[Ict4women] Mobile phones alone can’t empower rural women

[Sophia Huyer]

  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.
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