and media for agricultural and rural development. Examples could address issues such as: - issues of gender equality in agricultural journalism, information dissemination or knowledge management - issues of gender equality in rural comdev (communication and development) - capacity building for gender equality in media for rural development - practical experiences in how to achieve gender equality in the use of specific media (mobile phones, radio, Internet, learning workshops)for agriculture and rural development - policy that promotes gender equality in rural comdev/media and development Further information about the CTA Seminar including the original call for abstracts and background information on the event is available on the following website: http://annualseminar2009.cta.int/ If selected, CTA will cover participants travel and accommodation costs. many thanks Helen Hambly Odame