Are rural women part of the ICT reform?

Vaidah Mashangwa, Gender
The last three decades have witnessed major changes in the way the global village conduct business.

These changes have been influenced by the pace of globalisation, intensifying competition and developments in information and communication technology.

Today’s ‘in thing’ is therefore information and communication technology. There is a need for constant networking with the global world, friends, relatives, and business partners by nearly everyone both old and young in today’s world.

For businesses to create marketing linkages and economic opportunities, learn and share knowledge with others in distant lands, they need to be ICT compliant.

Equally, friends and relatives in the diaspora who went in search of greener pastures need ICT to keep in touch with their families back home through social network.

Bearing this in mind, the growth of the information technology sector is greatly needed if we are to avoid any marginalisation from the new world economy.

To this end, the government of Zimbabwe, like any other progressive entity, has made a commitment to implement ICT policies in schools, right from ECD to tertiary institutions.

The government’s E-Learning Programme is one such innovative development towards the embracing of ICT. It is the government’s intention to ensure that all schools have access to computers.

While all this is commendable progress, one question boggles the mind: are our rural women part and parcel of this ICT reform and globalisation?

Are they not being excluded in a world where cell-phones, internet and computers are now the modern means of communication?

The same concerns apply to some women in urban areas too. Research has revealed that there are some rural women who have never seen or used a computer while some do not own even a cell-phone.

Women in rural and urban areas have a lot that they can market through the internet.

The farm produce, their crafts, their livestock all can be marketed through the internet locally, regionally and internationally. Markets for various products and services can indeed be sourced through the internet.

Women should be able to create their own websites and sell their goods and services online.

Men are already at an advantage over women in terms of accessing ICT by virtue of their being in the formal sector. Most in urban areas can access these services.

They also easily learn how to use the computer from their children and peers especially in the urban areas.

Women must also have access to online information sharing through emails. If women have certain products, say curios, they can actually share more information and research more on the product and the markets available through, say, the Trade Map.

While it might be difficult to own independent labs for women in the rural areas, maybe one way is to allow the communities to use the already existing facilities for the advancement of their ICT knowledge base.

Globalisation requires a complete shift in the way business is conducted and a prerequisite for this is educated masses of computer literate individuals who understand and harness the power of ICT revolution.

Women should be part of this revolution if they are to benefit new knowledge of the various businesses they engage in.

For the women in the urban areas, ICT comprehension in areas such as Word Processing, email and Spreadsheet increases their chances of getting employed because a number of jobs now require individuals who are computer literate.

For those women who might want to further their studies, research is done through the use of computers, hence the importance of learning how to use the computer.

While it is possible for women just like everyone else to own a cell-phone, very few women in the rural have cell-phones.

Most of them are small-scale farmers and rarely do they get enough money to buy special electronic gadgets like the latest cell-phones.

Apart from that, women in urban areas cannot buy smart cell-phones because very few are in the formal sector.

According to the book ‘Rethinking Approaches: Reconsidering Strategies,’ there is a gender bias in favour of men in the ownership and type of cell-phone.

Actually, women in Africa are 23 percent less likely to own cell-phones.

With the multiple uses of cell-phones nowadays it means women are at a greater disadvantage.

When women have their own personalised communication devices, it permits privacy, enables enterprise and helps women to access basic services such as saving and banking money, discuss issues affecting them with other women through the Internet, Whatsapp and so on.

When women use the cell-phone and the computer they feel safer and are more independent, hence the need to ensure women are part of this global reform.

For the rural women ownership of cell-phones also means they can receive money and send money through facilities such as eco-cash.
Instead of travelling to the nearest town, they can actually cut transport cost by receiving money from their rural homes.

In Kenya by 2013, according to the World Bank, there were at least 30.5 million mobile subscriptions in a country of approximately 43.18 million people.

Although there are no mobile subscriptions statistics disaggregated by sex in Kenya, it is estimated that 34 percent of women and 44 percent of men have at least one subscription.

A 2010 survey revealed that at least 49 percent Kenyan women aged 16+ owned a cell-phone. This shows the need to upscale the number of women who use mobile phones apart from the computer for their own personal development.

The lack of ICT, among women in the rural and urban areas limits their potential to access up-to-date material that can enhance their interaction with the outside world.

Women are more affected than men in this constant changing social, economic and cultural environment and it is high time they embraced ICT especially in the rural areas.

Bulk messages are being used nowadays on cell-phones to pass on important information on health issues such as HIV/AIDS.
Social networks can be created on Facebook, Twitter and so on. This will go a long way in bridging the gender digital divide in terms of ICT control, ownership, use and access.

ICTs must be recognised as tools that support the empowerment of the girl child, ensuring that Zimbabwe has women who have the required skills to access information on socio-economic and political issues happening around them.

About the writer: Vaidah Mashangwa is Bulawayo’s Provincial Development Officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development. She can be contacted on +263 77 211 1592 email: [email protected]