IICD supported project: Women’s Information for Development Network (WIDNet) - Zambia

Countries: Zambia [ZM]
Sectors: livelihoods

Summary

The Women’s Organisations Information for Development Network (WIDNet) programme is a platform to raise awareness, share knowledge and increase advocacy efforts for the empowerment of women with the use of ICTs. Run by the Zambian Association fro Research for Development (ZARD), IICD has been supporting the project since 2004. Basic Information & Communication Technology Training is an important component of WIDNet, as a result, ZARD opened its Women's I.T. Literacy Training Centre on July 17 2006.

Update

Updated: 2008-09-19

• Publishing of the 10th WIDNet e-Bulletin distributed to 480 recipients with increasing participation and input from people writing articles and its recognition as an powerful advocacy tool • WIDNet website is now launched • The Resource centre is now fully established • ZARD has acquired funding (from NGOCC) to construct a new training centre on the premises that will support the sustainability of the project

Introduction

The project will contribute to the gender and development programme in Zambia and contribute to socio-economic development and improved livelihoods for Zambian women and their dependants

The WIDNET programme focuses on empowering the women’s movement, women’s organisations and individual women by enabling improved and informed decision-making for individual, organisational and national development.

[low bandwidth 233 KB] [broadband 854 KB]	Ms. Milica Mwela, the coordinator of the WIDNet project explains how ICTs contribute to the project.

Objectives

• To make use of ICTs to build, strengthen, and maintain an information network among women’s organisations;
• To make use of ICTs to increase awareness among stakeholders on the necessity for sharing, support and solidarity on women’s rights, gender and development;
• To enhance the ICT capacity and skills of women in the women’s movement and individual women
• To improve the availability of appropriate information resources to the key target groups through the ZARD Resource Centre;
• To increase revenue generation of ZARD by making the information products and services produced by ZARD available to paying clients

Development Impacts

• Indirectly, through the increased capacity at ZARD, to effectively disseminate information and efficiently coordinate the Secretariat for WIDNet
• More directly, ZARD enabled groups of disadvantaged women in Zambia to use ICTs effectively, enabling them to access information, communicate and network for socio-economic empowerment, gender equality and equity, social justice and transformation;
• The project has contributed to the empowerment of women through advocacy programmes and engagement with parliament, the strengthening partnerships among relevant NGOs and the management of a gender-sensitive resource centre.

Management and organisation

The Zambia Association for Research and Development is a non-governmental organisation that works to empower women and uplift their status and position through action oriented participatory and gender-sensitive economic, political, social and cultural research. Founded in 1984, ZARD conducts research aimed at forwarding the situation of women relative to men in Zambia and makes information accessible to policy makers, non-governmental organisations, the private sector, development agencies, interested individuals, academic institutions and the media. ZARD has a Women’s Information Resource Centre and uses information communication technologies to enhance information collection, sharing and dissemination.

Lessons learned

To date, most women using computers have come from the educated elite. Yet if poor women in developing countries or low income communities can conquer the limitations that presently inhibit their access, they can use computers to help increase access to resources and exercise essential rights. Access to ICTs, and in particular, access to computers remains a great challenge in Zambia, especially for those that are living in low income communities.

Budget

Euro 102,600.00

Project Partners : This project is being realised in cooperation with ZARD, the Zambian women’s organisations, HIVOS and IICD.

Project Contact : IICD