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Gender & ICT Awards
Partner: Association for Progressive Communication Women's Networking Support Program (APC WNSP) The Gender and ICT Awards, initiated in 2003, recognise ICT initiatives which promote women's economic empowerment and gender equality, especially projects initiated by women themselves. The awards honour local, small-scale and community-based projects with women and girls as the main beneficiaries to improve the quality of their lives and to make meaningful contributions to equitable human development and the broader struggle for social justice.
The awards recognise sustainable projects that have the potential and ease to be replicated in other areas, taking into account the different contexts and forces at play. They should also foster multi-stakeholder cooperation and active participation among different sectors in the community.
Nominees are required to reflect on and express understanding and strategic analysis on the methods and tools they used, and of their own failures and ultimate success in such a way that others can learn from their experiences.
2005 Awards
The 2005 Awards focused on ICT initiatives that promote women's economic empowerment as it relates to development. Economic empowerment is seen in terms of:
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- overcoming marginalisation, oppresive social norms, and inadequate support and responsibility from governments in terms of access and rights to resources and making sound decisions;
- offering women choice and opportunity;
- encourgaing women to fulfil their potentials;
- giving voice and capability to counter their seeming powerlessness
ICT-related development is defined not only as it relates to income or material deprivation but as resolving basic needs of the community and promoting social networking through ICT intervention. The focus is not on the technology itself but in looking at the practical gender and strategic application by women to address their local needsa and the specificity of their situations.
The winners were:
- Development through access to Network Resources (D.Net), Bangladesh
"Pallitathya Help-Line Centre (Call Centre for the Poor and Underprivileged)"
'Mobile Operator Ladies' are deployed in the community to enable women to ask questions related to livelihood, agriculture, health and legal rights via a mobile phone. - Datamation Foundation, India
"Putting ICT in the Hands of the Poor"
A modern ICT centre set up in a Muslim minority ghetto in New Delhi marked by extreme poverty to provide Muslim women the opportunity to learn vocational skills and engage in income-generating activities. "eHomemakers"
A network designed to empower home workers, tele-workers, home business owners and those who want home-based careers to improve their socio-economic status.
2003 Awards
The 2003 awards honoured and internationally recognised the innovative and effective projects by women which use ICTs for the promotion of gender equality and/or women's empowerment.
Objectives were to:
- Recognise gender and ICT initiatives globally and provide further impetus for others to mainstream gender in the field of ICTs for women's empowerment, and therefore support our advocacy work;
- Provide a much-needed venue to recognise community-based or small-scale initiatives designed and implemented by women and women's organisations/networks; while providing recognition too to larger scale but cost-effective multi-stakeholder initiatives;
- Provide much needed opportunities to develop new collaborations/partnerships and opportunities for upscaling small-scale and community-based initiatives.
The winners were:
- Women Mayors' Link, Outstanding Multistakeholder Initiatives (Global/Regional)
Submitted by: Dina Loghin, M.A., Equal Opportunities for Women Foundation, Romania - Documenting Experiences of Women in Situations of Armed Conflict in Uganda, Outstanding Multistakeholder Initiatives (National/Local)
Submitted by: Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), Uganda
- e seva (services) of West Godavari District, AP, India, Community/Individual-Capacity-building
Submitted by: Sanjay Jaju, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India
- Nabanna, Community/Individual-Advocacy/Networking
Submitted by: Suryatirtha Ray, Change Initiatives, India
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