A three-day conference focusing on women in ICT is to be held in Arusha, Tanzania, from 20 to 22 October, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing African women in this sector.
The conference has been designed to address ICT interventions and their impact on the empowerment of women, poverty reduction and development.
The conference themes will include policy and governance, applications, access and technology, networking, knowledge sharing and education research and development.
The conference is co-hosted by the World Summit of the Information Society Gender Caucus East Africa Sub-Region, the Tanzanian Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, AITEC Tanzania and the Tanzanian Ministry of Communication and Transport.
The organisers expect to attract 35 regional and international speakers, who will lead the debate on identifying strategies and laying out concrete plans that will enable African women to play a role in shaping the envisaged information society through the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS).
According to the organisers, this is a crucial meeting for the region as the deliberations and discussions from the conference will be fed into the WSIS second phase meeting scheduled for November 2005 in Tunisia`s capital, Tunis.
The theme for this year`s conference is "Challenges and Opportunities on the Road to Tunis".
"We are now in the process of finalising the programme and putting the final touches on logistical arrangements for the conference and we expect to have a good turn out and positive deliberations," says Harry Hare of AITEC Tanzania. "We can declare it`s now all systems go!"
"This is our strategic meeting aimed at identifying our areas of intervention in the WSIS process, making sure that the voices of African women are heard and acted upon," says Florence Etta, Kenya ICT policy project co-ordinator at Canada`s International Centre for Research and Development.
An estimated 60% of Africa`s population is female, but only 2% of the Internet users in Africa are women. The organisers believe this is one of the numerous disparities facing African women, leaving them marginalised as the world moves into the information age. Some of the factors contributing to this disparity are the level of illiteracy, poverty and bad policies.
The meeting is expected to draw participation from government, civil society, development agencies and the private sector.
For more information, visit www.aitecafrica.com or e-mail Mireille Davidson at Mireille@phoenix-international.co.za.
Share