IICD supported project: Women's Organisations Information for Development Network - Zambia

The Women’s Organisations Information for Development Network(WIDNet) programme is set up in 2004. Goal is to build a website and a computer training centre for around 400 women who are not familiar with the use of a computer. An e-bulletin is also published to share news and upcoming events. The trainings, website and e-bulletin are tools to uplift the status and position of women in Zambia. The project is run by the Zambian Association for Research and Development (ZARD).

The tenth WIDNet e-bulletin was distributed to 480 recipients. An increasing group of women are writing articles and see the bulletin as a tool for them to speak their mind.  The WIDNet website is now online and a Women's IT Literacy Training and Resource Centre  was opened on July 17 2006 under the WIDNet programme.

Women of Zambia are less formally employed than men, mainly due to a lower education level and a lack of IT literacy. This 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.

Read more about IICD’s Zambia Country Programme

Documentary by e-Brain about the Widnet project

• To use ICT to build, strengthen, and maintain an information network among women’s organisations
• To use ICT 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

With the new website, ZARD is able to disseminate information and efficiently coordinate the Secretariat for WIDNet. Another impact of the programme is that disadvantaged women in Zambia learn how to use ICT effectively. Communication gets easier for them, they can also access information more easily and they have a better chance to find formal employment.

Read more about IICD’s approach towards Livelihoods

ICT iteracy really makes a major change in the lives of women, but not enough women are trained due to lack of ICT trainers and equipment. ZARD is now building a new ICT training centre to enlarge the capacity to train women and youth.

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. ZARD acquired funding (from Non-Governmental Organisations Coordinating Committee,,the leading women platform in Zambia) to construct a new training centre on the premises that will support the sustainability of the project.